EEG operant conditioning for control of epilepsy.

We report the results of 23 severely epileptic patients who were given EEG feedback training. The paradigm reinforced the patients' 18 Hz activity over the scalp approximation of their focus while suppressing temporalis EMG and low frequency EEG activity. In contrast to other studies using EEG feedback, only 43% of patients showed significant changes in seizure occurrence and a lesser number were felt to have benefited clinically. None of our neuropsychological test parameters were helpful in identifying (prospectively or retrospectively) patients most likely to respond to this treatment. Although a few patients were significantly helped by this training, the mechanism for this effect is unclear.