From Auditory and Visual to Immersive Neurofeedback: Application to Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

In neurofeedback, brain waves are transformed into sounds or music, graphics, and other representations, to provide real-time information on ongoing waves and patterns in the brain. Here we present various forms of neurofeedback, including sonification, sonification in combination with visualization, and at last, immersive neurofeedback, where auditory and visual feedback is provided in a multi-sided immersive environment in which participants are completely surrounded by virtual imagery and 3D sound. Neural feedback may potentially improve the user’s (or patient’s) ability to control brain activity, the diagnosis of medical conditions, and the rehabilitation of neurological or psychiatric disorders. Several psychological and medical studies have confirmed that virtual immersive activity is enjoyable, stimulating, and can have a healing effect. As an illustration, neurofeedback is generated from electroencephalograms (EEG) of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and healthy subjects. The auditory, visual, and immersive representations of Alzheimer’s EEG differ substantially from healthy EEG, potentially yielding novel diagnostic tools. Moreover, such alternative representations of AD EEG are natural and intuitive, and hence easily accessible to laymen (AD patients and family members), and can provide insight into the abnormal brainwaves associated with AD.