Max Chen (Jean-Lon Chen), Medical Doctor in Taiwan

Supervisors: Professor John Gruzelier, Professor Jane Powell

Comparison of EEG-Neurofeedback and Transcutaneous Electrical Acupuncture Stimulation with Neurofeedback training in Normal Individuals - The Effects of Combining Transcutaneous Electrical Acupuncture with Neurofeedback Training on EEG spectrum.

Neurofeedback is a sophisticated form of biofeedback based on specific aspects of cortical activity. It refers to an operant conditioning paradigm where an individual learns to modify the amplitude, frequency and/or coherence of the electrophysiological aspects of his/her own brain. The goal of neurofeedback training is to teach the individual what specific states of cortical arousal feel like and how to activate such states voluntarily. Acupuncture therapy has been practiced in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. In 1979, the World Health Organization drew up a provisional list of 47 diseases that could be treated with acupuncture. Acupuncture therapy has been applied to patients with stroke, and traumatic brain injuries, believing that the patients can be cognitively more alert, aroused, and recover faster. Transcutaneous electrical acupuncture (EA) therapy has proven to be effective in stimulating the acu-points by fMRI. When using the transcutaneous stimulation method, patients’ fear in seeing the acupuncture needles can be avoided. However, combining EA stimulation effects with neurofeedback training has yet to be investigated. According to the previous studies by Egner and Gruzelier and Vernon et al., we will use the SMR neurofeedback training protocol and try to combine these two therapy to improve both attention and semantic memory performance at the same time.