Positive behavioral and electrophysiological changes following neurofeedback training in children with autism

Abstract

Two electrophysiological studies tested the hypothesis that operant conditioning of mu rhythms via neurofeedback training can renormalize mu suppression, an index of mirror neuron activity, and improve behavior in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In Study 1, eight high-functioning ASD participants were assigned to placebo or experimental groups before 10 weeks of training of the mu frequency band (8-13 Hz). Following training, experimental participants showed decreased mu power and coherence, increased sustained attention ability, and improved scores on subscales of the ATEC compared to the placebo group. Both groups showed improvement in imitation ability. In Study 2, 19 high-functioning ASD children underwent a similar procedure with verified diagnoses, a modified double-blind protocol, and training of the high mu band (10-13 Hz). The results showed decreases in amplitude but increases in phase coherence in mu rhythms and normalization of mu rhythm suppression in experimental participants compared to placebo. Furthermore, like Study 1, participants showed improvements in sustained attention and in ATEC scores but no improvements in imitation following training. This suggests that training of the mu rhythm can be effective in producing changes in EEG and behavior in high-functioning ASD children, but does not affect imitation behavior per se.

An Effective Neurofeedback Intervention to Improve Social Interactions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The advantage of using these comprehensive parental assessments is that behavioral changes in the real-world rather than in laboratory settings can be determined, whereas the disadvantage is that they could be biased by parental expectations. Pineda et al (2008) have previously reported improvements in the ATEC due to mu-based NFT in comparison to a control group receiving placebo feedback. In the current study, significant improvements in autistic symptoms, social responsiveness and adaptive behavior were shown in the post-compared to pre-test equally for both groups.…”

“…2 (Oberman et al 2005;Pineda et al 2008). Participants were asked to watch six 1-min videos twice in random order.…”

“…However, the results of the current study show that the mu rhythm and not general alpha activity was recorded and targeted specifically. Using the MSI task, Pineda et al (2008) have shown that mu suppression in children with ASD became more like those of a TD group, along with improvements in behavior, following several weeks of a mu-based NFT in contrast to a control group receiving placebo feedback. Consistent with this finding, both groups in the current study showed at least marginally more mu suppression for the ''Biomotion'' condition at C3 in the post-test compared to the pre-test.…”

Being an agent or an observer: Different spectral dynamics revealed by MEG

“…We 615 propose that this differentiation might subserve different cognitive operations during action 616 observation vs action execution. Eventually, the reported functional dissociation between alpha 617 and beta bands may have an impact in clinical applications such as the neurological rehabilitation 618 based on the µ--rhythm neurofeedback (Pineda et al, 2008). In fact, a lack of µ suppression has 619 been hypothesized as an electrophysiological correlate of the putative Mirror Neuron Systemautism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Rizzolatti et al, 2009 …”

Facilitating Neurofeedback in Children with Autism and Intellectual Impairments Using TAGteach

“…NFT research from our laboratory, reviewed in more detail by Pineda et al (2014a), has targeted mu waves by up-training 8-12 Hz rhythms over the central motor strip while inhibiting beta and theta waves (which are associated with general movement and eye blinks, respectively). Results suggest that learning to control mu-related oscillations though NFT can normalize mu suppression during action observation tasks and improve behavior in individuals with ASD and an IQ > 80 (Datko et al 2017;Pineda et al 2008;Pineda et al 2014a;Friedrich et al 2015). Relevant criticisms of these studies have highlighted potential confounds, such as the control of attentional factors, highly localized evidence of the effect NFT on neurophysiology, and the overlap of occipital alpha with the mu frequency band.…”