Guide To The Best Neurofeedback Research
We’ve created a select list of 50 key studies and articles excerpted from a larger list of 1,000 related studies created by Cory Hammond, Ph.D. University of Utah School of Medicine. That list is published at ISNR.org, a membership organization for clinicians who use neurofeedback. Most studies have direct links to abstracts.
Two issues of medical journals dedicated to neurofeedback
Both medical journals are available at medical libraries. Many of the research articles and abstracts are included in both lists above.
1Clinical EEG and Neuroscience
The first journal published on neurofeedback was in 2000. Editor Frank Duffy, a noted Harvard neurologist, does not do neurofeedback, nor was a supporter prior to this issue. Here’s a quote from his editorial: ” . . . In my opinion, if any medication had demonstrated such a wide spectrum of efficacy, it would be universally accepted and widely used.” – Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, January 2000.
2Major Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Journal
Emerging Interventions: Focus – Neurofeedback, Transcranial Stimulation, Vagus Nerve Stimulation – This medical journal has been around many years. It is well respected by child and adolescent psychiatrists. The bulk of the January 2005 issue focused on neurofeedback as an emerging intervention. Dr. Hirshberg, the editor, was one of the presenters at the American Psychiatric Association neurofeedback workshop in May 2004.
Click here to read “Emerging brain based interventions for children and adolescents: overview and clinical perspective.” Written by the editors, Laurence Hirshberg, Ph.D. at Brown, Sufen Chiu, MD, PhD, (Dept of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California – Davis), and Jean Frazier, MD (Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School), the article is very positive and encouraging for psychiatrists.
Also look for: “EEG Biofeedback (Neurotherapy) as a Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Rationale and Empirical Foundation”.
Excerpts from the journal:
Virtually all the EEG biofeedback research has demonstrated what three recent fMRI studies have replicated. . . . we are able to use real-time information about brain function to alter and enhance that function . . . which suggests that neurofeedback is applicable to functional brain disorders.”Laurence Hirshberg, Ph.D, Sufen Chiu, MD, PhD, and Jean Frazier, MD
Although research in nonlinear or dynamic systems consistently has revealed the regulating power of feedback in complex systems . . . individuals accustomed to more linear based thinking in western medicine and psychology may find it hard to believe that merely showing the brain to itself (through feedback) has the same strength of effect as a carefully controlled psychoactive medication.Chapter one: Overview and clinical perspective, by the authors.
