1975 Volume 3 Pages 44-46
From our studies of the modification of skin temperature, EMG, heart rate, blood pressure and body movement by biofeedback procedures, two main conclusions may be made at present. One of these is concerned with the laws governing biofeedback and the other with their clinical applications. Whether or not both somatic and cognitive mediators are necessary in learning control is a problem still unsolved, but we consider it almost impossible to draw a firm conclusion in the case of human subjects. Desirable reinforcers seem to be related to what is internally induced rather than what is administered from outside. Examples are curiosity or a satisfaction to have control over one's involuntary processes. We have been treating psychosomatic patients by psychotherapy and it is our opinion that psychotherapy and biofeedback training have common features. That is, psychotherapy is a way to learn a new mode of adaptation by developing awareness or insight into one's own behavior, while biofeedback enables one to modify and control what were once considered involuntary and automatic functions by teaching specific physiological processes with more refined techniques.