left hemisphere activation
Research Papers
Frontal interhemispheric asymmetry: self regulation and individual differences in humans
Sixteen subjects naive to biofeedback learned lateralised interhemispheric control of slow cortical potentials (SCPs) across electrode sites F3–F4 during three sessions of visual electroencephalograph (EEG) biofeedback. Subjects were required to generate slow negativity shifts either towards the left or the right hemisphere in sixty pseudorandomly ordered trials per session. Group 1 (n=8) were told to use emotional strategies in the task (positive emotions for left hemisphere activation, negative emotion for right hemisphere activation), group 2 received no guidance. Both groups received feedback in the form of an on-screen rocket-ship, initially centrally placed, which rose to indicate an increase in left hemisphere negativity (relative to the right hemisphere) and fell to indicate an increase in right hemisphere negativity (relative to the left hemisphere). A 2×3×3×2 ANOVA (group×session×block×trial) showed no performance differences between the strategy and no strategy groups. Both groups learned to produce correct direction shifts in the final third of each session during both trial types (P<0.001). The no strategy group showed a particularly strong within session learning effect (P<0.0037) with poor performance in the early part of the sessions, and strong shifts at the end. Subjects high on withdrawal showed stronger rightward shifts in keeping with right hemisphere involvement in behavioural withdrawal. This is the first demonstration of self regulation of interhemispheric frontal asymmetry.
View Full Paper →The Clinical Use of An Alpha Asymmetry Protocol in the Neurofeedback Treatment of Depression
In this study we are presenting case studies of two depressed women who were trained with more than 34 sessions each of EEG biofeedback (neurofeedback) using an Alpha Asymmetry protocol, the purpose of this training was to determine if depression could be alleviated when the subjects learned to increase the activation of the left hemisphere and/ or decrease the activation of the right hemisphere. The MMPI-2 was administered before and after training to measure changes in personality factors, including depression. The results suggest that Alpha Asymmetry neurofeedback training may be an effective adjunct to psychotherapy in the treatment of certain types of mood disorders.
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