Personality Change through Voluntary Control of EEG Alpha Activity
See also paper on anxiety 
Dr. James V. Hardt
Biocybernaut Institute
(formerly of Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute
University of California at San Francisco)
Proceedings, Biofeedback Society of America, March 1978, 9,
215-218. [edited for the web]
Stability of adult personality traits is the rule rather than the
exception. Thus personality therapy is often lengthy and only partially
successful. This study tests the hypothesis that the cognitive / affective
reorganizations required for significant alpha enhancement will manifest as
normalization of disordered personalities.
Two pre-feedback administrations of the MMPI selected the 8 most
maladjusted subjects of 100 volunteers, using the first factor of the MMPI
(Welsh's A anxiety scale). These subjects trained for seven consecutive
days on proportional auditory feedback of Oz alpha. Digital
integrated amplitude (sum) scores were derived from Oz,
O1, and C3 and the scores from Oz were fed
back to subjects at 2-minute intervals. Each day 48 minutes of alpha feedback
were given (2/3 of it enhancement, 1/3 suppression). After the seven feedback
days the MMPI was given again to assess changes. Daily alpha increases for
each subject (average daily enhancement score minus average daily baseline)
were summed across the last four days of training to give net alpha increases.
Personality changes on each MMPI scale were difference scores (post minus pre)
unless there was regression to the mean (then Lacey's ALS scores were computed
instead). Personality changes (on each scale) were paired with net alpha
increases for each subject and correlated across subjects. Significant
correlations would reveal personality dimensions susceptible to alpha
enhancement interventions. Alpha enhancement reduced L and F and
increased K, suggesting increased self control and abatement of
psychotic tendencies. Central alpha increases reduced paranoia (PA)
while occipital alpha increases reduced schizophrenia (SC). Both
occipital and central alpha increases reduced psychasthenia
(PT). Hysteria (HS) and depression (D) were unaffected by
alpha. These results suggest that a seven day intensive alpha feedback program
can be effective in psychotherapy. Specific psychopathologies are ameliorated
by alpha enhancement at specific cortical sites.
Major Purpose
To discover relationships between EEG alpha changes and personality changes
in order to suggest which alpha feedback interventions may be successful with
specific personality disorders.
Subjects
Eight innately anxious subjects were selected from a group of 100 male
volunteers for alpha feedback training. Subjects were those with the highest
reliable anxiety scores on Welsh's A, the first factor of the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). To assure reliable premeasures on
the MMPI's 10 clinical and 3 validity scales, the full MMPI was given twice to
all subjects prior to the seven days of alpha feedback training. Following the
feedback sessions, the full MMPI was administered again to provide change
measures on the MMPI's personality scales.
Method
Subjects received seven consecutive days of alpha feedback training with 48
minutes of feedback each day (2/3 of the time was enhancement, 1/3
suppression). Feedback was a tone proportional to Oz alpha amplitude
and (at 2 minute intervals) a digital score representing integrated amplitude
(sum) of Oz alpha over the two minutes. Alpha measures (sum) were
derived from three cortical sites: Oz, O1, and
C3.
Data Analysis Method
The MMPI's were scored mechanically and profiles were drawn by computer.
The personality changes (before to after the feedback) were based on the
differences: MMPI #3 - MMPI #1, unless there was regression to the mean on a
particular scale. Determination of regression to the mean was according to
Lubin, Hord, and Johnson (1964), and corrections for it were made by deriving
Lacey's (1956) Autonomic Lability Scores (ALS) using the two pre- and one
post-feedback MMPI measures. So personality changes were represented as either
difference scores or ALS scores. These personality changes for each subject
were paired (separately for each MMPI scale) with each subject's net alpha
change over days 4-7 of the training. These paired values were correlated
across the 8 subjects and tested for significance using the 2-tailed
significance levels of the product moment correlation coefficient. Net alpha
enhancement was the sum across days 4-7 of the daily difference (average
enhancement minus average baseline).
Results
Alpha enhancement significantly reduced paranoia (PA), psychasthenia
(PT), and schizophrenia (SC). Specifically there were
significant negative correlations between one or more of the three alpha
measures and paranoia (PA), psychasthenia (PT), schizophrenia
(SC), the MMPI lie scale (L), and the F scale. In
addition there were significant positive correlations between K
scale changes and O1 and C3 alpha. The full profile of
personality change as a function of alpha increases is given in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The three cortical sites (Oz, O1,
C3) are given left to right in each set of three bars for each MMPI
scale. Vertical axis is product moment correlation of net alpha enhancement
(days 4-7) with changes in personality scales from MMPI.
Discussion
Alpha increases do not magically change personality.
The trainee, in order to increase alpha, is required to adopt different
modes and styles of cognition and affect ... and to sustain these new patterns
for a considerable length of time (several hours at least). If these new
patterns are experienced as pleasant, useful, or adaptive by the trainee, they
may be adopted by the trainee and may become habitual, thus becoming part of
the individual's new self-concept. As Bem (1970) observed, "changing an
individual's behavior provides a [new] source [of experiential data] from which
he draws a new set of inferences about what he feels and believes." The alpha
feedback setting provides the opportunity for the trainee to change his
cognitive, conceptual and affective behavior. From such changes a new
personality may evolve rather quickly, especially if the old personality is
uncomfortable or maladaptive.
The self-conceptual changes required to enhance alpha during the first few
hours are not strongly correlated with hysteria (HS) or depression
(D), so alpha enhancement for short periods would be ineffective at
treating these disorders (Hardt, 1977). [More recent research has indicated
that alpha enhancement can be used to treat depression, and some researchers have found that
frontal alpha feedback is particularly effective against depression.] The
alpha-linked increase of K and decreases of L and F
suggest increased capacities for control and self-maintenance and abatement of
psychotic tendencies. The strongest effect is between alpha enhancement and
reduction of psychasthenia (PT). Psychasthenia is characterized by
inability to resolve doubts and by phobias, compulsions and obsessions. These
problems should yield most readily to treatment by alpha enhancement. The
positive (but nonsignificant) relationship between mania and alpha enhancement
may give limited support to reports that the "alpha experience" is a euphoric
high energy state. There are also some intriguing site / effect differences.
Central alpha increases (C3) significantly reduce paranoia, while
occipital alpha increases (Oz, O1) do not. On the other
hand, occipital alpha increases (Oz, O1) significantly
reduce schizophrenia, while central alpha (C3) increases do not.
Peper's (1972) call for mapping the subjective differences in consciousness by
cortical region has been partially answered by this study. Alpha increases at
different cortical sites have been shown related to different types of
personality change. This report makes specific suggestions as to which
personality disorders to treat with alpha feedback and which feedback site to
use for each of those disorders.
See also paper on anxiety
References
Bem, D.J. Beliefs, Attitudes, and Human Affairs, Belmont
California: Brooks/Cole Pub. Co. (1970).
Hardt, J.V., in Rediscovery of the Body, C. Garfield (Ed.), New
York: Dell (1977).
Lacey, J.I. Ann. New York Acad. Sci., 67, 123 (1956).
Lubin, A., Hord, D.J., Johnson, L.C. Report #64-20, US Navy Medical
Neuropsychiatric Research Unit, San Diego, CA (1964)
Peper, E. Kybernetik, 11, 166 (1972)
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