This study focused on the effectiveness of Neurofeedback training on 40 kindergarten students who showed resistance to stress between the months of January 2008 and December 2008. 20 subjects were placed in an experimental group and the other 20 were placed in a comparative group. The brainwaves were adjusted by time series linear analysis and after observing the pre and post brain wave measurement results, the differences between both resistance stress was confirmed. Overall, the results suggest that Neurofeedback may positively affect the subjects’ mental state.

Athletic performance can be threatened by excessive tension and stress which is why the goal of this study was to help athletes manage their stress response through self-regulation of the autonomic and central nervous systems’ activation levels. This study involved 15 elite athletes who were preparing for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. These athletes underwent a psychophysiological stress assessment, EEG, and bio-neurofeedback training. Athletes and coaches reported that the bio-neurofeedback training helped athletes manage the stress of training and competing. As a result, bio-neurofeedback helped produce better athletic performance.

Neurofeedback was conducted on 18 volunteers suffering from stress-induced disorders and it was revealed that there was a dominant narrow-band (0.4 – 0.6 Hz) oscillators in theta (4-8 Hz) and alpha (8-13 Hz) EEG bands. During two examinations, the volunteers were presented with classical music. The music would be interrupted for approximately three seconds if the amplitude of the volunteer’s theta (slow wave) exceeded the initial level, or if the amplitude of the volunteer’s alpha (middle wave) did not reach the initial level. Volunteers were then asked to maintain the functional state where the music would play continuously. The authors found that there was marked EEG normalization and evidence pointing towards the reduction of stress. The volunteers also had positive shifts in their mental and emotional states as early as the end of the first neurofeedback treatment.

This paper provides a comprehensive summary of critical information for neurofeedback training and describes the need for the development of content. This content acts as a stimulus which trains the client to control their brain activity in stressful conditions. The developed content involves audio and game. The audio is used to enhance the amplitude of alpha brainwaves in the left-prefrontal lobe, whereas the game is used to reduce the power of high-beta activity. The results indicate significant improvement in reducing stress levels.

This study involved 10-20 sessions of Alpha Neurofeedback training on 20 individuals who suffered from several stress symptoms. The subjects were clinically evaluated and their QEEG’s were recorded. 15 of the 20 subjects who showed clinical improvement had an 89% increase of their mean Alpha activity, whereas 5 subjects with little improvement didn’t show an increase of alpha at all.The difference of Alpha enhancement between both groups was statistically significant as it indicates that Alpha enhancement is a predictor of clinical outcome. As a result, this study had a 75% success rate after about 12 hours of treatment which means that Alpha wave neurofeedback training may be an effective method to treat stress.

Stress and burnout have been recognized as major causes for individual and societal issues in the West. Neuropsychological findings have allowed the authors to explore alternative methods to induce relaxation. One method being the application of so-called brainwave synchronizers or neurofeedback, which is said to induce a relaxation response by entraining alpha brain-wave activity through audiovisual stimulation. In this study, a double blind, quasi-experiment was conducted on employees at a Dutch addiction care center to look into the possible effects of two brain machine programs on anxiety and burnout. Subjects experiencing both conditions showed a significant, immediate decrease in an anxious state as assessed by Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of neurofeedback on stress and brain function in high school students. There were 62 students who participated in this nonequivalent control group study and the subjects underwent neurofeedback training for 30 minutes at a time, 3 times per week, for a total of 12 weeks. Brain function was measured by the brain waves in the subjects’ frontal lobes and analyzed by 8 brain quotients which distinguished patterns of EEG rhythms. A stress scale from regular daily life was then used to measure stress experienced by the students. After neurofeedback training, the level of brain quotients in students from the experimental group increased (t=2.36, p<.05) and the level of stress decreased (t=-3.59, p<.001). These results suggest that neurofeedback is an effective treatment modality for stress reduction in high school students.

The study examined the impact of NFB on the cognitive workload and personal growth areas of surgery residents with burnout and depression. 10 surgical residents with severe burnout and depression participated in the experimental condition and 5 surgical residents with mild symptoms of burnout and depression served as controls. The experimental group received 8 weeks of NFB treatments. Each participant’s cognitive load was assessed initially and again after the treatment via EEG while they performed NFB working memory tasks. The study found that after the NFB intervention, the experimental group showed significant improvement in cognitive workload and these findings were not noted in the control group. They also found a significant correlation between the NFB sessions and average improvement in all growth areas (r = 0.98). 

This study examined the impact of NFB on the executive functioning of female university students with burnout and depression. The experimental group contained 15 students and the control group contained 17 students.  The experimental group received 10 sessions of NFB (2x a week for 45 min) which looked at upper alpha waves in the parieto-occipital area (P3, Pz, P4, O1, O2). The results of the study showed that upper alpha NFB training had a significant effect on executive functioning and found that it led to an improvement in the individual’s cognitive performance overall.

Research has shown that acute stress can affect the allocation of neural resources between large-scale brain networks; specifically the balance between the executive control network (ECN) and the salience network (SN). Resilience to stress in turn may be determined by the ability to adaptively reallocate neural resources between these two networks. Therefore, training this ability could potentially help to increase resilience in individuals with acute stress symptoms. This study aimed to use real-time FMRi and neurofeedback to investigate whether individuals can learn to regulate their stress-related network balance. Participants in the study underwent training where they were provided with a visual representation of the difference signal between the average activation of the salience and executive control networks and were instructed to self-regulate this signal. The results of the study showed that participants were able to learn strategies to control the balance between the ECN and SN activation on command and successfully transfer this skill to a situation where they were exposed to an acute stressor but were not provided feedback anymore. This study provides support for using neurofeedback training to help increase resilience in individuals with acute stress symptoms. 

Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) has revived the translational perspective of neurofeedback (NF). Particularly for stress management, targeting deeply located limbic areas involved in stress processing has paved new paths for brain-guided interventions. However, the high cost and immobility of fMRI constitute a challenging drawback for the scalability (accessibility and cost-effectiveness) of the approach, particularly for clinical purposes. The current study aimed to overcome the limited applicability of rt-fMRI by using an electroencephalography (EEG) model endowed with improved spatial resolution, derived from simultaneous EEG–fMRI, to target amygdala activity (termed amygdala electrical fingerprint (Amyg-EFP)). Healthy individuals (n = 180) undergoing a stressful military training programme were randomly assigned to six Amyg-EFP-NF sessions or one of two controls (control-EEG-NF or NoNF), taking place at the military training base. The results demonstrated specificity of NF learning to the targeted Amyg-EFP signal, which led to reduced alexithymia and faster emotional Stroop, indicating better stress coping following Amyg-EFP-NF relative to controls. Neural target engagement was demonstrated in a follow-up fMRI-NF, showing greater amygdala blood-oxygen-level-dependent downregulation and amygdala–ventromedial prefrontal cortex functional connectivity following Amyg-EFP-NF relative to NoNF. Together, these results demonstrate limbic specificity and efficacy of Amyg-EFP-NF during a stressful period, pointing to a scalable non-pharmacological yet neuroscience-based training to prevent stress-induced psychopathology.

Early life stress has been shown to have profound effects on the developmental trajectories of individuals. Findings have implicated most major areas of the brain as being affected, and existing treatments have been limited in ameliorating symptoms. The purpose of this review was to focus on the development of the autonomic nervous system in concert with the brain. The authors suggested that the majority of psychopathology related to early life stress represents an allostatic equilibrium achieved by the autonomic nervous system organizing around threat states. Recent findings in the field of neurofeedback implicate alpha waves as a potential key to helping treat individuals who have been affected by early life stress. It was concluded that alpha neurofeedback may represent a novel treatment approach to engender changes within the autonomic nervous system in helping to achieve a homeostatic equilibrium. Alpha downtrain neurofeedback may represent a “nudge” for a stuck nervous system that acts as a precursor to increase the efficacy of other training protocols and more traditional talk therapy techniques.

Radiation therapy therapists (RTTs) face challenging daily tasks that leave them prone to high attrition and burnout and subsequent deficits in performance. Within this article the authors employed an accelerated alpha-theta neurofeedback (NF) protocol that is implementable in a busy medical workplace to test if 12 RTTs could learn the protocol and exhibit behavior and brain performance-related benefits. Following the 3-week protocol, participants showed a decrease in subjective cognitive workload and a decrease in response time during a performance task, as well as a decrease in desynchrony of the alpha electroencephalogram (EEG) band. Additionally, novel microstate analysis for neurofeedback showed a significant decrease in global field power (GFP) following neurofeedback. These results suggest that the RTTs successfully learned the protocol and improved in perceived cognitive workload following 3 weeks of neurofeedback. In sum, this study presents promising behavioral improvements as well as brain performance-related evidence of neurophysiological changes following neurofeedback, supporting the feasibility of implementing neurofeedback in a busy workplace and encouraging the further study of neurofeedback as a tool to mitigate burnout.

This study wanted to investigate the effects of alternating neurofeedback training (NFT) on depression and life stress in female college students. Twenty-six participants were divided into the experimental group and the control group for an eight week intervention. The results of the study showed the experimental groups presented a significant decrease in life stress and depression when compared to the control group. This study shows that NFT can be beneficial in reducing symptoms of stress and depression in female college students. 

This study implemented a quasi-experimental design to examine the effects of Neurofeedback training on college students who experience high levels of anxiety and stress. The participants were evaluated on various measures of stress such as the Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI], Perceived Stress Scale [PSS] and Social Anxiety Thought [SAT] before and after the intervention. The results of the study showed significant decreases in SAT and PSS scores between the experimental and control group and no significant differences for BAI scores.  This study shows promising results for reducing anxiety and stress through the use of Neurofeedback training. 

This study analyzed the effects of neurofeedback on decreasing stress and enhancing self-regulation in late adolescence. Using a non-equivalent control group pre-post quasi-experimental design, participants were assigned to either the experimental or control group. Heart rate variability (HRV) and skin conductance level (SCL)were used to assess stress biomarker responses and a questionnaire was administered to determine self-regulation scores. Participants in the experimental group underwent 10 neurofeedback sessions for 30 minutes each. Results showed significant differences in HRV, SCL and self-regulation ability questionnaires between the two groups pre and post-neurofeedback sessions. This indicates that neurofeedback training is effective in reducing stress-biomarkers and enhancing psychoemotional stress responses and self-regulation.

Although musical neurofeedback is used in multiple works, few systems have been developed for stress regulation, and no systems have been developed for memory stimulation. For this reason, a music-based neurofeedback system for stress regulation and memory stimulation is proposed. The system in the study was designed as a response to previous research called “Neurophysiology of Emotions and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) against Women”. The designed system uses 8 EEG channels to analyze alpha and theta brain-waves from 4 areas of the brain: prefrontal, frontal, temporal and central. By recording a 30 seconds baseline, the system is capable of detecting changes in the EEG signal that can be used for the interaction. For feedback, three musical features are modified depending on the EEG analysis: tempo, loudness and loudness of the voice of the singer. For testing the system, two protocols were designed, these protocols focused on memory stimulation and stress regulation. They were designed specifically for each one of the three types of feedback. These protocols were applied on two women (43 and 52 years old), both had been part of the previous project. Results are promising, showing changes in the EEG signals of the participants when comparing the first session and the last one. Changes in performance of some specific tasks in the protocols, show an adequate usability of the system. Further studies will be carried out in order to evaluate long-term effects of the system with more activities

Stress is a psychophysiological condition of the elderly people which leads to progressive mental illness and exacerbates health conditions. Though there are many antidepressants to suppress stress, it may also cause an obnoxious effect in them. Neurofeedback [NFB] training is an alternative method to retain their independence by improving their cognitive performance. The cognitive training in the study aimed to improve its flexibility and resilience by designing an in-house neurofeedback system. 12 participants competed with increased stress levels in the age group of 50-70 years were taken into consideration based on the General Anxiety Disorder [GAD] score. The NFB training protocol aimed to enhance the beta activity and selectively decrease the theta activity. 40-45 sessions were carried out for substantial and efficient results. As the training progressed, the threshold level set in the training was increased. Though the threshold was augmented the participants were able to successfully complete the session. GAD scores also decreased which confirmed the reduced stress level. The proposed NFB method paves a way to manage and reduce their stress in an effective way.

This paper aimed to verify the effect of neurofeedback (NFB) training on stress relief among financial employees. For this purpose, the randomized controlled trial (RCT) was adopted to carry out a 13-week 26-session NFB training of 49 volunteers in the upper-alpha (UA) band (8~13Hz). To assess the electroencephalography (EEG) changes, each session was designed with five training trials (4min/trial), a pre-EEG screening and a post-EEG screening. The experimental results showcased that all participants significantly enhanced the UA band in task-related EEG within the training sessions. This proved that the NFB training intervention was effective in improving such functions as work ethic, attention, memory, efficiency, and work execution. Suffice it to say this research provided new insights into job stress relief of financial employees.

Chronic stress can lead to functional disorders caused by a disruption of coping mechanisms and this in turn can lead to serious stress-related diseases. This is why it is important to correct stress-induced functional disturbances as early as possible. Previous research has displayed EEG feedback’s effectiveness in altering the patients’ mental states that were caused due to the stress they were experiencing. The aim of the current study was to assess the effects of suppressing the participants’ stress using a single (only music) or double (music and video) neurofeedback. There were 18 participants with stress in total and three different experiments; all 18 participants underwent all experimental conditions. One condition served as the control in which the participants were presented with classical music without any feedback. Another condition used single feedback in which the loudness of the music (auditory stimuli) varied depending on the participant’s EEG signals. The last condition used double feedback which utilized both auditory and visual stimuli; in addition to the volume of the music changing,  the participant also received rhythmic light stimuli (visual stimuli) based on the EEG signals. There was a significant improvement in emotional reactions and the functional state of the participants after undergoing the conditions with neurofeedback, along with a significant increase in alpha EEG power. The study also found that the double feedback condition (auditory + visual stimuli) increased the neurofeedback’s effectiveness.

This pilot study aimed to examine the efficiency of music-based EEG Neurofeedback to correct stress-induced functional disturbances. Sixteen specialists complaining from stress due to urgent workload voluntarily participated in 2 treatment sessions. In the first session, participants listened to classical music without Neurofeedback. In the second session, the loudness of the same music varied in strict accordance with the current amplitude of the subject's alpha EEG oscillator. At the end of both treatments, reduction of stress sensations  and positive shifts in mental and emotional status were observed. However, statistically significant positive changes occurred only in the case of feedback EEG control of music loudness. Thus, music-based Neurofeedback may be used in a wide range of rehabilitation procedures for stress coping.

Lack of job satisfaction and depression can be serious problems for medical practitioners and trainees and can lead to discontinuing practice, lower quality of patient care or even suicide. This preliminary study reported findings on 15 surgical residents that had significant recordings on depression and burnout screening questionnaires (Maslach Burnout Inventory score and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Depression Screen). The group was separated into an experimental group that received neurofeedback training and a control group that did not receive any training. The researchers found that those who received neurofeedback training improved in their cognitive workload, as demonstrated on EEG during working memory tasks. This study suggests that neurofeedback could be used as a part of a systematic approach in surgery training programs to help identify depressed or burned out residents early on so that they can be treated as soon as possible and work on improving their quality of life and in turn improve patient care in medical practice. 

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a 4-day mindfulness intervention and EEG neurofeedback in 57 level I trauma center nurses/physicians. Neurofeedback was provided by a Bispectral Index (BIS) system that continuously displays a BIS value (0-100) on the monitor screen. Reductions in the BIS value indicate that power in a high frequency band (30-47 Hz) is decreased and power in an intermediate band (11-20 Hz) is increased. Wellbeing was measured using 4 positive and 7 negative affect items on a 5 category Likert scale. At baseline, over 50% of participants rated all four positive affect items as very slightly or none at all, a little or moderately. It was found that mean and nadir BIS values were decreased during neurofeedback when compared to baseline values. Further, post-session relaxation scores were higher than baseline and had an inverse relationship with mean and nadir BIS values. For all participants, the wellbeing score was higher on day 4 compared to day 1. Further, 80% of participants had an improvement in positive affect on day 4 compared to day 1, which was associated with a reduction in day 3 BIS values.

This paper is a literature review analyzing the use of fMRI neurofeedback (fMRI-NF) in emotion regulation. The authors completed a search of the Web of Science database up through November 8, 2018 and identified 51 original studies and four secondary analyses of previously published articles.  Various aspects of these studies were analyzed including statistical robustness, selection of target brain areas, and control group types among others. Ultimately, this review found that research shows that healthy people are able to regulate their brain activity in the presence of rt-fMRI-NF from multiple brain areas related to emotion regulation such as the amygdala, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex. Moreover, the authors found that the general success of ROI regulation during neurofeedback training is correlated with the combination of target brain region, the population undergoing training, and the type of emotion regulation task. Overall, the strongest support for the beneficial effects of rt-fMRI-NF has been shown in increased positive emotion experiencing in patients with depression and decreased anxiety in patients with anxiety disorders. Additionally, studies have shown that symptom reduction following neurofeedback training has been reported in cases of PTSD, BPD< and schizophrenia. In all, the authors conclude that rt-fMRI-NF seems to be a promising tool for emotion regulation enhancement and has the potential to induce long-term symptom reduction in patients with different mental disorders. 

Voluntary modulation of brain activity is made possible by neurofeedback (NFB), which may help with the recovery of complex emotions. A novel NFB approach that uses real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) was created, enabling individuals to experience complex emotions while stimulating their brain activity. Two emotions (tenderness and agony) were induced by means of a virtual environment and musical snippets provided by the software known as FRIEND Engine. In the ROI-based rtfMRI-NFB, participants successfully enhanced activity in the septo-hypothalamic area and the amygdala. In the SVM-based rtfMRI-NFB, they elicited widespread patterns of brain activity categorized as pain and distress. This strategy may prove beneficial for brain-based therapies aimed at improving emotional states in individuals in good health.

Research has shown that short-term exposure to a particular stressor can lead to the release of inflammatory markers such as c-reactive protein (CRP). Studies have also shown the benefits of EEG neurofeedback on improving brain function. This study was conducted to examine the effect of EEG neurofeedback on reducing the negative effects of stress exposure in humans. This investigation was performed on a group of 80 men who were randomly assigned to one of either 2 experimental groups or 2 control groups. In the first experimental and control groups, the stressor of high temperature was applied, whilst the remaining groups were exposed to physical exertion to refusal. Blood samples were also taken to study the presence and amounts of inflammatory markers before and after both the stressor and application of EEG neurofeedback. The authors found that the level of CRP was reduced significantly after the stressor implementation in the experimental groups. They also saw an improvement in 2 tested parameters of sensorimotor coordination following neurofeedback training. In all, this shows the potential in the use of EEG neurofeedback on reducing the negative inflammatory response caused by stress in humans. 

This study examines the efficacy of a mobile app-based, 4-week mindfulness training program for staff that includes neurofeedback assistance. Ninety-two full-time employees participated in the study; they were split into three groups: those who received neurofeedback support, those who did not, and those who received self-learning materials. Stress perceptions and resilience scores were the main results, with emotional labor, depression, sleeplessness, and occupational stress being the secondary findings. Significant improvements in psychological indicators such as resilience, emotional labor, despair, and sleeplessness were observed in the trial, along with a reduction in stress. During the 4-week mobile mindfulness training, the neurofeedback-assisted group shown better results in resilience and relaxation. It is advised to conduct more study with bigger sample sizes and long-term monitoring.