Biofeedback machine
What does a biofeedback machine do?
During a biofeedback session, a therapist attaches electrical sensors to different parts of your body. These sensors might be used to monitor your brain waves, skin temperature, muscle tension, heart rate and breathing.
Equipment Used for Biofeedback
- Electromyographs (EMG): provides data on muscle tension.
- Feedback thermometers: offers data on skin temperature.
- Electrodermographs (EDG): measures the electrical properties of the skin, which are often linked to the activity of the sweat glands.
Is biofeedback evidence based?
- Research shows that biofeedback, alone and in combination with other behavioural therapies, is effective for treating a variety of medical and psychological disorders, ranging from headache to hypertension to temporo-mandibular to attentional disorders to list a few.
How Does Biofeedback Therapy Work?
Researchers aren’t exactly sure how or why biofeedback works. They do know that biofeedback promotes relaxation, which can help relieve a number of conditions that are related to stress.
During a biofeedback session, electrodes/sensors are attached to your skin. These electrodes/sensors send signals to a monitor, which displays a sound, flash of light, or image that represents your heart and breathing rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, sweating, or muscle activity.
When you’re under stress, these functions change. Your heart rate speeds up, your muscles tighten, your blood pressure rises, you start to sweat, and your breathing quickens. You can see these stress responses as they happen on the monitor, and then get immediate feedback as you try to stop them. Biofeedback sessions are typically done in a therapist’s office, but there are computer programs that connect the biofeedback sensor to your own computer.
A biofeedback therapist helps you practice relaxation exercises, which you fine-tune to control different body functions. For example, you might use a relaxation technique to turn down the brainwaves that activate when you have a headache.
