Understanding Alpha waves in the brain part1(Neuroscience)
Basics of Alpha waves
- Alpha-wave frequency characteristics in health and insomnia during sleep(PubMed)
Author : Justus T C Schwabedal 1, Maik Riedl 2, Thomas Penzel 3, Niels Wessel 2
Abstract : Appearances of alpha waves in the sleep electrencephalogram indicate physiological, brief states of awakening that lie in between wakefulness and sleep. These microstates may also cause the loss in sleep quality experienced by individuals suffering from insomnia. To distinguish such pathological awakenings from physiological ones, differences in alpha-wave characteristics between transient awakening and wakefulness observed before the onset of sleep were studied. In polysomnographic datasets of sleep-healthy participants (n = 18) and patients with insomnia (n = 10), alpha waves were extracted from the relaxed, wake state before sleep onset, wake after sleep-onset periods and arousals of sleep. In these, alpha frequency and variability were determined as the median and standard deviation of inverse peak-to-peak intervals. Before sleep onset, patients with insomnia showed a decreased alpha variability compared with healthy participants (P < 0.05). After sleep onset, both groups showed patterns of decreased alpha frequency that was lower for wake after sleep-onset periods of shorter duration. For patients with insomnia, alpha variability increased for short wake after sleep-onset periods. Major differences between the two groups were encountered during arousal. In particular, the alpha frequency in patients with insomnia rebounded to wake levels, while the frequency in healthy participants remained at the reduced level of short wake after sleep-onset periods. Reductions in alpha frequency during wake after sleep-onset periods may be related to the microstate between sleep and wakefulness that was described for such brief awakenings. Reduced alpha variability before sleep may indicate a dysfunction of the alpha generation mechanism in insomnia. Alpha characteristics may also prove valuable in the study of other sleep and attention disorders.
2. New treatment strategy for chronic low back pain with alpha wave neurofeedback
(PubMed)
Author : eisuke Shimizu 1, Kazuhide Inage 2, Mitsuo Morita 3, Ryota Kuroiwa 3, Hiroto Chikubu 4, Tadashi Hasegawa 5, Natsuko Nozaki-Taguchi 4, Sumihisa Orita 2 6, Yasuhiro Shiga 2, Yawara Eguchi 2, Kazuhiko Takabatake 7, Seiji Ohtori 2
Abstract : The lifetime prevalence of low back pain is 83%. Since there is a lack of evidence for therapeutic effect by cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or physical therapy (PT), it is necessary to develop objective physiological indexes and effective treatments. We conducted a prospective longitudinal study to evaluate the treatment effects of CBT, PT, and neurofeedback training (NFT) during alpha wave NFT. The early-chronic cases within 1 year and late-chronic cases over 1 year after the diagnosis of chronic low back pain were classified into six groups: Controls, CBTs, PTs, NFTs, CBT-NFTs, PT-NFTs. We evaluated the difference in EEG, psychosocial factors, scores of low back pain before/after the intervention. Therapeutic effect was clearly more effective in the early-chronic cases. We found that the intensity of alpha waves increased significantly after therapeutic intervention in the NFT groups, but did not have the main effect of reducing low back pain; the interaction between CBT and NFT reduced low back pain. Factors that enhance therapeutic effect are early intervention, increased alpha waves, and self-efficacy due to parallel implementation of CBT/PT and NFT. A treatment protocol in which alpha wave neurofeedback training is subsidiarily used with CBT or PT should be developed in the futur
