OPERANT (BIOFEEDBACK) CONTROL OF LEFT-RIGHT FRONTAL ALPHA-POWER DIFFERENCES - POTENTIAL NEUROTHERAPY FOR AFFECTIVE-DISORDERS

Two experiments were done with subjects from a paid pool of undergradu ates. In each study, there were five 1-hour sessions on each of 5 days : (1) Baseline: Rewards given for randomly selected 20% of the 700-ms sequential epochs; mean and SD of baseline power differences determine d. 2) Exploration: Subjects were rewarded when right minus left alpha differences in an epoch were greater than the baseline mean plus about .85 SD (p = .20); subjects told to discover how to generate rewards. (3)-(5). Training: Subjects were paid (over and above the $8/h flat ra te) in proportion to their hit rates. In the first study tilt which ac tive filters passed 8-12 Hz activity and the rectified, integrated amp litude was utilized), 6 of 8 subjects met learning criteria (a signifi cant difference between baseline and training scores). In the second s tudy (in which on-line FFTs were used to extract alpha power), 3 of 5 subjects met learning criteria.