2012 Volume 39 Issue 1 Pages 32-38
The biofeedback is to enable to control the responses of autonomic nerve system that are generally unconscious by making conscious through engineering approach. The study of biofeedback has been expanding from the study of a physiologist in U.S. who is interested in a yogi in India controlling his heart rate, and has been producing many successful results. But, its scope of application seems still limited. Meanwhile, the Mindfulness including MBSR (Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction) is largely drawing attention as stress reduction techniques although oriental yoga is persisting without essential change until recent years. In this article, we argue the relation between feedback through MBSR and biofeedback. In the behavioral psychology field, the behavior is divided into two categories: respondent reactions that are controllable by one's will and operant reactions that are uncontrollable by one's will. It is considered that the behavior can't be changed by one's will in respondent reactions because it is unconscious of the feedback, but biofeedback enables to become conscious of the feedback in respondent reactions. In the MBSR field, the oriental yoga methods including Zen and yoga etc. are adopted, and it enables self-control by monitoring not only body response and behavior but also thinking and emotion. This may be named "the resperant reactions" (HARUKI, 2011). It is considered that the recent ongoing survey of effects and mechanisms of MBSR will be contributing to explore the new side of the biofeedback knowledge in the same way with the research of yogi brought in the beginning and developing of the biofeedback.
