Biofeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many physiological functions of one's own body by using electronic or other instruments, and with a goal of being able to manipulate the body's systems at will. Humans conduct biofeedback naturally all the time, at varied levels of consciousness and intentionality. Biofeedback and the biofeedback loop can also be thought of as self-regulation. Some of the processes that can be controlled include brainwaves, muscle tone, skin conductance, heart rate and pain perception.
Biofeedback may be used to improve health, performance, and the physiological changes that often occur in conjunction with changes to thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Recently, technologies have provided assistance with intentional biofeedback. Eventually, these changes may be maintained without the use of extra equipment, for no equipment is necessarily required to practice biofeedback.
Meta-analysis of different biofeedback treatments have shown some benefit in the treatment of headaches and migraines and ADHD, though most of the studies in these meta-analyses did not make comparisons with alternative treatments.
Information coded biofeedback is an evolving form and methodology in the field of biofeedback. Its uses may be applied in the areas of health, wellness and awareness. Biofeedback has its modern conventional roots in the early 1970s.
Over the years, biofeedback as a discipline and a technology has continued to mature and express new versions of the method with novel interpretations in areas utilizing the electromyograph, electrodermograph, electroencephalograph and electrocardiogram among others.
The concept of biofeedback is based on the fact that a wide variety of ongoing intrinsic natural functions of the organism occur at a level of awareness generally called the "unconscious". The biofeedback process is designed to interface with select aspects of these "unconscious" processes.
The definition reads:
Biofeedback is a process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related courses (4)
Le TP de physiologie introduit les approches expérimentales du domaine biomédical, avec les montages de mesure, les capteurs, le conditionnement des signaux, l'acquisition et traitement de données.
Le
Le TP de physiologie introduit les approches expérimentales du domaine biomédical, avec les montages de mesure, les capteurs, le conditionnement des signaux, l'acquisition et traitement de données.
Le
Understanding, processing, and analysis of signals and images obtained from the central and peripheral nervous system
In psychology, stress is a feeling of emotional strain and pressure. Stress is a type of psychological pain. Small amounts of stress may be beneficial, as it can improve athletic performance, motivation and reaction to the environment. Excessive amounts of stress, however, can increase the risk of strokes, heart attacks, ulcers, and mental illnesses such as depression and also aggravation of a pre-existing condition.
A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a brain–machine interface (BMI) or smartbrain, is a direct communication pathway between the brain's electrical activity and an external device, most commonly a computer or robotic limb. BCIs are often directed at researching, mapping, assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. They are often conceptualized as a human–machine interface that skips the intermediary component of the physical movement of body parts, although they also raise the possibility of the erasure of the discreteness of brain and machine.
Alpha waves, or the alpha rhythm, are neural oscillations in the frequency range of 8–12 Hz likely originating from the synchronous and coherent (in phase or constructive) electrical activity of thalamic pacemaker cells in humans. Historically, they are also called "Berger's waves" after Hans Berger, who first described them when he invented the EEG in 1924. Alpha waves are one type of brain waves detected by electrophysiological and closely related methods, such as by electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG), and can be quantified using quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG).
Objective. To study the neural control of movement, it is often necessary to estimate how muscles are activated across a variety of behavioral conditions. One approach is to try extracting the underlying neural command signal to muscles by applying latent ...
Purpose of review: To review recent advances in the field of seizure detection in ambulatory patients with epilepsy. Recent findings: Recent studies have shown that wrist or arm wearable sensors, using 3D-accelerometry, electrodermal activity or photopleth ...
2024
, , , , , , ,
Background Immersive virtual reality (iVR)-based digital therapeutics are gaining clinical attention in the field of pain management. Based on known analogies between pain and dyspnoea, we investigated the effects of visual respiratory feedback on persiste ...