Biofeedback Training of 40-Hz EEG and Behavior

The use of operant training techniques to control electrical brain activity is relatively recent, dating back some ten years to the beginning of the present series of publications (Mulholland 1968). As is generally true of new research, there is a focus on questions about the basic process itself—definitive training procedures, transfer and concomitant effects and, not the least of it, skepticism about the reliability of the phenomenon itself. The ever-accelerating literature reflected, in part, in a handbook (Barber et al. 1971a), in a recent bibliography (Butler and Stoyva 1973), and in a series of annual reviews (Barber et al. 1971b, Stoyva et al. 1972, Shapiro et al. 1973), has both clarified some issues and raised additional questions.