Neurofeedback as a Treatment for Trauma-affected Refugees

In neurofeedback (NF), the brainwave activity is measured by an electro-encephalography and fed back to the person as an auditory or visual signal, rewarding the person each time progress is made toward normalizing dysregulated neural activity. The learning mechanism is at its base considered to be operant conditioning, where the behavior of the participant-in this case, neurological activity-is gradually changed through repeated reinforcement. In neurofeedback, this simple learning mechanism is accelerated by continuous and instant feedback, with rewards occurring as often as every second. The NF intervention included 12 NF training sessions, one session per week, off approximately 12-20 min. The protocol was a replicate of the setup of recent NF studies investigating NF as a treatment for chronic PTSD. The feedback was based on a single channel recording, rewarding brainwave frequencies associated with a calm and relaxed state and inhibiting drowsiness and hyperarousal.