An effective neurofeedback training, with cortisol correlates, in a clinical case of anxiety

Aliño Costa, Marta ; Gadea, Marien ; Hidalgo, Vanesa (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Pérez, Víctor ; Sanjuán, Julio

Resumen: Neurofeedback treatments have shown successful results in anxiety disorders. The effectiveness of a beta1 Neurofeedback protocol was tested in a longitudinal clinical case study. A participant suffering from an anxiety syndrome underwent 10 sessions of Neurofeedback, in a protocol consisting of uptraining the beta1 rhythm (16-21 Hz) while downtraining the theta (4-8 Hz) band. State anxiety and salivary cortisol levels were measured during each of the 10 sessions following a pre/post design. Initial and final examinations of anxiety symptoms and sustained attention performance were also implemented. The final evaluation revealed that levels of anxiety fell within a normative range and that sustained attention had improved. A t-test for related samples disclosed a significant improvement of beta1 amplitude across the sessions, without modifications in untrained bands. A significant inverse correlation between beta1 amplitude and salivary cortisol was detected, suggesting that brain activity could be considered a marker of anxiety. The validation of the beta1 Neurofeedback protocol was assessed according to independence, trainability and interpretability criteria. We demonstrate the effectiveness of a neurofeedback protocol on anxiety and sustained attention, the success of which may lie in the reestablishment of an optimal cortical arousal capable of inhibiting elevated amygdalar activity.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.11144/Javeriana.upsy15-5.entc

Año: 2016

Publicado en: Universitas Psychologica 15, 5 (2016), [10 pp.]
ISSN: 1657-9267

Factor impacto JCR: 0.313 (2016)

Categ. JCR: PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 122 / 128 = 0.953 (2016) - Q4 - T3

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.202 - Psychology (miscellaneous) (Q3) - Social Psychology (Q4)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MEC/FPU-AP2012-05836

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Psicobiología (Dpto. Psicología y Sociología)