EEG – Biofeedback method has a 50 years history. Everything begins in 1958 when Joe Camia discovers that his thoughts can affect his brain. After many years of researches in the 80’s EEG biofeedback begins to be applied as a treatment method for various diseases.
Historical development of EEG – Biofeedback
EEG biofeedback is a method of self-improvement and treatment. The treatments are carried out using special medical equipment detecting and analyzing bioelectric activity of the brain. With EEG biofeedback method a person can be trained to control his brain helping it to cultivate.
In 1924 the German psychiatrist Hans Berger placed electrodes (small round disks of metal) on the scalp of the patient and detected bioelectric activity of the brain. In the period between 1929-1938, he published 14 research reports for Electroencephalography. A lot of our modern knowledge is based on his research.
In 1958 the Japanese Joe Camia proved by his experiments that a man can change the bioelectric activity of his/her brain in alpha range. His experiments also showed that Alpha waves are associated with relaxation and alpha therapies are leading to stress relieve.
In the 60s Shterman Barry, a student of Camia explored bioelectric activity of cats during sleep. He found that sensomotoric rhythm (SMR), generated during sleep, occurs also in the state of wakefulness. Working on an experiment commissioned by NASA about the negative impact of rocket fuel, Shterman uses trained cats with SMR training from his previous experiment and not trained cats. Trained cats were more resilient, while not trained got similar to epileptic attacks. This was the beginning of experiments with patients with epilepsy. Thus the “protocol Shterman” for the treatment of epilepsy was created.
The work of Barry Shterman, Joel Lubar and others lead to high efficiency in the treatment of epilepsy, of attention deficit syndrome and hyperactivity disorder. Treatment of addictions, depression, tics, aggression, fears and paranoia, insomnia.
Later it was found that certain training can lead to improved brain function by improving concentration, memory, learning abilities and more.
EEG biofeedback has been successfully applied in many clinics around the world as well as in the educational system.
Historical development of Electroencephalography
Shortly after Hans Berger has recorded human EEG for the first time in 1924 and published five years later (in 1929) his “Electroencephalography Rights” the use of various quantitative techniques for the treatment of registered brain electrical activity begun. Back in 1932 Diych proved significant differences between the frequency content of normal and abnormal human electroencephalography. H. Berger himself also used quantitative techniques for processing EEG. Grey Walter in 1943 set the start of the beginning of electronic automation of this process by the introduction of electromechanical device for averaging EEG activity from 10 ages and displaying the data obtained in 24 frequency bands from 0.5 to 30 Hz, and in parallel with the recording of routine EEG. Developed in 1965 by Cooley and Tikeu algorithms “Fast transformation according to Fourier” (Fast Fourier Transformation) are with greatest contribution to the advancement of methods to quantify EEG, as they remarkably facilitate the calculation of spectral coefficients.
Along with the improvement of quantitative EEG analysis in the 40s of XX century, several researchers started development of devices for topographic representation of brain electrical activity, the most popular was the introduced in 1951 by G. Walter N. and Shipton toposkop. One of the most widely used method in imaging of brain electrical activity has been the compressed spectral line of Bickford, kept over 15 years in clinical practice. Huge change from commercial point of view came with the introduction of color-coded maps of brain electrical activity as they attract the eye not only of insufficiently trained EEG specialists, but are perceived better by patients.
By further development of computer technology in the 90s methods kEEG became available for clinical use and gained popularity. Major prerequisite for their introduction was the opportunity for paperless recording and processing large amounts of data, especially in monitoring a patient in operation departments and intensive care sectors, carrying out measurement and others.
