Understanding Neurofeedback: From Laboratory Discovery to Real-World Brain Training
For a comprehensive technical breakdown of SMR neurofeedback, including mechanisms and research, see: SMR Neurofeedback: The Calm-Alert Brainwave That Trains Sleep, Focus, and Self-Control. This article focuses on the practical experience and broader context of how neurofeedback actually works.
The most common question I get about neurofeedback isn't whether it works—the evidence is solid. It's "What does it actually feel like?" People struggle to understand how you can train something you can't consciously feel. Let me walk you through the fascinating story of how we discovered this and what the experience looks like.
The Accidental Discovery That Changed Everything
Neurofeedback was discovered by complete accident in the late 1960s by Dr. Barry Sterman at UCLA. NASA had asked him to study the toxicity of rocket fuel vapors—specifically methyl hydrazine—because astronauts were getting sick from exposure. The research protocol was straightforward: expose cats to increasing amounts of vapor and document symptoms.
Most cats followed a predictable dose-response curve. Minutes of exposure led to vocalizations, panting, drooling, unsteady gait, seizures, coma, then death. Twenty-four of the thirty-two cats behaved exactly as expected.
But eight cats were different. They were "super cats"—completely resistant to seizures even at doses that incapacitated the others. At 40-50 minutes of exposure, when other cats were showing serious neurological problems, these eight remained stable for over two hours.
Sterman couldn't figure out why until he remembered: six months earlier, these same cats had participated in an unrelated experiment. He had trained them to increase a specific brainwave called SMR (sensorimotor rhythm, 12-15 Hz) by rewarding them with chicken broth whenever the brainwave increased.
It turns out this brainwave makes your brain resistant to destabilization. The cats had accidentally been "vaccinated" against seizures through brainwave training.
From Cats to Humans: The First Clinical Success
Sterman's lab manager was an uncontrolled epileptic on heavy medication but still having frequent seizures. They built her an auditory feedback system that beeped whenever her SMR increased. Over several months of training, she was able to go off all medications and remained seizure-free for over a year.
This was the birth of clinical neurofeedback.
What SMR Actually Represents: The Cat on the Windowsill
To understand what we're training, picture a cat lying on a windowsill watching a bird outside. The cat's body is completely still—liquid stillness—but its mind is laser-focused. Maybe the tail twitches slightly, but the body remains motionless because you can leap into action much better from relaxation than from tension.
This mixed state of physical stillness and mental focus is a high SMR state. Most mammals produce SMR as a way to inhibit unnecessary movement and maintain attention. If you have poor SMR tone, your brain tends toward instability—seizures in extreme cases, but more commonly distractibility and hyperactivity.
The cat on the windowsill represents the literal opposite of ADHD. High SMR with low theta (4-7 Hz) is the anti-ADHD state. When this reverses—high theta (like "air in the brake lines") and low SMR—you get the classic picture: high movement, high distractibility, reactive to every external stimulus, poor goal focus.
How the Training Actually Works
Here's what a typical SMR neurofeedback session looks like:
We place an electrode over the sensorimotor area of your brain (usually C4, right hemisphere) and measure two things in real-time: SMR (12-15 Hz) and theta (4-7 Hz). These measurements feed into software that creates a simple computer game—maybe Pac-Man, a puzzle, or a spaceship.
Here's the key: the game only moves when your brain moves in the desired direction. When your SMR happens to increase and your theta happens to decrease, the software rewards your brain with visual and auditory feedback. Pac-Man eats dots, puzzle pieces fill in, the spaceship flies smoothly.
A few seconds later, your brainwaves shift in the wrong direction—SMR drops, theta increases. The game immediately stalls. Pac-Man stops, the beeps disappear, the spaceship struggles.
Your brain notices: "Hey, I was getting information. I liked that information. Where did it go?"
Then your brainwaves happen to move in the right direction again, and the feedback resumes. "Good job, brain. Good job. Nope. Good job, good job, good job. Nope."
The Mysterious Nature of the Training
The crucial element is that your conscious mind cannot feel its own brainwaves. This is why neurofeedback is so mysterious and why many people struggle to understand how it works.
If you moved your arm and a game responded, you'd quickly figure out the connection. But when a game responds to your theta or SMR changes, your conscious mind has no direct access to that information. Your brain treats the feedback like any other environmental stimulus—like learning to play a musical instrument or drive a car.
We also continuously adjust the thresholds throughout the session. Every few seconds, we "move the goalposts" so your brain gets rewarded for trends and improvements rather than absolute levels. Over a 30-minute session, your brain receives thousands of tiny pieces of feedback about its electrical activity.
What the Experience Feels Like
Most people describe neurofeedback sessions as relaxing and mildly engaging. You sit comfortably watching a simple computer display while your brain does the work unconsciously. There's no effort required—in fact, trying too hard often interferes with the process.
The real magic happens between sessions. Usually after 3-4 training sessions, your brain begins reaching for the trained state spontaneously. People report:
- "I asked my kid to take out the trash and they just did it—no argument"
- "I felt calm but alert at the same time"
- "I could focus but also felt relaxed"
- "My sleep improved and I felt less reactive"
These changes emerge naturally as your brain learns to produce the trained patterns more consistently.
The Operant Conditioning Connection
Neurofeedback uses operant conditioning—the same learning principles B.F. Skinner demonstrated with pigeons. But instead of shaping behavior, we're shaping brainwave patterns.
This isn't Pavlov's classical conditioning (I promise I won't make you drool). We're not creating automatic responses to stimuli. Instead, we're taking brainwave patterns that already exist and gradually shaping them toward more optimal ranges through positive reinforcement.
Your brain naturally produces SMR and theta throughout the day. We're simply providing information about these patterns so your brain can learn to optimize them.
The Individualized Approach
Effective neurofeedback requires individualization. After an initial assessment, we select specific protocols based on your brain's patterns and your goals. We might use different electrode locations, frequency bands, or training approaches.
The process becomes like personal training for your brain:
- Assess current patterns
- Set specific goals
- Start with gentle protocols
- Monitor subjective responses
- Adjust based on results
- Build gradually toward stability
If you report being "charged up and focused but unable to sleep," we might adjust the protocol. If you feel great the next day—focused and able to sleep—that becomes your workout protocol.
Beyond ADHD: Broader Applications
While SMR training was initially developed for seizures and later applied to ADHD, the applications have expanded significantly. The calm-alert state it promotes benefits anyone who needs better executive function, emotional regulation, or stress management.
The training builds what we call "inhibitory tone"—your brain's ability to inhibit irrelevant information and maintain focus on goals. This capacity underlies everything from academic performance to emotional stability.
The Bottom Line
Neurofeedback works through involuntary learning. Your brain optimizes its electrical patterns to receive rewarding feedback, but your conscious mind remains unaware of the specific mechanism. The result is gradual, natural improvement in the cognitive and emotional capacities supported by the trained brainwave patterns.
It's not magic—it's applied neuroscience using your brain's natural learning capacity. The mysterious part is simply that consciousness doesn't have direct access to its own electrical activity. But your brain as a whole system can learn to optimize these patterns when given appropriate information.
The cat on the windowsill achieved that perfect calm-alert state naturally. Neurofeedback gives human brains the same opportunity through structured, individualized training.
For detailed information about SMR mechanisms, research evidence, and clinical protocols, see the full technical article: SMR Neurofeedback: The Calm-Alert Brainwave That Trains Sleep, Focus, and Self-Control.