ENHANCED NEUROFEEDBACK CONTENT TO IMPROVE THE TRAINING EFFICACY FOR STRESS MITIGATION

Neurofeedback training has been used for several psychological and physiological applications. The efficacy of neurofeedback training depends on a number of factors.
One such factor is the neurofeedback stimulus content, which directly implies the efficacy of neurofeedback and is considered challenging in clinical practice. This study investigates the effects of stimulus content selection and enhancement of the content to improve the training efficacy for stress mitigation. The research design is divided into
two phases: selecting suitable stimulus content among audio, video and games for stress mitigation and development of enhanced neurofeedback content for improved efficacy
in terms of stress mitigation performance and reduction in training time. A sample of thirty healthy adults (mean age: 23.89 ± 3.52) was recruited and divided among nonstress,
group1 (stress), and group2 (stress). Group1 performed neurofeedback training in phase1 and phase2, while group2 participated only in phase2 for stress mitigation. The efficacy of the stimulus contents was measured and verified by statistically comparing the quantitative electroencephalogram features such as alpha power and alpha asymmetry. Participant feedback was also recorded after every session of
neurofeedback.