Bidirectional EEG Neurofeedback of Sensorimotor Beta Oscillations Reveals Asymmetric Modulation and Strategy-Dependent Learning.

Published September 10, 2026. Most participants could briefly reduce the targeted beta activity, offering a useful starting point for refining training. This did not establish lasting brain change, better movement or benefit for Parkinson's disease.

Anil K, Hall S, Freeman JA, Marsden J, Ganis G.
The European journal of neuroscience · Publication date: 2026-09-10
Added to site: 2026-10-14
DOI: 10.1111/ejn.70681

First published online September 10, 2026, verified in publisher JATS. The index's September 1 date reflects issue-month precision, not the online day. Historical addition to Neurofeedback.com October 14, 2026.

Modalities

Neurofeedback, EEG

Clinical focus

Sensorimotor beta, Learning, Protocol development

Population

Healthy right-handed adults aged 20–66; no Parkinson's treatment cohort

Sample

17 recruited; 15 analyzed (nine women, six men). One withdrew and one had unusable movement-contaminated data.

Intervention / method

Real and sham visits on separate days within one week. Individualized beta feedback from C3-Cz controlled a visual bar; both increase and decrease directions were trained.

Comparator

Replayed calibration EEG sham feedback; each participant completed both conditions

Clinician summary

Thirteen of 15 met the study's 60% directional-accuracy criterion for downregulation, three for upregulation and two for both. Real feedback outperformed sham in the sham-first sequence (p<0.001), but not the real-first sequence (p=0.233). Performance depended on direction, strategy and order; transient control did not accumulate into sustained session-level change.

How to interpret the findings

Small convenience sample; no prospective power calculation, clinical outcome or long-term follow-up. Carryover complicates the crossover comparison. All participants reported fatigue. The full text inconsistently describes five- versus six-minute blocks and formats fractional accuracy values as percentages; those values are not reproduced here. No comprehensive adverse-event assessment was identified.

Equipment and disclosures

32-channel actiCHamp Plus recording system and custom MATLAB feedback processing; not BrainMaster equipment.

Authors declared no conflicts. No dedicated funding statement was identified; recruitment was constrained by lack of participant-reimbursement funding. No correction, retraction or concern notice appeared in the checked index record or retained full text. AI-assisted source review, not independent human clinical review.

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