Biofeedback Volume 44: Issue 4

Eugenia Bodenhamer-Davis has trained generations of professionals in neurofeedback and provided visionary leadership to the board of the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA). This article pays tribute to Genie's signature achievements as an educator and chair of the task force that revised BCIA's neurofeedback certification program.

This article tracks the evolution of the practice of neurofeedback over the past quarter century from the perspective of services offered at a private clinic. It describes why and how the authors changed their practices from interventions including medication, psychotherapy, and tutoring to biofeedback interventions. Their evolving practices required complex assessments including single- and two-channel quantitative electroencephalograph (QEEG) and later 19-channel QEEG combined with evoked potentials, heart rate variability, continuous performance testing, and neuropsychological assessment. The article stresses that interventions require a multimodal approach. The neuroanatomical rationale for combining neurofeedback and heart rate variability (HRV) training is provided as well as a discussion of how a systems theory of neural synergy helps explain how neurofeedback influences brain networks. Assessment procedures are described in some detail because that information is used to develop effective interventions that typically combine neurofeedback (single-channel or LORETA Z-score neurofeedback, as indicated) with HRV training. The authors stress using evidence-based approaches, basing intervention on assessment, and keeping current with new developments in applied neuroscience.

Agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) is a congenital disorder that leads to a broad array of symptoms including cognitive, motor, and social difficulties. Parents of children with AgCC are faced with few treatment options for this often debilitating disorder. There is also a lack of research concerning how to help children and adults with AgCC achieve improved levels of functioning. This paper discusses the utility of low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) Z-score based neurofeedback combined with heart rate variability (HRV) training biofeedback in treating a young man with partial and congenital AgCC. The comprehensive assessment process included analysis of 19-channel quantitative-EEG (QEEG) and HRV data in combination with parent rating questionnaires, and continuous performance test measures: Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (Arble, Kuentzel & Burnett, 2014) and the Test of Variables of Attention (Forbes 1998). This article illustrates amelioration of cognitive, motor, social, and sleep-based symptoms in this case, suggesting neurofeedback and biofeedback have a positive role to play in helping people with AgCC.

Mark and Frank have done it again! Mark Schwartz and Frank Andrasik are both past-presidents of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, and leaders in the field of biofeedback for over three decades. Once again, they have produced an encyclopedic reference book on the practice of biofeedback and neurofeedback, covering the latest emergent developments, as well as solid overviews of the fundamentals in each area of biofeedback practice.

The text is organized into ten parts:

Orientation to Biofeedback
Instrumentation
Adjunctive/Complementary Interventions
Relaxation Interventions
Practice Issues
Clinical Applications: Traditional General Biofeedback Practice
Clinical

Special Issue: Current Practice in Neurofeedback Assessment and Treatment

Professional Issues

A Tribute to Eugenia Bodenhamer-Davis

Current Practice of Neurofeedback: Where We Are and How We Got There

LORETA Neurofeedback Combined with Biofeedback as a Treatment for Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum: A Single Case Study

Live Z-Score Neurofeedback

Neurotherapy and Connectivity

Biofeedback and the Illusion of Self-Control: A Functional Contextual Perspective

The Promise of Ultra-Short-Term (UST) Heart Rate Variability Measurements

Biofeedback: A Practitioner's Guide (4^th edition). Edited by Mark S. Schwartz and Frank Andrasik. New York, NY: Guilford Press, 2016. 764 pages. ISBN 978-1-4625-2254-5

REPORT: Report from FABBS Meeting

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Establishing a University-Based Biofeedback Clinic for Practice, Education, and Research

SPECIAL ISSUE: The Impact of a Romantic Partner on Patient Experience of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback

SPECIAL ISSUE: Pain—There Is Hope

ABSTRACTS: Abstracts of Papers Presented at the 54th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback