Fabrizio Turiaco, Fiammetta Iannuzzo, Giovanni Genovese, Clara Lombardo, Maria Catena Silvestri, Laura Celebre, Maria Rosaria Anna Muscatello, Antonio Bruno
{"title":"Cognitive effects of brief and intensive neurofeedback treatment in schizophrenia: a single center pilot study.","authors":"Fabrizio Turiaco, Fiammetta Iannuzzo, Giovanni Genovese, Clara Lombardo, Maria Catena Silvestri, Laura Celebre, Maria Rosaria Anna Muscatello, Antonio Bruno","doi":"10.3934/Neuroscience.2024021","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Schizophrenia is characterized by significant cognitive impairments and affects up to 98% of patients. Neurofeedback (NF) offers a means to modulate neural network function through cognitive processes such as learning and memorization, with documented structural changes in the brain, most notably an increase in grey matter volume in targeted regions.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The present 2-week, open-label, preliminary study aims to evaluate the efficacy on cognition of an adjunctive short and intensive (8 daily sessions lasting 30 minutes) alpha/theta NF training in a sample of subjects affected by schizophrenia on stabilized treatment with atypical antipsychotic drugs. The efficacy was measured at baseline and at the end of the study by the Brief Neuropsychological Examination 2 (ENB 2), the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Stroop color-word interference test; the clinical symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A final sample of nine patients completed the study. Regarding the cognitive performance, at the final assessment (week 2), the NF treatment significantly improved the performance in the \"Story Recall Immediate\" (p = 0.024), \"Story Recall Delayed\" (p = 0.007), \"Interference Memory 30 s\" (p = 0.024), \"Clock Test\" (p = 0.014) sub-tests, and the ENB2 Total Score (p = 0.007). Concerning the clinical symptoms, no significant changes were observed in the PANSS subscales and the PANSS Total score.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>NF could represent an adjunctive treatment strategy in the therapeutic toolbox for schizophrenia cognitive symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":7732,"journal":{"name":"AIMS Neuroscience","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11486612/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AIMS Neuroscience","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3934/Neuroscience.2024021","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Schizophrenia is characterized by significant cognitive impairments and affects up to 98% of patients. Neurofeedback (NF) offers a means to modulate neural network function through cognitive processes such as learning and memorization, with documented structural changes in the brain, most notably an increase in grey matter volume in targeted regions.
Methods: The present 2-week, open-label, preliminary study aims to evaluate the efficacy on cognition of an adjunctive short and intensive (8 daily sessions lasting 30 minutes) alpha/theta NF training in a sample of subjects affected by schizophrenia on stabilized treatment with atypical antipsychotic drugs. The efficacy was measured at baseline and at the end of the study by the Brief Neuropsychological Examination 2 (ENB 2), the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Stroop color-word interference test; the clinical symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).
Results: A final sample of nine patients completed the study. Regarding the cognitive performance, at the final assessment (week 2), the NF treatment significantly improved the performance in the "Story Recall Immediate" (p = 0.024), "Story Recall Delayed" (p = 0.007), "Interference Memory 30 s" (p = 0.024), "Clock Test" (p = 0.014) sub-tests, and the ENB2 Total Score (p = 0.007). Concerning the clinical symptoms, no significant changes were observed in the PANSS subscales and the PANSS Total score.
Conclusions: NF could represent an adjunctive treatment strategy in the therapeutic toolbox for schizophrenia cognitive symptoms.
期刊介绍:
AIMS Neuroscience is an international Open Access journal devoted to publishing peer-reviewed, high quality, original papers from all areas in the field of neuroscience. The primary focus is to provide a forum in which to expedite the speed with which theoretical neuroscience progresses toward generating testable hypotheses. In the presence of current and developing technology that offers unprecedented access to functions of the nervous system at all levels, the journal is designed to serve the role of providing the widest variety of the best theoretical views leading to suggested studies. Single blind peer review is provided for all articles and commentaries.