Abstract
To estimate the role of biofeedback technology in the optimization of psychomotor reactivity, 29 healthy young (aged 22.3 ± 1.5 years) musical performers were examined. On the first day of the study, they followed instructions for the voluntary control of finger motor comfort when performing musical passages for the right hand during standard performance practice without an adaptive feedback. On the second day, biofeedback was used, the muscle tone and EEG α-rhythm power being voluntarily controlled. Eventually, a biofeedback method was developed that simultaneously stimulated the activity of the EEG α rhythm and decreased the tone of the muscles not involved in the playing movement. This improved the performance in 75.8% of musicians (versus 13.8% using commonly practiced methods). The changes in the EEG parameters after effective biofeedback training were the same as in the case of successful traditional performance practice: an increase in the frequency, width, and power of the α activity and a decrease in the powers of the θ and β rhythms. The biofeedback method developed in this study can be recommended as an approach to the formation of the skills necessary for voluntarily controlling psychomotor reactivity and has prognostic implications for improving performance skills.
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Original Russian Text © O.M. Bazanova, M.B. Shtark, 2007, published in Fiziologiya Cheloveka, 2007, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 24–32.
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Bazanova, O.M., Shtark, M.B. Biofeedback in optimizing psychomotor reactivity: I. Comparison of biofeedback and common performance practice. Hum Physiol 33, 400–408 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119707040044
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119707040044