Using neurofeedback to help soldiers

Source: Reuters

A team of researchers from Israel, the U.S. and the U.K. has found that using neurofeedback could prevent soldiers from experiencing PTSD after engaging in emotionally difficult situations. In their paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes experiments they conducted with military personnel engaged in intensive training sessions, and what they learned from it. Prior research has shown that neurofeedbacktraining sessions with patients having difficulty regulating emotional responses can help them become better at it. Such training typically involves placing the patient in an fMRI machine where they can watch their own brain activity while they reenact stressful situations. Patients attempt to change their brain wave activity, and in so doing, reduce the strength of their emotional response. Patients then use the same concentration technique in subsequent real-life stress-inducing situations. Because of the benefits it offers, it has been suggested that such training might be of use to soldiers before they head to war, but the cost of fMRI machine time is prohibitive. In this new effort, the researchers have found a way to track pertinent brain wave activity using much cheaper EEG testing.

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