Neurofeedback for Alzheimer's Disease

The NeuroDevelopment Center is collaborating with The Brown University Department of Psychology in a study of EEG guided brain training or EEG biofeedback as an intervention for Alzheimer's Disease. Dr. Laurence Hirshberg, NeuroDevelopment Center Director, serves as a consultant for the study.

The grant was awarded by The Alzheimer's Association to study principal investgator Dr. Elena Festa Martino. It is a three-year grant to investigate the use of neurofeedback training as a novel behavioral treatment for patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, patients will be provided with real-time feedback on their brainwave activity (measured using electrodes on the scalp) in order to modify those attributes of brain activity that have been found to be disrupted in MCI and AD.

Participants will undergo cognitive assessments both before and after participating in multiple sessions of neurofeedback training. Findings from this project should not only provide information about the potential of this novel intervention to both delay the progressive deterioration and make real improvements in patients' current cognitive functioning, but should also provide a better understanding of the relationship between changes in neurocognitive function and the underlying brain activity associated with aging and the progression from MCI to AD.

Both healthy elderly individuals and patients diagnosed with either MCI or early-stage AD (between the ages of 55 and 80) are needed for this study. Participants will be compensated for their time. For more information, please contact Dr. Festa Martino in the Memory Lab at the Department of Psychology, Brown University, by email memory_lab@brown.edu or by phone at 401-863-3347.