Abstract
Neurofeedback training (NFT) is a technique often proposed to train brain activity SR with promising results. However, some criticism has been raised due to the lack of evaluation, reliability, and validation of its learning effects. The current work evaluates the hypothesis that SR learning may be improved by priming the subject before NFT with guided mindfulness meditation (MM). The proposed framework was tested in a two-way parallel-group randomized controlled intervention with a single session alpha NFT, in a simplistic serious game design. Sixty-two healthy naïve subjects, aged between 18 and 43 years, were divided into MM priming and no-priming groups. Although both the EG and CG successfully attained the up-regulation of alpha rhythms (F(1,59) = 20.67, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.26), the EG showed a significantly enhanced ability (t(29) = 4.38, p < 0.001) to control brain activity, compared to the CG (t(29) = 1.18, p > 0.1). Furthermore, EG superior performance on NFT seems to be explained by the subject’s lack of awareness at pre-intervention, less vigour at post-intervention, increased task engagement, and a relaxed non-judgemental attitude towards the NFT tasks. This study is a preliminary validation of the proposed assisted priming framework, advancing some implicit and explicit metrics about its efficacy on NFT performance, and a promising tool for improving naïve “users” self-regulation ability.
Highlights
Techniques for self-regulation (SR) of mental states are widely used in clinical, professional, athletic, and the game industry, whether for therapeutic, performance, or entertainment reasons
This paper focuses on the significance of the current experiment on answering the fundamental question, precisely, which physiological and declarative measurements can provide information about the mindfulness meditation (MM) priming effects on neurofeedback training (NFT) performance and the emotional state of experimental participants
There were no baseline differences between groups at block in (Bin) in alpha and sensory-motor rhythm (SMR) power during EO and EC tasks in the Pz electrode
Summary
Techniques for self-regulation (SR) of mental states are widely used in clinical, professional, athletic, and the game industry, whether for therapeutic, performance, or entertainment reasons. With the advancement of SR technologies, mechanistic approaches are increasing, such as brain-computer interfaces (BCI) that utilize our ability to learn how to self-regulate brain states when provided with corrective feedback training (in this field SR is known as self-control) [11,12,13,14]. This type of training is defined as neurofeedback training (NFT). Leading to the frustration of potential users, economic costs, and discredit in NFT and its professionals [5,12,13,17,18,19,20,21,22]
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