Campbell Alana M, Mattoni Matthew, Yefimov Mae Nicopolis, Adapa Karthik, Mazur Lukasz M
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
Department of Radiation Oncology, School of Medicine, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 3;11:571739. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.571739. eCollection 2020.
Radiation therapy therapists (RTTs) face challenging daily tasks that leave them prone to high attrition and burnout and subsequent deficits in performance. Here, we employed an accelerated alpha-theta neurofeedback (NF) protocol that is implementable in a busy medical workplace to test if 12 RTTs could learn the protocol and exhibit behavior and brain performance-related benefits. Following the 3-week protocol, participants showed a decrease in subjective cognitive workload and a decrease in response time during a performance task, as well as a decrease in desynchrony of the alpha electroencephalogram (EEG) band. Additionally, novel microstate analysis for neurofeedback showed a significant decrease in global field power (GFP) following neurofeedback. These results suggest that the RTTs successfully learned the protocol and improved in perceived cognitive workload following 3 weeks of neurofeedback. In sum, this study presents promising behavioral improvements as well as brain performance-related evidence of neurophysiological changes following neurofeedback, supporting the feasibility of implementing neurofeedback in a busy workplace and encouraging the further study of neurofeedback as a tool to mitigate burnout.
放射治疗技师（RTTs）每天面临着具有挑战性的任务，这使他们容易出现高流失率、职业倦怠以及随之而来的工作表现缺陷。在此，我们采用了一种可在繁忙医疗工作场所实施的加速α-θ神经反馈（NF）方案，以测试12名放射治疗技师是否能够学会该方案并展现出与行为和大脑表现相关的益处。在为期3周的方案实施后，参与者在一项执行任务期间主观认知工作量减少、反应时间缩短，同时α脑电图（EEG）频段的去同步化也减少。此外，用于神经反馈的新型微状态分析显示，神经反馈后全局场功率（GFP）显著降低。这些结果表明，放射治疗技师成功学会了该方案，并且在接受3周神经反馈后，其感知到的认知工作量有所改善。总之，本研究呈现出了有前景的行为改善以及与大脑表现相关的神经生理变化的证据，支持了在繁忙工作场所实施神经反馈的可行性，并鼓励进一步研究将神经反馈作为减轻职业倦怠的一种工具。
