Neurofeedback Training in Schizophrenia: A Study on Executive Functioning

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the viability of neurofeedback training which entails the acquisition of effortful learning skills to gain volitional control on electrocortical activity in order to ameliorate executive function of schizophrenic patients. In this pre-test post-test design 30 schizophrenic male inpatients were selected out of which fifteen were trained to inhibit delta and theta at frontal cortex and reward SMR at vertex. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test was administered prior and after the training stage. Descriptive methods were used and P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The results revealed significant improvement in executive functioning measures in experimental group relative to the control group. Our finding suggests that being the prime feature of the disorder does not necessarily imply intractability.  It was once believed that schizophrenic patients could not learn to modify their bioelectrical functioning while the findings of the current research prompted a re-thinking.