Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Neuroscience

Second Department

W.M. Keck Science Department

Reader 1

Tessa Solomon-Lane

Reader 2

Thomas Borowski

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

@ 2023 Isabel G Silva

Abstract

It is estimated that 970 million people worldwide live with mental disorders. Anxiety and depression are among the most common. Common treatments for psychiatric disorders include medications like antidepressants or antipsychotics, psychotherapy, and brain stimulation treatments like electroconvulsive therapy or transcranial magnetic stimulation. Pharmaceuticals are not always effective, so many individuals look to alternative treatments. One non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical treatment being explored is neurofeedback. Neurofeedback is a subfield of biofeedback that uses an electroencephalogram to track a patient’s brain activity and provide positive or negative feedback through sound, videos, or images in response to recorded desirable and undesirable brain activity. Neurofeedback has been utilized to treat a variety of mental and physiological disorders, but most common for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, epilepsy, PTSD, and anxiety disorders. Electroencephalogram records various brain waves – delta waves (<4 Hz), theta waves (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), beta (13-30 Hz), and gamma (30-100 Hz) – that occur during specific behaviors, responses, or symptoms. Understanding which areas of the brain are associated with certain behaviors, and seeing dysregulations of brain waves that are associated with certain disorders, is the basis of neurofeedback. With that information, practitioners are able to provide the needed audio or visual feedback to increase, decrease, or regulate dysfunctional brain activity. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how neurofeedback has been utilized, areas of further applications, and ways it has been ineffective. Neurofeedback can be a powerful tool, understanding its strengths and weaknesses is essential to providing effective treatments.

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