Title
No effects of successful bidirectional SMR feedback training on objective and subjective sleep in healthy subjects
Author
Binsch, O.
Wilschut, E.S.
Arns, M.
Bottenheft, C.
Valk, P.J.L.
Vermetten, H.G.J.M.
Publication year
2018
Abstract
There is a growing interest in the application of psychophysiological signals in more applied settings. Unidirectional sensory motor rhythm-training (SMR) has demonstrated consistent effects on sleep. In this study the main aim was to analyze to what extent participants could gain voluntary control over sleep-related parameters and secondarily to assess possible influences of this training on sleep metrics. Bidirectional training of SMR as well as heart rate variability (HRV) was used to assess the feasibility of training these parameters as possible brain computer interfaces (BCI) signals, and assess effects normally associated with unidirectional SMR training such as the influence on objective and subjective sleep parameters. Participants (n = 26) received between 11 and 21 training sessions during 7 weeks in which they received feedback on their personalized threshold for either SMR or HRV activity, for both up- and down regulation. During a pre- and post-test a sleep log was kept and participants used a wrist actigraph. Participants were asked to take an afternoon nap on the first day at the testing facility. During napping, sleep spindles were assessed as well as selfreported sleep measures of the nap. Although the training demonstrated successful learning to increase and decrease SMR and HRV activity, no effects were found of bidirectional training on sleep spindles, actigraphy, sleep diaries, and self-reported sleep quality. As such it is concluded that bidirectional SMR and HRV training can be safely used as a BCI and participants were able to improve their control over physiological signals with bidirectional training, whereas the application of bidirectional SMR and HRV training did not lead to significant changes of sleep quality in this healthy population.
Subject
Human & Operational Modelling
TPI - Training & Performance Innovations PCS - Perceptual and Cognitive Systems
ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
Defence Research
Defence, Safety and Security
Sleep
Military
BCI
Biofeedback
Neurofeedback
Training
Heart rate variability
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:15ad54c1-af1f-414f-a5a1-5495b840e65a
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-017-9384-y
TNO identifier
781680
Source
Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 43 (1), 37-47
Document type
article