Neurofeedback through visual, auditory, or tactile sensations improves cognitive functions and alters the activities of daily living. However, some people, such as children and the elderly, have difficulty concentrating on neurofeedback for a long time. Constant stressless neurofeedback for a long time may be achieved with auditory neurofeedback using music. The primary purpose of this study was to clarify whether music-based auditory neurofeedback increases the power of the alpha wave in healthy subjects. During neurofeedback, white noise was superimposed on classical music, with the noise level inversely correlating with normalized alpha wave power. This was a single-blind, randomized control crossover trial in which 10 healthy subjects underwent, in an assigned order, normal and random feedback (NF and RF), either of which was at least 4 weeks long. Cognitive functions were evaluated before, between, and after each neurofeedback period. The secondary purpose was to assess neurofeedback-induced changes in cognitive functions. A crossover analysis showed that normalized alpha-power was significantly higher in NF than in RF; therefore, music-based auditory neurofeedback facilitated alpha wave induction. A composite category-based analysis of cognitive functions revealed greater improvements in short-term memory in subjects whose alpha-power increased in response to NF. The present study employed a long period of auditory alpha neurofeedback and achieved successful alpha wave induction and subsequent improvements in cognitive functions. Although this was a pilot study that validated a music-based alpha neurofeedback system for healthy subjects, the results obtained are encouraging for those with difficulty in concentrating on conventional alpha neurofeedback.

Trial registration: 2018077NI, date of registration: 2018/11/27

通过视觉、听觉或触觉的神经反馈可改善认知功能并改变日常生活活动。然而，有些人，如儿童和老人，很难长时间集中精力进行神经反馈。使用音乐的听觉神经反馈可以实现长时间持续无压力的神经反馈。这项研究的主要目的是阐明基于音乐的听觉神经反馈是否会增加健康受试者的 alpha 波的功率。在神经反馈过程中，白噪声叠加在古典音乐上，噪声水平与归一化的 α 波功率成反比。这是一项单盲、随机对照交叉试验，其中 10 名健康受试者按指定顺序接受正常和随机反馈（NF 和 RF），其中任何一个都至少持续 4 周。在每个神经反馈期之前、之间和之后评估认知功能。次要目的是评估神经反馈引起的认知功能变化。交叉分析表明，NF 的归一化 α 功率显着高于 RF。因此，基于音乐的听觉神经反馈促进了阿尔法波的感应。对认知功能的基于复合类别的分析显示，对于 NF 反应，α-功率增加的受试者的短期记忆有更大的改善。本研究采用了长时间的听觉 α 神经反馈，并成功实现了 α 波诱导和随后的认知功能改善。虽然这是一项试点研究，验证了针对健康受试者的基于音乐的阿尔法神经反馈系统，

试用注册：2018077NI，注册日期：2018/11/27