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Long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group

Impairments in executive functions (EFs) are common across disorders and can greatly affect daily functioning. Frontal-midline (FM) theta neurofeedback (NF) has been shown effective in enhancing EFs in healthy adults, prompting interest in exploring its potential as an alternative treatment for EFs...

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Autores principales: Smit, Diede, Dapor, Cecilia, Koerts, Janneke, Tucha, Oliver M., Huster, Rene J., Enriquez-Geppert, Stefanie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10290172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37362947
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1163380
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author Smit, Diede
Dapor, Cecilia
Koerts, Janneke
Tucha, Oliver M.
Huster, Rene J.
Enriquez-Geppert, Stefanie
author_facet Smit, Diede
Dapor, Cecilia
Koerts, Janneke
Tucha, Oliver M.
Huster, Rene J.
Enriquez-Geppert, Stefanie
author_sort Smit, Diede
collection PubMed
description Impairments in executive functions (EFs) are common across disorders and can greatly affect daily functioning. Frontal-midline (FM) theta neurofeedback (NF) has been shown effective in enhancing EFs in healthy adults, prompting interest in exploring its potential as an alternative treatment for EFs in (sub)clinical samples. This study aims to determine the effects of FM theta NF on EFs in a sample of 58 adults (aged 20–60 years) with pronounced subjective EF complaints in daily life. Using a pre/post/follow-up design with a sham NF group, the present study assessed upregulation of FM theta in an eight-session individualized FM theta NF training and its immediate and long-term transfer effects on objective and subjective measures of EFs. These included behavioral performance on EF tasks assessing working memory updating (N-back task), set-shifting (Switching task), conflict monitoring (Stroop task), and response inhibition (Stop-signal task), as well as FM theta power during these tasks, and subjective EFs in daily life (BRIEF-A). The results indicate that there are only differences in FM theta self-upregulation between the NF group and sham group when non-responders are excluded from the analysis. Regarding behavioral transfer effects, NF-specific improvements are found in working memory updating reaction time (RT) and conflict monitoring RT variability at 6-month follow-up, but not immediately after the NF training. The effects on FM theta power during the EF tasks and subjective changes in EFs in daily life were not specific to the NF training. As a next step, research should identify the best predictors to stratify NF training, as well as explore ways to improve NF responsiveness, for instance by increasing neuroplasticity.
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spelling pubmed-102901722023-06-25 Long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group Smit, Diede Dapor, Cecilia Koerts, Janneke Tucha, Oliver M. Huster, Rene J. Enriquez-Geppert, Stefanie Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience Impairments in executive functions (EFs) are common across disorders and can greatly affect daily functioning. Frontal-midline (FM) theta neurofeedback (NF) has been shown effective in enhancing EFs in healthy adults, prompting interest in exploring its potential as an alternative treatment for EFs in (sub)clinical samples. This study aims to determine the effects of FM theta NF on EFs in a sample of 58 adults (aged 20–60 years) with pronounced subjective EF complaints in daily life. Using a pre/post/follow-up design with a sham NF group, the present study assessed upregulation of FM theta in an eight-session individualized FM theta NF training and its immediate and long-term transfer effects on objective and subjective measures of EFs. These included behavioral performance on EF tasks assessing working memory updating (N-back task), set-shifting (Switching task), conflict monitoring (Stroop task), and response inhibition (Stop-signal task), as well as FM theta power during these tasks, and subjective EFs in daily life (BRIEF-A). The results indicate that there are only differences in FM theta self-upregulation between the NF group and sham group when non-responders are excluded from the analysis. Regarding behavioral transfer effects, NF-specific improvements are found in working memory updating reaction time (RT) and conflict monitoring RT variability at 6-month follow-up, but not immediately after the NF training. The effects on FM theta power during the EF tasks and subjective changes in EFs in daily life were not specific to the NF training. As a next step, research should identify the best predictors to stratify NF training, as well as explore ways to improve NF responsiveness, for instance by increasing neuroplasticity. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10290172/ /pubmed/37362947 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1163380 Text en Copyright © 2023 Smit, Dapor, Koerts, Tucha, Huster and Enriquez-Geppert. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Smit, Diede
Dapor, Cecilia
Koerts, Janneke
Tucha, Oliver M.
Huster, Rene J.
Enriquez-Geppert, Stefanie
Long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group
title Long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group
title_full Long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group
title_fullStr Long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group
title_full_unstemmed Long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group
title_short Long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group
title_sort long-term improvements in executive functions after frontal-midline theta neurofeedback in a (sub)clinical group
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10290172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37362947
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1163380
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