Biofeedback is a technique you can use to learn to control some of your body’s functions, such as your heart rate. During biofeedback, you’re connected to electrical sensors that help you receive information about your body.
This feedback helps you make subtle changes in your body, such as relaxing certain muscles, to achieve the results you want, such as reducing pain.
Your therapist might use a variety of biofeedback methods depending on your health problems and goals. Biofeedback types include: brain waves, breathing, heart rate, muscle contraction, sweat gland activity and temperature.
Some types of biofeedback devices measure physiological changes in your body, such as your heart rate activity and skin changes, by using one or more sensors attached to your fingers or your ear. The sensors plug into your computer. Using computer graphics and prompts, the devices then help you master stress by helping you to pace your breathing, relax your muscles and think positive self-statements about your ability to cope.
Patients can also be wearing a sensor on your waist that monitors your breathing and tracks your breathing patterns using a downloadable app. The app can alert you if you’re having prolonged tension, and it offers guided breathing activities to help restore your calm.
Neurofeedback, also known as EEG (electroencephalogram) biofeedback, is a therapeutic intervention that provides immediate feedback from a computer-based program that assesses a client’s brainwave activity. The program then uses sound or visual signals to reorganize or retrain these brain signals.
Children, adolescents, and adults with seizure conditions, behavior disorders, attention deficits autism, ongoing developmental delays, acquired brain injuries, birth trauma, anxiety depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, stress-related problems, insomnia or interrupted sleep patterns, as well as those with age-related cognitive loss, may find neurofeedback helpful. Neurofeedback may also be used as an adjunct intervention with other forms of therapy.
This is achieved by repetitive training sessions using a computerized neurofeedback program that teaches your central nervous system to reorganize and regulate brainwave frequencies.
Neurofeedback assesses your brain and provides information about areas of dysfunction that are causing symptoms so that they can be treated directly. Various neurofeedback methods and equipment are used for different types of neurological problem.
