Presession Posterior Alpha Enhancement May Accelerate Neurofeedback Learning and Response

Abstract

Alpha band oscillations are characterized phenomenologically by a state of relaxed, unfocused attention and are implicated in enhanced learning and memory performance. Alpha power may reflect cortical inhibition in task-irrelevant brain regions, thus leaving more neural resources available to task-relevant regions and processes. In this paper we propose that a short priming session with a posterior alpha upregulation protocol may accelerate subsequent neurofeedback learning with the client’s main training protocols. Neurofeedback relies to a large extent on implicit learning processes mediated by the basal ganglia and frontal cortical regions. Alpha uptraining posteriorly may inhibit task-irrelevant cortical regions dedicated mostly to explicit processing and externally oriented attention, thereby clearing the way for cortical and subcortical regions directly involved in neurofeedback learning to process the feedback more efficiently. It may thus serve to accelerate the learning process and efficacy of neurofeedback training. Various considerations and possible side effects are discussed.