08/20/2026
Neurofeedback can sound futuristic, but its roots reach back more than half a century.
The story gathers momentum in the 1960s. Researchers studying the brain's alpha rhythm, and, separately, the sensorimotor rhythm in cats, made a striking observation: with feedback, mammals could learn to change their own brainwave activity. One line of that work found that this training could raise the threshold for seizures, an early hint of clinical value that connects directly to the epilepsy research we shared earlier this month.
From those beginnings, the field grew through decades of clinical practice and research into the applications studied today, across attention, mood, trauma, and more, and into the professional standards that guide responsible practice now.
Knowing where a field comes from helps you understand where it is going. Neurofeedback's history is one of steady, evidence-guided development.
