Neurofeedback Efficacy in the Treatment of a 43-Year-Old Female Stroke Victim: A Case Study

Abstract

Introduction. A 43-year-old Caucasian woman presented with a series of physical and mental deficits following a right hemisphere cerebral artery embolus suffered at age 42. Method. For both the pretreatment and posttreatment evaluation, the client's EEG data were collected. Prior to beginning neurofeedback a self-developed symptom checklist was provided to the participant and was repeated every 10 sessions. The participant received 52 neurofeedback sessions with the use of Neurocybernetics equipment. To determine statistical changes between the pretreatment and posttreatment conditions, average cross-spectral matrices were computed for bands delta (1-3.5 Hz), theta (3.5-7.5 Hz), alpha (7.5-12.5 Hz), beta1 (12.5-25 Hz), beta2 (25-32 Hz), and gamma (37-47 Hz). In this study the pretreatment cross-spectra for each epoch were then compared to the posttreatment epoch cross-spectra using the previously mentioned frequency band ranges. For each condition, cross-spectral matrices were computed and averaged over 2-s epochs resulting in one cross-spectral matrix for each epoch and for each of the discrete frequencies within each band. Based on previous LORETA analyses, we used a rectangular window. No time frame or frequency wise normalization was performed. Results. Following treatment, comparative QEEG and eLoreta analyses illustrated significant decreases in the absolute and relative power theta measures and significant elevations of absolute and relative power occipital beta. These findings correspond to client self-report data demonstrating improvement in cognitive functioning and depressed mood. Conclusion. Overall, findings suggest the utility of neurofeedback for the treatment of stroke, with particular gains noted in the areas of cognitive functioning, sleep quality, emotional regulation, and energy.

Neurofeedback as a Form of Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy Following Stroke: A Systematic Review

“…Overall, study designs and NFT therapy and training protocols were diverse and heterogeneous in nature. Five of the interventions were case studies [41][42][43][44][45]. Three controlled trials were also included [6,46]; two were non-randomized and non-blinded (experiment 1 n = 32, experiment 2 n = 17) [6], and one was randomized but non-blinded (n = 27) [46].…”

“…Individuals suffered from various lesions (see Table 1) and exhibited a number of cognitive deficits. NFT interventions directly targeted memory [6,41,44], emotional issues [41,43,45], concentration and distraction issues [41,43,45,46], fatigue and energy deficits [41,43], communication and speech deficits [41,42,45], visual perception deficits [45,46] and motivation [45]. Two patients complained of visual tracking deficits, [41,42] in addition to one of them suffering from tinnitus [41].…”

“…6 months or more post-stroke) [41][42][43]. Two studies indicated participants were recruited from an inpatient rehabilitation hospital, possibly implying these participants were still in the sub-acute phase (i.e.…”

“…for high blood pressure [41,42] and depression [42,43]). Authors of one investigation reported the cessation of anti-depressants during the course of the NFT intervention [43].…”

“…See Table 1. A few of the participants opted to try NFT after already having participated in conventional forms of stroke rehabilitation therapy; additional therapies included speech therapy [41], physical therapy [41,46], group and individual therapy [42], talk therapy [43] and neuropsychological therapy [45]. Participants in one study completed additional computer training (targeting attention, language, and memory) for 30 minutes immediately prior to their group-specific intervention [6].…”