While we usually associate therapies like neurofeedback with healing from troubling symptoms like anxiety, depression, and ADHD, many people come to TN Neurofeedback to improve performance and optimize their cognitive, creative, and physical abilities. Even if you aren’t struggling with mental health difficulties, neurofeedback (EEG Biofeedback) is a useful tool for maximizing your brain’s ability to perform.
Biohacking, defined as biological experimentation done to improve the qualities or capabilities of living organisms, has become a more popular approach to making the most of our brain and body’s ability to face challenges in our careers and personal lives. This movement has amassed a substantial following due in part to the activity of influencers such as Dr. Andrew Huberman of the Stanford University School of Medicine, or more recently tech pioneer Bryan Johnsson. Adepts of biohacking aim to optimize their routines and behaviors in order to increase productivity, performance, and health.
Biofeedback has been used as a means to achieve these ends for decades, and we’re pleased to see how it is slowly and confidently penetrating the scientific and technological mainstream.
What Is Neurofeedback?
Neurofeedback is a form of EEG biofeedback that rewires the brain using positive feedback. In simple words, we teach your brain to regulate itself and increase performance by using operant conditioning (rewarding „good” behaviors and discouraging „bad” ones). By placing electrodes on your scalp, we are able to monitor your brain activity in real-time and provide instant feedback when we notice neural activity that’s outside of optimal parameters.
Neurofeedback is an efficient and non-invasive treatment that has been successfully used for decades in treating symptoms of anxiety, ADHD, depression, trauma, PTSD, and sleep disorders. In the absence of such pathology, you can effectively use neurofeedback to increase the peak performance of cognitive, athletic, and artistic activities.
Benefits of Neurofeedback for Cognitive Performance
Who doesn’t want to perform at their best? Whether it’s an important deal that’s on the verge of closing, or a lengthy piece of research that needs to be delivered several months away, we can always benefit from enhanced mental acuity. Here are some of the ways that neurofeedback can improve cognitive performance:
- Increased focus and attention. Neurofeedback can positively impact our ability to stay focused and pay attention. In fact, numerous studies and scientific articles document how neurofeedback has been shown to improve working memory performance, sustained attention, recognition memory, perceptual binding, intelligence, mood, and many other indicators of optimal brain function.
- Improved processing speed. In addition to improving processing speed and reducing impulsivity in patients with ADHD, neurofeedback has also been shown to improve processing speed in patients with multiple sclerosis or dementia. Imagine what it can do for someone who isn’t struggling with deep-set dysregulation!
- Enhanced working memory and attentional control. Neurofeedback can help us achieve improvements in working memory capacity and focus, as documented by various studies and experiments.
- Improved problem-solving abilities. Studies show that neurofeedback can significantly improve executive function, cognitive flexibility, and neural efficacy in executive tasks.
Benefits of Neurofeedback for Athletic Performance
Sports and athletics are an area where biofeedback has had multiple breakthroughs. From heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback to breathing biofeedback (Wim Hof, anyone?) to Galvanic Skin Response (a form of biofeedback for regulating skin conductivity), the sports community is known for investing significant resources in research and techniques that can help athletes push themselves beyond their limits. When the difference between first and second place in a 100-meter sprint can be a quarter of a second, every single adjustment matters.
Neurofeedback helps athletes by enhancing their focus, reducing their anxiety, and instilling a state of “flow” that is highly beneficial for peak performance.
The benefits of neurofeedback for athletic performance include:
- Improved focus and attention. Tennis champion Novak Djokovic says it best: “(Tennis) is a mental game. Everyone is fit, everyone hits great forehands and backhands.” This principle applies to the vast majority of sports, so the biggest disservice an athlete can do to their game is to neglect the importance of training the mind to handle periods of high-intensity stress. Neurofeedback is known to be highly effective in helping individuals improve focus, attention, and executive functioning and is therefore a strong ally to any athlete looking to level up their mental game.
- Enhanced reaction time. According to a systemic review of existing literature, neurofeedback has been shown to reduce reaction time and improve the cognitive performance of athletes. Another study found that neurofeedback helps modulate neural connectivity and enhances visual-spatial attention in table tennis players.
- Better decision-making abilities. Neurofeedback has been shown to impact decision-making abilities in athletes and effectively increase their performance.
- Increased confidence and self-regulation. Studies have shown that soccer athletes who received neurofeedback training reported higher confidence levels and enhanced functional behavior. No wonder Italy had a “Mind Room” biofeedback protocol that helped them win the World Cup back in 2006!
Benefits of Neurofeedback for Artistic Performance
Last, but certainly not least, neurofeedback has also been shown to help artists achieve the same state of “flow” that athletes strive for, where their ability to regulate their attention and reduce anxiety is increased, and they become fully immersed in their work.
While there is not as much research documenting neurofeedback benefits for artists as there is for athletes, there is evidence to suggest that alpha/theta neurofeedback protocols are highly beneficial for enhancing creativity in advanced musicians, while a combination of alpha/theta training with sensory-motor rhythm protocols is impactful for creativity, communication, and technique in novice musicians and children. Alongside musicians, neurofeedback has been proven to help dancers, actors, singers, and visual artists.
In addition to improved attention and reduced anxiety, other benefits of neurofeedback for artistic performance include enhanced creativity and improved motor skills.
Get Started with Neurofeedback
At Tennessee Neurofeedback, we help athletes, musicians, performers, writers, and business executives to reach new heights of performance through EEG biofeedback. Our personalized protocols promote optimal communication between brain hemispheres, which allows us to help clients reach a much-desired state of „flow”. The result is greater clarity, focus, creativity, and awareness.
To learn how we can help you unleash your cognitive, athletic, or artistic potential, schedule an appointment and come meet our team of board-certified neurotherapists!