Neurofeedback is a neuromodulation technique based on a brain-computer interface. An individual receives feedback from a computer about their brain activity and is conditioned to improve performance according to a training target. Therefore, it may be used to help individuals who suffer from cognitive decline, which is predicted to occur during aging. Cognitive decline affects working memory, which involves the medial temporal lobe—an important area for temporarily storing information—and recruits the prefrontal cortex, an area associated with higher cognitive functions, such as executive function. Since memory and executive function are fundamental components for every healthy and independent human life, cognitive decline fundamentally impairs a person’s well-being. As such, since the aging population has been increasing at higher rates, methods to enhance their cognitive performance have become increasingly important. These methods may be used to increase brain reserve and help the elderly maintain a socially active life. The purpose of this chapter is to add neurofeedback to the box of promising tools that maintain cognitive reserve and as such promote a healthy and active life.
Part of the book: Neurological and Mental Disorders
Biofeedback is a technique of self-regulation applied by health professionals in order to reshape a series of physiological information based in health parameters diminishing psychopathological symptoms and improving cognitive performance. The biofeedback technique is widely recognized in many countries, leaving no doubt about its effectiveness and applicability. In clinical psychology, biofeedback has been applied effectively to psychophysiological conditions such as anxiety, depression and ADHD. This chapter has the aim to elucidate the techniques applied to clinical settings, where psychophysiological conditions are more prone to be treated with biofeedback. Moreover, this chapter also evaluates the advances of the technique and possible future directions.
Part of the book: Smart Biofeedback
Psychoanalysis rose at the end of the nineteenth century as a possibility of reintegrating the mind and body. This came up as proposing a theory that empirically demonstrates that emotions create symptoms in the body. Psychoanalysis introduces a subject moved by desires, governed by the unconscious. Since then, in a dialectic perspective, search and offer to society a counterpoint view of current thought, offering new insights and reflection, bringing enlightenment of what is obscure in individuals’ internal life. The contemporary psychoanalytic crisis comes from conflict avoidance, not worrying in the integrative view, falling into a trap of “politically correct,” that is, accepting what is advocated, without questioning, not putting on the agenda the obscure side effects in human beings, the Unconscious. Therefore, in a psychoanalytic theoretical perspective, this chapter has the aim to reflect about the psychic suffering inside a body identity, without getting into sociological and anthropological meanings about the shaping of social identity. This study seeks to present the psychic suffering of the unidentified body, which not always will find resolution in an aesthetic procedure that might be belonging to a fantasy and identity recognition.
Part of the book: The Wounds of Our Mother Psychoanalysis