The Effect of Neurofeedback on Epilepsy: The history of neurofeedback is a perfect example of discovering something unique while scientifically researching something else.

Professor Dr. Sterman was asked by NASA to investigate how hydrazine (fuel used in rockets and space shuttles) could induce epileptic seizures. Professor Dr. Sterman tested hydrazine on cats and found that one group of cats did not experience seizures.

In the late 1960s, as part of research conducted in Sterman's laboratory, cats were taught to increase their SMR (12 to 15 Hz). These cats were the same ones that had previously had their SMR brainwaves increased in the UCLA laboratory. Later research showed that SMR enhancement applied to cats could also be applied to humans. Sterman named this wave the sensorimotor rhythm, or SMR, because it was measured in the sensorimotor strip of the brain, the part that connects one ear to the other, and it was determined that these waves reflect both sensory and motor activity.

People with epilepsy were taught to increase their SMR waves, and their seizures decreased.

 

Experiments conducted in the early 1970s showed that in cases exhibiting hyperactivity and restlessness along with epilepsy, increasing the SMR wave reduced these symptoms. The first scientific article on this subject was published in 1972.

This article presented a 23-year-old woman who had been experiencing generalized tonic-clonic seizures for seven years for an unknown cause. There was no family history of epilepsy, and two major centers had been unable to pinpoint the location of the lesion. EEG detected wave activity slowed by 5-7 Hz due to hyperventilation. Despite not responding to any medication so far, she was taking 200 mg of Dilantin and 200 mg of Mebarol daily.

 

During her daytime seizures, the patient exhibited left lateral deviation of the eyes, forehead wrinkling, lowering her right arm towards her left knee, falling to her left side in an unconscious state, and exhibiting tonic-clonic movements. These events mostly occurred in the very early morning hours. Records from years ago also revealed that this patient experienced two major seizures each month that were not related to her menstrual cycle.

Three months of neurofeedback training twice a week, increasing the SMR wave, resulted in the cessation of her seizures. A decrease in the slow wave (theta) (5-7) and an increase in the SMR wave (11-15) were observed. At the end of her treatment, this patient was no longer taking medication and her seizures had stopped.

Subsequent studies have shown that patients with drug-dependent epilepsy benefit from this brain training by increasing their SMR.