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Public & Media Impact and Presentation
===Cognitive enhancement===
It is deemed that neurofeedback could also improve alertness, meditation practise and lessen anxiety.<refname="TST">REDDY, Jini. The real brain wave. The Sunday Times [online]. 2013, Jan 27. Available online at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-real-brain-wave-qsdf265b00s (Retrieved 4th August, 2017).</ref> This positive impact has not, however, conclusively been proved yet, therefore certain psychologists are more reserved about benefits of neurofeedback.<ref name="Psychology Today">JARRETT, Christian. Read this before paying $100s for neurofeedback therapy. Psychology Today [online]. 2013. Feb 18. Available online at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-myths/201302/read-paying-100s-neurofeedback-therapy-0 (Retrieved 4th August, 2017).</ref> In addition, there is no consensus how the NF session should be designed in order to increase the benefits.<ref name="Vernon"/>
The wearable devices which are currently available are focused primarily on the improvement of meditation as [[Muse]] or [[Melomind]]. There are also devices which should improve concentration as [[Mindset]], [[Hit The Gold]], or [[Brainno]], reduce the level of stress as [[4DForce]] or improve the working memory as [[Melon]].
== Ethical & Health Issues ==
[[File:4dforce 2.jpg|160px|thumb|left|A woman using 4DForce]]
The main issue linked with neurofeedback is the fact that the efficacy of the method has not yet been conclusively proved,<ref name="meta"/> as was discussed in a previous section. Therefore the preference of this treatment over the currently approved treatments could be controversial, especially with respect to the fact that the neurofeedback sessions are quite expensive. If a NF treatment is preferred at the expense of a treatment that is proved to be effective, it could also possibly badly affected patients condition.<refname="Wired1">FINLEY, Klint. The Internet of Anything: Brain Monitors Are Going Mainstream, Despite Skepticism. Wired [online]. 2015, May 5. Available online at: https://www.wired.com/2015/05/internet-anything-brain-monitors-going-mainstream-despite-skepticism/ (Retrieved 4th August, 2017)</ref>
Another issue is linked primarily with consumer neurofeedback devices. Namely, these devices has to struggle is the accuracy of their measurement. First, the signal from the brain could be mingled with electric signal which was produced by a different part of body. Second, the consumer NF devices used dry electrodes, which are less reliable that wet electrodes used in the clinics, since the wet increases the conductivity.<ref name="Mindset">CHEN, Angela. Can headphones train you to focus better?: Maybe not. The Verge [online]. 2017, Mar 3. Available online at: https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/3/14802936/mindset-headphones-neurofeedback-eeg-attention-focus-brain-training (Retrieved 3rd August, 2017).</ref> Third, there is considerably less electrodes and amplifiers in the consumer devices than in the devices used in medical trials, which could also influence accuracy of the devices. Fourth, the interpretation of the results should be done by experts. The layman could misinterpret results he or she acquires from the device.<ref name="How mind reading wearables"/>
== Public & Media Impact and Presentation ==
[[File:Brainno.jpg|200px|thumb|A man wearing Brainno, a wearable consumer neurofeedback device]]
There are various comments and experiences in journals articles regarding neurofeedback. While Jini Reddy from ''The Sunday Times'' expresses her positive experience with neurofeedback sessions:<blockquote>The results are astonishing. A day later, the mind chatter that rolls like a look in my head – the what ifs, the worries – simply disappears. It’s as if someone has turned down a radio blaring in the background. A few more sessions and I have voluntarily stopped mainlining chocolate. Seriously, I think, this stuff ought to be on the NHS.<ref name="TST"/></blockquote>
and Winston Ross from ''Newsweek'' points out that neurofeedback was developed as a NASA project:<blockquote>It sounds like quackery, but it isn’t. Neurofeedback, which uses real-time displays of brain activity to teach the brain to self-regulate, is a technique neurologists have wielded since the 1960s. Back then, NASA was concerned about astronauts having rocket fuel–induced seizures. They approached Barry Sterman, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, for help.<ref>ROSS, Winston. Rewiring Your Brain: Neurofeedback Goes Mainstream. Newsweek [online]. 2016, May 9. Available online at: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/05/20/neurofeedback-brain-regulation-neuroscience-457492.html (Retrieved 3rd August, 2017).</ref></blockquote>
and Klint Finley reports the claim of Kerri Walsh, a user of [[Versus]]:<blockquote>Still, many people, such as Walsh, swear by neurofeedback. Asked whether the Versus had improved her performance quantfiabily, she admitted she wasn't sure. "I'm not a stats person," she says. "I want to say 'yes,' but I don't have the numbers to back that up." But she does say it makes her feel better. At the very least, it gives her the sense that she can control her state of mind. "I think it's definitely improved my quality of life," she says.<ref name="Wired1"/></blockquote>
there are also sceptical or warning voices. Christian Jarrett from ''Psychology Today'' stressed that the science behind neurofeedback was already debunked by Barry Beyerstein:<blockquote>Unfortunately, the logic is flawed, as the late psychologist and skeptic Barry Beyerstein explained in a series of essays and book chapters published in the 80s and 90s. Just because a meditator in a state of bliss exhibits high levels of alpha waves doesn’t mean those alpha waves are playing a causal role in her state of bliss. As Beyerstein wrote, the correlation no more implies “that alpha wave production can produce a meditative state than opening one’s umbrella can make it rain.”<ref name="Psychology Today"/></blockquote>
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-myths/201302/read-paying-100s-neurofeedback-therapy-0
