Presented by Ania Justo, PhD, MD: Children raised in institutions are considered an extreme example of social deprivation and they have a significantly increased risk of a range of emotional and behavioral disorders (Bos et al., 2011; Hampson et al., 2016). Thus, early life adversity may contribute to appear mental health problems and to shape brain development (Albaek, Kinn, & Milde, 2018; Gillies et al., 2016). Neurofeedback training aims to enhance self-regulation of neural activities (Carrobles, 2016) and this technique is a promising alternative approach to ameliorate trauma symptoms. Due to the variety of clinical manifestations that can appear in this population, the neurofeedback protocol could focus on the alpha, beta, delta, theta, and gamma treatment or a combination of them (Becerra et al., 2006).
A pilot study has been conducted to verify the effectiveness of Neurofeedback treatments in the population of institutionalized children. The goal of this study was to assess the efficacy of personalized NF training (QEEG) in a group of institutionalized children to check the effect on social and behavioral skills, and in their improvement in academic performance. In this workshop, we will analyze the data of the participants, (6 girls and 5 boys with range age between 5-14 years): an initial qEEG (pretreatment), the previous medical record and the neuropsychological assessment. In this context, a neurofeedback treatment proposed in each case. We did 40 NFB sessions (using different protocols according to each children’s electroencephalographic pattern), and we realized the postreatment evaluation with the same instruments than pretreatment (qEEG and neuropsychological test). We found changes in the pre and post treatment qEEG which will be discussed in this workshop. Correspondingly, a reduction in emotional and behavioral alterations was observed. As well as changes in the execution of tasks as an improvement in sustained attention. However, cautious interpretation is warranted due to the small sample.
