Dataset Information

Differential Subjective Experiences in Learners and Non-learners in Frontal Alpha Neurofeedback: Piloting a Mixed-Method Approach.

ABSTRACT: In a neurofeedback paradigm, trainees learn to willfully control their brain dynamics. How this is realized remains an open question. We evaluate the hypothesis that learning success is associated with a specific phenomenology. To address this proposal, we combined quantitative and qualitative analyses of a short neurofeedback training (NFT) session during which participants enhanced mid-frontal alpha power and were then subsequently interviewed about their experiences. We analyzed the electrophysiological data to determine learning success and classify trainees as learners and non-learners. The subjective experiences differed between the two groups and are best described along a trying-sensing continuum, with non-learners engaging effortfully with the task (e.g., "I will it [the bar] to move") whereas learners reported more sensing of their inner (e.g., "Something inside my stomach") and outer environment (e.g., "I was aware of the sound of the beeps"). In the process of piloting this mixed-method approach, we developed a classification system for the verbal reports. This system provides an explicit analytic framework which might guide future studies that aim to investigate the association between subjective experiences and NFT protocols.

SUBMITTER: Davelaar EJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6206258 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Differential Subjective Experiences in Learners and Non-learners in Frontal Alpha Neurofeedback: Piloting a Mixed-Method Approach.

Davelaar Eddy J EJ Barnby Joe M JM Almasi Soma S Eatough Virginia V

Frontiers in human neuroscience 20181023

In a neurofeedback paradigm, trainees learn to willfully control their brain dynamics. How this is realized remains an open question. We evaluate the hypothesis that learning success is associated with a specific phenomenology. To address this proposal, we combined quantitative and qualitative analyses of a short neurofeedback training (NFT) session during which participants enhanced mid-frontal alpha power and were then subsequently interviewed about their experiences. We analyzed the electroph ...[more]

PMID: 30405374

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Project description:BACKGROUNDIn case of untreatable suffering at the end of life, palliative sedation may be chosen to assure comfort by reducing the patient's level of consciousness. An important question here is whether such sedated patients are completely free of pain. Because these patients cannot communicate anymore, caregivers have to rely on observation to assess the patient's comfort. Recently however, more sophisticated techniques from the neurosciences have shown that sometimes consciousness and pain are undetectable with these traditional behavioral methods. The aim of this study is to better understand how unconscious palliative sedated patients experience the last days of their life and to find out if they are really free of pain.METHODSIn this study we will observe 40 patients starting with initiation of palliative sedation until death. Assessment of comfort based on behavioral observations will be related with the results from a NeuroSense monitor, an EEG-based monitor used for evaluation of the adequacy of anesthesia and sedation in the operating room and an ECG-based Analgesia Nociception Index (ANI) monitor, which informs about comfort or discomfort condition, based on the parasympathetic tone. An innovative and challenging aspect of this study is its qualitative approach; "objective" and "subjective" data will be linked to achieve a holistic understanding of the study topic. The following data will be collected: assessment of pain/comfort by the patients themselves (if possible) by scoring a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS); brain function monitoring; monitoring of parasympathetic tone; caregivers' assessment (pain, awareness, communication); relatives' perception of the quality of the dying process; assessment by 2 trained investigators using observational scales; video and audio registration.DISCUSSIONMeasuring pain and awareness in non-communicative dying patients is both technically and ethically challenging. ANI and EEG have shown to be promising technologies to detect pain that otherwise cannot be detected with the "traditional" methods. Although these technologies have the potential to provide objective quantifiable indicators for distress and awareness in non-communicative patients, strikingly they have not yet been used to check whether the current assessments for non-communicative patients are reliable.TRIAL REGISTRATIONThe study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03273244 ; registration date: 7.9.2017).

Project description:Cortical oscillations serve as an index of both sensory and cognitive processes and represent one of the most promising candidates for training and targeting the top-down mechanisms underlying executive functions. Research findings suggest that theta (?) oscillations (3-7 Hz) recorded over frontal-midline electrodes are broadly associated with a number of higher-order cognitive processes and may serve as the mechanistic backbone for cognitive control. Frontal-midline theta (FM?) oscillations have also been shown to inversely correlate with activity in the default mode network (DMN), a network in the brain linked to spontaneous thought processes such as mind-wandering and rumination. In line with these findings, we previously observed increased FM? oscillations in expert meditation practitioners during reported periods of focused-attention meditation practice when compared to periods of mind-wandering. In an effort to narrow the explanatory gap by directly connecting observed neurophysiological activity in the brain to the phenomenological nature of reported experience, we designed a methodologically novel and adaptive neurofeedback protocol with the aim of modulating FM? while having meditation novice participants implement breath-focus strategies derived from focused-attention mediation practices. Participants who received eight sessions of the adaptive FM?-meditation neurofeedback protocol were able to significantly modulate FM? over frontal electrodes using focused-attention meditation strategies relative to their baseline by the end of the training and demonstrated significantly faster reaction times on correct trials during the n-back working memory task assessed before and after the FM?-meditation neurofeedback protocol. No significant differences in frontal theta activity or behavior were observed in the active control participants who received age and gender matched sham neurofeedback. These findings help lay the groundwork for the development of brain training protocols and neurofeedback applications that aim to train features of the mental states and traits associated with focused-attention meditation.

Project description:Previous neurofeedback research has shown training-related frontal theta increases and performance improvements on some executive tasks in real feedback versus sham control groups. However, typical sham control groups receive false or non-contingent feedback, making it difficult to know whether observed differences between groups are associated with accurate contingent feedback or other cognitive mechanisms (motivation, control strategies, attentional engagement, fatigue, etc.). To address this question, we investigated differences between two frontal theta training groups, each receiving accurate contingent feedback, but with different top-down goals: (1) increase and (2) alternate increase/decrease. We hypothesized that the increase group would exhibit greater increases in frontal theta compared to the alternate group, which would exhibit lower frontal theta during down- versus up-modulation blocks over sessions. We also hypothesized that the alternate group would exhibit greater performance improvements on a Go-NoGo shooting task requiring alterations in behavioral activation and inhibition, as the alternate group would be trained with greater task specificity, suggesting that receiving accurate contingent feedback may be the more salient learning mechanism underlying frontal theta neurofeedback training gains. Thirty young healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to increase or alternate groups. Training consisted of an orientation session, five neurofeedback training sessions (six blocks of six 30-s trials of FCz theta modulation (4-7 Hz) separated by 10-s rest intervals), and six Go-NoGo testing sessions (four blocks of 90 trials in both Low and High time-stress conditions). Multilevel modeling revealed greater frontal theta increases in the alternate group over training sessions. Further, Go-NoGo task performance increased at a greater rate in the increase group (accuracy and reaction time, but not commission errors). Overall, these results reject our hypotheses and suggest that changes in frontal theta and performance outcomes were not explained by reinforcement learning afforded by accurate contingent feedback. We discuss our findings in terms of alternative conceptual and methodological considerations, as well as limitations of this research.

Project description:Meditation is increasingly showing beneficial effects for psychiatric disorders. However, learning to meditate is not straightforward as there are no easily discernible outward signs of performance and thus no direct feedback is possible. As meditation has been found to correlate with posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) activity, we tested whether source-space EEG neurofeedback from the PCC followed the subjective experience of effortless awareness (a major component of meditation), and whether participants could volitionally control the signal.Sixteen novice meditators and sixteen experienced meditators participated in the study. Novice meditators were briefly trained to perform a basic meditation practice to induce the subjective experience of effortless awareness in a progressively more challenging neurofeedback test-battery. Experienced meditators performed a self-selected meditation practice to induce this state in the same test-battery. Neurofeedback was provided based on gamma-band (40-57Hz) PCC activity extracted using a beamformer algorithm. Associations between PCC activity and the subjective experience of effortless awareness were assessed by verbal probes.Both groups reported that decreased PCC activity corresponded with effortless awareness (P<0.0025 for each group), with high median confidence ratings (novices: 8 on a 0-10 Likert scale; experienced: 9). Both groups showed high moment-to-moment median correspondence ratings between PCC activity and subjective experience of effortless awareness (novices: 8, experienced: 9). Both groups were able to volitionally control the PCC signal in the direction associated with effortless awareness by practicing effortless awareness meditation (novices: median % of time=77.97, P=0.001; experienced: 89.83, P<0.0005).These findings support the feasibility of using EEG neurofeedback to link an objective measure of brain activity with the subjective experience of effortless awareness, and suggest potential utility of this paradigm as a tool for meditation training.

Dataset Information

Differential Subjective Experiences in Learners and Non-learners in Frontal Alpha Neurofeedback: Piloting a Mixed-Method Approach.

Publications

Differential Subjective Experiences in Learners and Non-learners in Frontal Alpha Neurofeedback: Piloting a Mixed-Method Approach.

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