John S. Anderson on Brain Flexibility, Resilience, and Choice as Goals for Neurofeedback

Addressing Parental Concerns About Change

When I was working at New Visions School, providing neurofeedback training to children in kindergarten through 8th grade, parents would often come in to ask about their child. They were curious about what we were doing, what the child was doing, and how this might help with learning issues.

One common concern was whether we would change their child. Parents often said their child was sweet, kind, artistic, creative, spontaneous, and many other positive qualities, and they were concerned that our efforts to make the child a better student would erode those qualities.

My response to those parents and to similar questions from adult clients, students, and others is that we are training flexibility, resilience, and choice—skills that would benefit the child in anything they want to do.

The training doesn't eliminate existing skills and doesn't appear to alter basic personality characteristics, except possibly boosting self-esteem as the client masters new skills.

So, what are these skills and why are they important?

Flexibility: The Ability to Shift States

Flexibility is the ability to shift states quickly, fluidly, and with control. Whether doing math, engaging in sports, or playing a musical instrument, the ability to shift into the appropriate state is essential. A task may require focused attention, relaxed attention, or other states of attention, alertness, calm, or relaxation.

Focused attention can be helpful for short periods of intense focus but may deplete resources if maintained for too long.

Relaxed attention may be particularly helpful in a learning environment, where a relaxed body and an attentive mind allow the student to absorb information without expending much energy or resources.

Flexibility in Musical Performance

Making music, particularly with a group of other musicians and especially when improvisation is involved, requires a great deal of flexibility and mastery of one's instrument. Mastery often results from focused attention, practice, repetition, and consistency.

Once mastery is achieved, a degree of attention is still required, but a relaxed flexibility is also important.

This is true even in the most structured classical music, where mastery can translate into the ability to relax and express emotion through the music.

John Gruzelier (2008) reported on a series of research projects assessing the effects of alpha-theta neurofeedback training on musical and dance performance and on social anxiety. In optimal performance studies, Gruzelier and associates confirmed associations with improved creativity in musical performance and dance, as well as positive effects on technique and communication.

Neural Correlates of Flexibility

Schubert and colleagues (2025) showed that stronger mid-frontal theta connectivity is associated with greater cognitive control abilities in tasks that require greater flexibility.

Sterman and Enger (2006) described the appearance of theta-frequency post-reinforcement synchronization (PRS) following successful skill acquisition, particularly after reinforcement of a 12-15 Hz sensory-motor rhythm (SMR) during neurofeedback training. Other authors have reported similar findings in both animals and humans (Marczynski, Harris, & Livezey, 1981; Sterman, 2005; Sterman, Kaiser, & Veigel, 1996).

Sterman associated this PRS behavior with a reduction in arousal associated with successful learning. This highlights the functional correlation between engaging in a focused task and then a relaxation period, suggesting that such flexibility is associated with skill learning.

Thus, training clients to comfortably shift between states of focused alertness and calm relaxation is essential as a flexible approach to learning.

My response to parents was that we were in part training flexibility rather than a steady, static state.

This is similar to what is seen during heart rate variability training: a steady, static heart rate is not a sign of health; rather, greater variability is desirable.

Cyclic Brain Network Activation

This concept of flexibility is clearly demonstrated in a recent study by van Es and colleagues (2025), which shows the recurring cyclic nature of functional brain network activation, with individual networks activating in a sequence that repeats at 300 to 1000 ms intervals.

This constant cycling of brain networks appears to facilitate the most flexible response environment, allowing each network to activate more fully anytime it is called upon, because at any moment, it is only milliseconds away from its "turn" in the cycle.

Flexibility is clearly an important function of brain activity, enabling improved learning and the ability to shift between states as needed.

Resilience: Maintaining and Recovering Desired States

The second requirement is resilience. Resilience is the capacity to maintain a desired state or return to it when disrupted.

Individuals who have difficulty with attentional regulation may be easily distracted and have difficulty returning their attention to the task at hand. Others may find it easy to attend to tasks they like but difficult to attend to less desirable tasks, such as repetitive learning assignments, reading a text in a boring subject, or listening to an uninspiring lecture.

The ability to maintain attention at an age-appropriate level is an important skill throughout life. Practice with neurofeedback appears to facilitate the various facets of attention.

Components of Attention

Posner and Petersen (2012) conceptualized attention as involving executive function, spatial orientation, and arousal. Executive function identifies goals and refreshes these as the task continues. Executive function also restricts attention to limit distraction. Spatial orientation is engaged if there is an external focus, such as a physical element related to a task.

Arousal involves maintaining a level of physiological energy and alertness necessary to complete the task and overcome potential fatigue. However, we are not born with the ability to achieve sustained attention. Instead, extensive practice and experience are required to fully develop this skill.

Research Evidence for Neurofeedback and Attention

A meta-analysis of 15 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effects of neurofeedback training on attention, conducted by Kimura and colleagues (2023), found that neurofeedback significantly improved attentional performance in adults. The types of neurofeedback training used were discussed, and the analysis indicated that the protocol type did not reliably predict improvement.

This latter finding suggests that neurofeedback training itself (i.e., the process of providing brain activity information directly to the individual) is the source of the effect, rather than the specific protocol.

It may be that marshaling the attentional resources to engage with one's own brain activity through feedback facilitates improvement in the skill of voluntary attention. This concept fits within an exercise model of neural training. Exercising the capacity to control and regulate the training signal while receiving immediate feedback about the level of success of the endeavor may be the salient feature of the process, regardless of the training frequency or frequencies, sensor location, or other factors.

This is an interesting possibility because many in the field of neurofeedback have become strongly attached to specific approaches, claiming they are optimal and should be implemented to the exclusion of others. When many schools of neurofeedback thought arrive at such a conclusion, it suggests that they are all correct—that their approach is effective, just not likely to be the only one with this result.

Choice: Selecting One's Desired State

So, neurofeedback appears to effectively improve both flexibility and resilience, but does it also help improve choice?

Choice, in neurophysiological terms, refers to an individual's ability to select their desired state. In an anxious person, this may involve being able to choose to reach a calm, relaxed state with little or no anxiety. For an individual with depressive episodes, this may mean the ability to shift to a state of attentive engagement, participation in meaningful life tasks, and a sense of enjoyment. For an individual with an addiction disorder, choice may mean the ability to make ongoing, day-by-day choices to participate in life in ways that do not involve alcohol or other drugs, to find happiness in sobriety.

Neurofeedback and Addiction Recovery

The role of neurofeedback in choice is more difficult to demonstrate. Several seminal studies with individuals with a history of addiction have demonstrated significant improvements in the quality and duration of sobriety in neurofeedback training groups when compared to controls (Burkett et al., 2005; Dehghani-Arani et al., 2013; Peniston & Kulkowski, 1989, 1990, 1991; Scott & Kaiser, 2005).

The ability to choose sobriety is implied in the outcomes reported, though this isn't explicitly stated. Sobriety involves a complex constellation of choices that must occur on a day-to-day basis, not least of which is to refrain from using the drug of choice.

In addition, recovering people must confront the life effects of what has often involved years or decades of addiction, including loss of family and other relationships, jobs, financial stability, health, and more. To successfully navigate all these choices and maintain sobriety is a daunting task, and if neurofeedback can help facilitate that task, then it has demonstrated its usefulness in promoting choice.

Deep States Training: Integrating All Three Skills

Another example of flexibility, resilience, and choice occurs during what is often called deep states training. This type of training is usually focused on encouraging a shift in EEG frequencies toward the middle of the alpha-to-theta range, specifically the 6-9 Hz frequency band, with a center frequency of approximately 7.8 Hz.

Historical Development of Alpha-Theta Training

The alpha-theta protocol, first described by Peniston (1989) and explored in various approaches prior to that by Elmer and Alyce Green (Parks et al., 2020), Barbara Brown (Hollandsworth, 1986), Joe Kamiya (Kerson et al., 2020), and others, appears to facilitate a transition to a state of relaxed, calm introspection. Individuals who undergo this training often report emotional resolution, healing imagery, and other meaningful experiences.

The Challenge of Maintaining Deep States

Such a state requires the client to let go of external perception and active task-oriented thinking and shift into a state that is similar to a light sleep state, typified by a decrease in alpha frequency amplitude and an increase in the desired 6-9 Hz frequency band, often with a spectral peak frequency of 7.8 Hz (see spectral display example below).

Clients often train for periods of 20 to 45 minutes, so a significant challenge is maintaining the state without shifting back into active alertness or transitioning into actual sleep. Thus, this training requires the flexibility to allow the 7.8 Hz frequency to become dominant, the resilience to maintain that state and/or to return to it if disrupted, and the ability to choose that state rather than allow distractions to interfere.

The image above shows a time point at approximately 32 minutes into the training session. Audio rewards encouraged increases in 6-9 Hz activity associated with calm internal awareness, and reductions in 2-6 Hz and 13-36 Hz to inhibit sleep and reward a decrease or elimination of cognitive activity. Note the peak at approximately 7.8 Hz. The x-axis shows frequency, the y-axis shows amplitude, and the z-axis shows time.

The Universal Value of Immediate Feedback

The principles of all types of training typically encourage aspects of these three characteristics. Neurofeedback and other biofeedback approaches benefit from the immediacy of their feedback. Trainees experience an internal event and quickly see or hear information that defines it as either movement toward the goal, reinforcement for maintaining the goal, or an indication of undesirable behaviors. Thus, the trainee can learn specific control and maintenance tasks more quickly and, with repetition, develop mastery that allows relatively automatic deployment of that skill when needed.

The skills of flexibility, resilience, and choice are universally applicable and will serve the client throughout their life.

Key Takeaways

1. Neurofeedback training develops flexibility, resilience, and choice—skills that enhance any endeavor without altering personality or eliminating existing strengths.

   
   

2. Flexibility, the ability to shift fluidly between states like focused alertness and calm relaxation, mirrors the brain's natural cyclic activation of networks every 300-1000 milliseconds.

   
   

3. Resilience enables individuals to maintain attention or return to a desired state when disrupted, and research shows that neurofeedback improves attentional performance regardless of the specific protocol used.

   
   

4. Choice refers to the capacity to select one's own mental state, as demonstrated in addiction recovery studies where neurofeedback helped individuals sustain sobriety over time.

   
   

5. The immediacy of biofeedback accelerates skill acquisition by providing real-time information about internal states, allowing trainees to develop mastery that becomes automatic when needed.

   
   

Glossary

alpha-theta protocol: a neurofeedback training approach that encourages a shift in EEG frequencies toward the 6-9 Hz range, facilitating relaxed, calm introspection; first formally described by Peniston (1989) and explored earlier by researchers including Elmer and Alyce Green, Barbara Brown, and Joe Kamiya.

arousal: a component of attention involving the maintenance of physiological energy and alertness necessary to complete a task and overcome potential fatigue.

BCIA (Biofeedback Certification International Alliance): the professional credentialing organization for biofeedback practitioners.

choice: in neurophysiological terms, an individual's ability to select their desired state, such as choosing calm over anxiety or sobriety over substance use.

cognitive control: the mental processes that enable flexible, goal-directed behavior, associated with stronger mid-frontal theta connectivity.

deep states training: a type of neurofeedback training focused on encouraging EEG frequencies in the 6-9 Hz band, typically with a center frequency of approximately 7.8 Hz, to facilitate calm internal awareness.

EEG (electroencephalography): a method of recording electrical activity of the brain, used in neurofeedback to provide real-time feedback about brain states.

executive function: a component of attention that identifies goals, refreshes them as a task continues, and restricts attention to limit distraction.

flexibility: the ability to shift states quickly, fluidly, and with control; an essential skill for adapting to varying task demands.

focused attention: a state of intense concentration helpful for short periods but potentially depleting if maintained too long.

heart rate variability (HRV): the variation in time intervals between heartbeats; greater variability is generally associated with better health and adaptability.

neurofeedback: a type of biofeedback that provides real-time information about brain electrical activity directly to the individual, enabling them to learn voluntary control over brain states.

post-reinforcement synchronization (PRS): theta-frequency brain activity that appears following successful skill acquisition, particularly after SMR neurofeedback training; associated with reduced arousal following successful learning.

relaxed attention: a state characterized by a relaxed body and attentive mind, allowing efficient absorption of information without excessive energy expenditure.

resilience: the capacity to maintain a desired state or return to it when disrupted.

sensory-motor rhythm (SMR): brain activity in the 12-15 Hz frequency range recorded over the sensorimotor cortex; often targeted in neurofeedback training protocols.

spatial orientation: a component of attention engaged when there is an external focus, such as a physical element related to a task.

spectral peak frequency: the frequency at which EEG amplitude is highest within a given frequency band; in deep states training, often approximately 7.8 Hz.

References

Dehghani-Arani, F., Rostami, R., & Nadali, H. (2013). Neurofeedback training for opiate addiction: Improvement of mental health and craving. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 38(2), 133–141. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-013-9218-5

Gruzelier, J. H. (2009). A theory of alpha/theta neurofeedback, creative performance enhancement, long distance functional connectivity and psychological integration. Cognitive Processing, 10(Suppl 1), 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-008-0248-5

Hollandsworth, J. G. (1986). Physiology and behavior therapy: Conceptual guidelines for the clinician. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7023-9

Kerson, C., Collura, T., & Kamiya, J. (2020). Joe Kamiya: Thinking inside the box. B-MED Press.

Kimura, I., Noyama, H., Onagawa, R., Takemi, M., Osu, R., & Kawahara, J. (2024). Efficacy of neurofeedback training for improving attentional performance in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Imaging Neuroscience, 2, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1162/imag_a_00053

Marczynski, T. J., Harris, C. M., & Livezey, G. T. (1981). The magnitude of post-reinforcement EEG synchronization (PRS) in cats reflects learning ability. Brain Research, 204(1), 214–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(81)90667-3

Parks, P. A., Nichols, J., & Parks, S. B. (2020). Contributions of Elmer and Alyce Green to neurofeedback and the science of consciousness. In J. R. Evans, M. B. Dellinger, & H. L. Russell (Eds.), Neurofeedback: The first fifty years (pp. 169–182). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-817659-0.00017-7

Petersen, S. E., & Posner, M. I. (2012). The attention system of the human brain: 20 years after. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 35, 73–89. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-062111-150525

Schubert, A.-L., Löffler, C., Jungeblut, H. M., & Hülsemann, M. J. (2025). Trait characteristics of midfrontal theta connectivity as a neurocognitive measure of cognitive control and its relation to general cognitive abilities. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 154(12), 2201–2219. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001780

Sterman, M. B., & Egner, T. (2006). Foundation and practice of neurofeedback for the treatment of epilepsy. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 31(1), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-006-9002-x

Sterman, M. B., Kaiser, D. A., & Veigel, B. (1996). Spectral analysis of event-related EEG responses during short-term memory performance. Brain Topography, 9(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01191639

van Es, M. W. J., Higgins, C., Gohil, C., Quinn, A. J., Vidaurre, D., & Woolrich, M. W. (2025). Large-scale cortical functional networks are organized in structured cycles. Nature Neuroscience, 28(10), 2118–2128. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-02052-8

About the Author

John S. Anderson, MA, LADC, BCB, BCN, QEEGD, is a veteran neurofeedback practitioner and educator with over five decades of experience in biofeedback and neurofeedback, beginning his work in 1974. He holds a master's degree in psychology and is certified by the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA) and the International QEEG Certification Board. As the founder of the Minnesota Neuro-Training Institute, Anderson provides clinical services, mentorship, and professional training in neurotherapy. His clientele includes individuals with ADHD, learning disorders, chronic pain, and addiction. He is also a recognized instructor, offering BCIA-approved courses and QEEG certification programs, and contributes to educational initiatives such as Biosource Software's "Seminars Without Borders." Anderson integrates holistic healing practices with contemporary neurophysiological research to develop effective neurofeedback protocols.

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