An Enhancement of Frontal EEG-alpha

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of frontal alpha enhancement in relaxation and meditation training. Alpha training at the frontal site is not the same physiologically or psychologically as the much studied training at the occipital site. Differences include 1) higher artifact, such as EMG activity of forehead muscles or EOG by eye movement, 2) very low amplitude of alpha waves unless the subject is in an extremely calm state of mind. For these reasons, the instrumentation and training methodology were modified from conventional systems. It was found that the participants were able to listen to music through the feedback systems and alpha feedback was accomplished by amplitude modulated music that is presented at the occurrence or disappearance of alpha. Twenty-six subjects were selected from volunteers who never had any experience of relaxation training. The results showed that the frontal EEG alpha was enhanced through this feedback training and can be voluntary controled. Aids such as BGM or Autogenic Training were very helpfull to accelerate the improvement of frontal alpha enphancement trainig.