My current research projects

Neurofeedback is a technique to train voluntary control over aspects of one's own brain activity. Amazingly, training outcomes have proven to be under strong influence of psychosocial effects such as placebo, suggestion, gender stereotypes, and expectations.  There is not much research on this topic beyond the activity of my own lab and this is of great concern, since considerable effort is necessary to establish the clinical efectiveness of neurofeedback. Its clinical usage without clear evidence of its clinical effectiveness is not much different from reliance upon sourcery to solve health problems.

We have dedicated considerable time hitherto to determine who is able to and which are the consequences from learning to regulate the sensorimotor rhythm. We explored effects of age and baseline power, verbal strategies, spirituality, and physical activity, as well as positive and negative cognitive consequences of training. Importantly, we showed that outcomes of SMR training are not easily reducible to placebo, since both effects have opposed consequences for brain activity patterns. One of our current aims is to connect the training mehanisms mobilized during SMR training with more general mechanisms of cognitive control and their neural correlates.