The Effect of Alpha Neurofeedback Training with Auditory Feedback on Cognitive Control in Healthy Young Adults: How the Neurological Effects Vary by Stroop Task Difficulty

Background: Cognitive control is the ability to adapt to varying cognitive demands. Alpha neurofeedback (α-NFB) training is reported to affect neural activity, but little is known about whether neurophysiological responses to auditory α-NFB differ across cognitive tasks with different cognitive load. This exploratory pilot study examined the neurophysiological effects of a single session of auditory α-NFB during cognitive tasks with different cognitive loads. Method: Fifteen healthy young adults participated in the study. Participants completed Tasks 1 and 3 of the New Stroop Test I before and after the intervention. Neural oscillations and task-performance measures were assessed before and after the intervention. Pre–post changes were compared between the intervention and control groups. Results: For Task 1, the intervention group exhibited a significantly greater pre–post intervention change in the α/β ratio than the control group. However, the increase in alpha oscillatory power did not remain statistically significant after Holm correction for multiple comparisons. For Task 3, no significant between-group differences were observed in any neurophysiological or behavioral measure. Conclusions: These exploratory findings suggest that auditory αNFB may influence neurophysiological responses during Task 1, whereas no significant neurophysiological effects were observed during Task 3. This pattern is consistent with the possibility that neurophysiological responses to auditory αNFB may differ according to cognitive load; however, this interpretation remains preliminary and requires confirmation in larger studies. However, no corresponding differences in task performance were observed, and the findings should be interpreted as preliminary and hypothesis-generating.