Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, Vol. 27, No. 4, December 2002 ( C ° 2002)Alpha/theta (a/t) neurofeedback training has in the past successfully been used as a complementary
therapeutic relaxation technique in the treatment of alcoholism. In spite of positive
clinical outcomes, doubts have been cast on the protocol’s specificity when compared to
alternative relaxation regimes. This study investigated the basic tenet underlying the a/t
training rationale, that accurate a/t feedback representation facilitates the generation of
these frequency components. Two groups of healthy volunteers were randomly assigned
to either (a) real contingent a/t feedback training or (b) a noncontingent mock feedback
control condition. The groups were compared on measures of theta/alpha (t /a) ratios within
and across training sessions, as well as activational self-report scales after each session.
The contingent a/t feedback group displayed significant within-session t /a ratio increments
not evident in the mock control group, as well as higher overall t /a ratios in some but not all
of the training sessions. No differences were found between the groups in terms of subjective
activational phenomenology, in that both groups reported significantly lower levels of
activation after training sessions. The data demonstrate that irrespective of considerations
of clinical relevance, accurate a/t neurofeedback effectively facilitates production of higher
within-session t /a ratios than do noncontingent feedback relaxation.
