Neurofeedback’s Re-birth?

Neu­ro­feed­back Gains Pop­u­lar­i­ty and Lab Atten­tion (New York Times)

The treat­ment is also gain­ing atten­tion from main­stream researchers, includ­ing some for­mer skep­tics. The Nation­al Insti­tute of Men­tal Health recent­ly spon­sored its first study of neu­ro­feed­back for A.D.H.D.: a ran­dom­ized, con­trolled tri­al of 36 subjects.

The results are to be announced Oct. 26 at the annu­al meet­ing of the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Child and Ado­les­cent Psy­chi­a­try. In an inter­view in the sum­mer, the study’s direc­tor, Dr. L. Eugene Arnold, an emer­i­tus pro­fes­sor of psy­chi­a­try at Ohio State, not­ed that there had been “quite a bit of improve­ment” in many of the children’s behav­ior, as report­ed by par­ents and teachers.

Com­ment: The arti­cle pro­vides a good overview, and points out one of the main bot­tle­necks for wider use of neu­ro­feed­back-based tools, name­ly the lack of stan­dard­ized pro­to­cols to research and deploy them: “Neu­ro­feed­back in gen­er­al is a large­ly unreg­u­lat­ed, with prac­ti­tion­ers often devis­ing their own pro­to­cols about where on the scalp to place elec­trodes. Results vary wide­ly, and researchers cau­tion that it is extreme­ly impor­tant to choose one’s prac­ti­tion­er with care.”

Relat­ed articles:

• New Study Sup­ports Neu­ro­feed­back Treat­ment for ADHD
• Quan­ti­ta­tive EEG for ADHD diagnosis
• Promis­ing Cog­ni­tive Train­ing Stud­ies for ADHD
• Mind­ful­ness Medi­ta tion for Adults & Teens with ADHD
• How Strong is the Research Sup­port for Neu­ro­feed­back in Atten­tion Deficits?
• Self-Reg­u­la­tion and Barkley’s The­o­ry of ADHD