Neurofeedbacks

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

  1. Techniques that use real-time displays of brain activity to teach self-regulation of brain function ; methods involving monitoring neural patterns to provide feedback for therapeutic or cognitive improvement ; practices employing electronic measurement of brain waves to guide users in modifying mental states for health or performance enhancement
  2. Procedures where electrical or metabolic brain signals are captured and presented back to individuals to help modify their neural function ; systems that give immediate sensory feedback about brain activity to promote learning or symptom relief ; approaches using brain monitoring and feedback loops to train the nervous system toward desired outcomes
  3. Practices of collecting brainwave data and presenting it as feedback to facilitate voluntary control of psychological or neurological processes ; interventions that involve observing brain function and providing cues for mental or emotional adjustment ; clinical or experimental methods that transform brain signals into accessible information for self-guided brain regulation and improvement

Etymology: Before it named a clinical technique, "feedback" was an engineering term. It was first recorded in the 1920s for the looping of an amplifier's output back into its input, and the idea of a system correcting itself by reading its own output carried over into psychology. The "neuro-" part comes from Greek "neuron", which originally meant "sinew" or "cord" and only came to mean the nerve cell in the 19th century. The combined term seems to have appeared in the 1960s or 1970s, as researchers began training people to alter their brainwaves. In a well-known line of experiments at the University of Chicago, Joe Kamiya taught volunteers to recognise when they were producing alpha waves, using a tone as the signal. Others, including Barry Sterman, pursued related work on sensorimotor rhythms in animals and people. The exact date and first user of the term are uncertain.

Synonyms: neurofeedback