Neuroscientists have developed a technique that can alter cognitive and brain function. In other words, it is a technique that can improve brain performance.
Neurofeedback could be a new way to train the brain, because it can significantly change cognitive characteristics. This equates to a breakthrough in neuroscience that could provide long-awaited new treatments for mental disorders and cognitive impairments. And not only. If we are talking about healthy people, then the existing characteristics are improved.
The ATR Brain Analysis Research Laboratory in Kyoto, Japan, found that functional communication in the brain can be altered in both directions using neurofeedback training. Manipulating these brain networks through assistive learning changes cognitive function and brain performance for the better.
The research results are published in Cerebral Cortex. This study builds on previous work by this team of researchers who showed that it is possible to alter neural connections in the brain using what they call "neurofeedback training." In real-time, fMRI was used to monitor functional connectivity between two specific brain regions as study participants performed a simple imaging task.
Contrary to popular belief, dividing or diminishing functional connectivity between brain regions is equally (if not more) more important than simply strengthening neural networks. Trimming connections between brain regions is key to streamlining any type of learning and memory, the researchers say.
From a metaphorical point of view, neural networks can be seen as a path through a forest, and the point is precisely that this path can be influenced. Neuroplasticity can change your thinking or keep you on track. This neural plasticity is the basis for the development of neurofeedback brain training to improve performance by optimizing functionality.
For example, forcing the strengthening of neural networks associated with an optimistic state changes the brain by making it affect emotions, making them positive. The secret to staying positive is learning how to direct and sift thoughts. Every thought that arises in the head should be labeled as positive or negative (on which one should try not to fixate).
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