Consensus on the reporting and experimental design of clinical and cognitive-behavioural neurofeedback studies (CRED-nf checklist)

Tomas Ros¹, Stefanie Enriquez-Geppert^{2

3}, Vadim Zotev⁴, Kymberly D Young⁵, Guilherme Wood⁶, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli^{7

8}, Feng Wan⁹, Patrik Vuilleumier¹⁰, François Vialatte¹¹, Dimitri Van De Ville¹², Doron Todder^{13

14}, Tanju Surmeli¹⁵, James S Sulzer¹⁶, Ute Strehl¹⁷, Maurice Barry Sterman¹⁸, Naomi J Steiner¹⁹, Bettina Sorger²⁰, Surjo R Soekadar²¹, Ranganatha Sitaram²², Leslie H Sherlin²³, Michael Schönenberg²⁴, Frank Scharnowski^{25

26}, Manuel Schabus²⁷, Katya Rubia²⁸, Agostinho Rosa²⁹, Miriam Reiner³⁰, Jaime A Pineda³¹, Christian Paret³², Alexei Ossadtchi³³, Andrew A Nicholson^{25

26}, Wenya Nan³⁴, Javier Minguez³⁵, Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi³⁶, David M A Mehler³⁷, Michael Lührs²⁰, Joel Lubar³⁸, Fabien Lotte³⁹, David E J Linden⁴⁰, Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock⁴¹, Mikhail A Lebedev^{42

43

44}, Ruth A Lanius⁴⁵, Andrea Kübler⁴⁶, Cornelia Kranczioch⁴⁷, Yury Koush⁴⁸, Lilian Konicar⁴⁹, Simon H Kohl⁵⁰, Silivia E Kober⁶, Manousos A Klados⁵¹, Camille Jeunet⁵², T W P Janssen⁵³, Rene J Huster⁵⁴, Kerstin Hoedlmoser²⁷, Laurence M Hirshberg⁵⁵, Stephan Heunis⁵⁶, Talma Hendler⁵⁷, Michelle Hampson⁵⁸, Adrian G Guggisberg⁵⁹, Robert Guggenberger⁶⁰, John H Gruzelier⁶¹, Rainer W Göbel²⁰, Nicolas Gninenko¹², Alireza Gharabaghi⁶⁰, Paul Frewen⁴⁵, Thomas Fovet⁶², Thalía Fernández⁶³, Carlos Escolano³⁵, Ann-Christine Ehlis⁶⁴, Renate Drechsler⁶⁵, R Christopher deCharms⁶⁶, Stefan Debener⁴⁷, Dirk De Ridder⁶⁷, Eddy J Davelaar⁶⁸, Marco Congedo⁶⁹, Marc Cavazza⁷⁰, Marinus H M Breteler⁷¹, Daniel Brandeis^{65

72}, Jerzy Bodurka⁷³, Niels Birbaumer⁷⁴, Olga M Bazanova⁷⁵, Beatrix Barth⁶⁴, Panagiotis D Bamidis⁷⁶, Tibor Auer⁷⁷, Martijn Arns⁷⁸, Robert T Thibault^{79

80}

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry, University of Geneva; Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
⁴ Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
⁵ University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁶ Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
⁷ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau, China.
¹⁰ Campus Biotech, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
¹¹ Institut PiPsy, Draveil, France.
¹² Institute of Bioengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL); Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹³ Faculty of Health, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
¹⁴ Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, Israel Ministry of Health, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
¹⁵ Living Health Center for Research and Education, Istanbul, Turkey.
¹⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
¹⁷ Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
¹⁸ Neurobiology and Biobehavioral Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Boston, MA, USA.
²⁰ Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
²¹ Clinical Neurotechnology Laboratory, Neuroscience Research Center (NWFZ), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (CCM), Charité - University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
²² Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Macul, Santiago, Chile.
²³ Ottawa University, Surprise, Arizona, USA.
²⁴ Department Clinical Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
²⁵ Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
²⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
²⁷ University of Salzburg, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, Salzburg, Austria.
²⁸ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
²⁹ Laseeb-ISR-IST Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.
³⁰ Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
³¹ Cognitive Science Department, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
³² Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Germany.
³³ National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
³⁴ Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China.
³⁵ Bitbrain®, Zaragoza, Spain.
³⁶ SANPSY, USR 3413, Université Bordeaux, CHU de Bordeaux, Place Amelie Raba Leon, Bordeaux, France.
³⁷ Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
³⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.
³⁹ Inria Bordeaux Sud-Ouest/LaBRI University of Bordeaux - CNRS-Bordeaux INP, Bordeaux, France.
⁴⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
⁴¹ Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
⁴² Center for Bioelectric Interfaces of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
⁴³ Department of Information and Internet Technologies of Digital Health Institute; I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia.
⁴⁴ Duke Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁴⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁴⁶ Department of Psychology I, Psychological Intervention, Behavior Analysis and Regulation of Behavior, University of Würzburg.
⁴⁷ Neuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenberg, Germany.
⁴⁸ Magnetic Resonance Research Center (MRRC), Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁴⁹ Medical University of Vienna, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria.
⁵⁰ JARA-Institute Molecular neuroscience and neuroimaging (INM-11), Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany.
⁵¹ Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield International Faculty, City College, Thessaloniki, Greece.
⁵² CLLE Lab, CNRS, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France.
⁵³ Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
⁵⁴ Multimodal imaging and Cognitive Control Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Olso, Norway.
⁵⁵ Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
⁵⁶ Electrical Engineering Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
⁵⁷ Sagol Brain Institute, Wohl Institute for Advanced Imaging, Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
⁵⁸ Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁵⁹ Division of Neurorehabilitation, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁶⁰ Division of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
⁶¹ Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK.
⁶² Univ. Lille, INSERM U1172, CHU LILLE, Centre Lille Neuroscience & Cognition, Pôle de Psychiatrie, F-59000, Lille, France.
⁶³ UNAM Institute of Neurobiology, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Juriquilla, Mexico.
⁶⁴ Psychophysiology and Optical Imaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
⁶⁵ Department of Child and Adolescent, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
⁶⁶ Omneuron, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁶⁷ Department of Surgery, Section of Neurosurgery, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
⁶⁸ Department of Psychological Sciences Birkbeck, University of London, Bloomsbury, London, UK.
⁶⁹ GIPSA-lab, CNRS, University Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble-INP, Grenoble, France.
⁷⁰ School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK.
⁷¹ Radboud University Nijmegen, Department of Clinical Psychology, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁷² Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
⁷³ Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA.
⁷⁴ Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
⁷⁵ State Research Institute of Physiology and Basic Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia.
⁷⁶ School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
⁷⁷ School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
⁷⁸ Brainclinics Foundation, Research Institute Brainclinics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁷⁹ School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁸⁰ MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

PMID: 32176800
PMCID: PMC7296848
DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa009

Consensus on the reporting and experimental design of clinical and cognitive-behavioural neurofeedback studies (CRED-nf checklist)

Tomas Ros et al. Brain. 2020.

. 2020 Jun 1;143(6):1674-1685.

doi: 10.1093/brain/awaa009.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry, University of Geneva; Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
⁴ Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
⁵ University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁶ Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
⁷ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau, China.
¹⁰ Campus Biotech, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
¹¹ Institut PiPsy, Draveil, France.
¹² Institute of Bioengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL); Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹³ Faculty of Health, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
¹⁴ Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, Israel Ministry of Health, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
¹⁵ Living Health Center for Research and Education, Istanbul, Turkey.
¹⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
¹⁷ Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
¹⁸ Neurobiology and Biobehavioral Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Boston, MA, USA.
²⁰ Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
²¹ Clinical Neurotechnology Laboratory, Neuroscience Research Center (NWFZ), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (CCM), Charité - University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
²² Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Macul, Santiago, Chile.
²³ Ottawa University, Surprise, Arizona, USA.
²⁴ Department Clinical Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
²⁵ Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
²⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
²⁷ University of Salzburg, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, Salzburg, Austria.
²⁸ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
²⁹ Laseeb-ISR-IST Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.
³⁰ Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
³¹ Cognitive Science Department, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
³² Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Germany.
³³ National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
³⁴ Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China.
³⁵ Bitbrain®, Zaragoza, Spain.
³⁶ SANPSY, USR 3413, Université Bordeaux, CHU de Bordeaux, Place Amelie Raba Leon, Bordeaux, France.
³⁷ Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
³⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.
³⁹ Inria Bordeaux Sud-Ouest/LaBRI University of Bordeaux - CNRS-Bordeaux INP, Bordeaux, France.
⁴⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
⁴¹ Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
⁴² Center for Bioelectric Interfaces of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
⁴³ Department of Information and Internet Technologies of Digital Health Institute; I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia.
⁴⁴ Duke Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁴⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁴⁶ Department of Psychology I, Psychological Intervention, Behavior Analysis and Regulation of Behavior, University of Würzburg.
⁴⁷ Neuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenberg, Germany.
⁴⁸ Magnetic Resonance Research Center (MRRC), Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁴⁹ Medical University of Vienna, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria.
⁵⁰ JARA-Institute Molecular neuroscience and neuroimaging (INM-11), Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany.
⁵¹ Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield International Faculty, City College, Thessaloniki, Greece.
⁵² CLLE Lab, CNRS, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France.
⁵³ Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
⁵⁴ Multimodal imaging and Cognitive Control Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Olso, Norway.
⁵⁵ Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
⁵⁶ Electrical Engineering Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
⁵⁷ Sagol Brain Institute, Wohl Institute for Advanced Imaging, Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
⁵⁸ Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁵⁹ Division of Neurorehabilitation, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁶⁰ Division of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
⁶¹ Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK.
⁶² Univ. Lille, INSERM U1172, CHU LILLE, Centre Lille Neuroscience & Cognition, Pôle de Psychiatrie, F-59000, Lille, France.
⁶³ UNAM Institute of Neurobiology, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Juriquilla, Mexico.
⁶⁴ Psychophysiology and Optical Imaging, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
⁶⁵ Department of Child and Adolescent, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
⁶⁶ Omneuron, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁶⁷ Department of Surgery, Section of Neurosurgery, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
⁶⁸ Department of Psychological Sciences Birkbeck, University of London, Bloomsbury, London, UK.
⁶⁹ GIPSA-lab, CNRS, University Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble-INP, Grenoble, France.
⁷⁰ School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK.
⁷¹ Radboud University Nijmegen, Department of Clinical Psychology, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁷² Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
⁷³ Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA.
⁷⁴ Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
⁷⁵ State Research Institute of Physiology and Basic Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia.
⁷⁶ School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
⁷⁷ School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
⁷⁸ Brainclinics Foundation, Research Institute Brainclinics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁷⁹ School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁸⁰ MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

PMID: 32176800
PMCID: PMC7296848
DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa009

Abstract

Neurofeedback has begun to attract the attention and scrutiny of the scientific and medical mainstream. Here, neurofeedback researchers present a consensus-derived checklist that aims to improve the reporting and experimental design standards in the field.

Keywords: checklist; consensus; guidelines; neurofeedback; regulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

**Figure 1**
**Multiple mechanisms drive the effects of neurofeedback training.** Neurofeedback participants may benefit from: (i) the specific neurophysiological process of training a particular brain signal (green). Non-specific factors, including (ii) those unique to the neurofeedback environment (e.g. trainer-participant interaction in a neurotechnology context) (dark blue); and (iii) those that are common across interventions (e.g. all other benefits from engaging in a form of cognitive training as well as the psychosocial and placebo mechanisms related to participating in an experiment) (light blue). (iv) Repetition-related effects (purple). (v) Natural effects, which can be positive (e.g. cognitive development in childhood) or negative (e.g. cognitive decline in older age) (orange). These mechanisms may interact synergistically to create a greater overall effect, interact antagonistically to lessen the total benefit, or combine additively (for a discussion of this topic, see Rothman, 1974; Finnerup *et al.*, 2010). By including control groups, carefully designing experiments, and measuring both brain activity and behaviour, researchers can better estimate the contribution from each of these mechanisms.

**Figure 2**
**Consensus on the reporting and experimental design of clinical and cognitive-behavioural neurofeedback studies (CRED-nf) best practices checklist 2020.** An online tool to complete this checklist is available at rtfin.org/CREDnf. Darker shaded boxes represent ‘essential’ checklist items; lightly shaded boxes represent ‘encouraged’ checklist items. We recommend using this checklist in conjunction with the standardized CRED-nf online tool (rtfin.org/CREDnf) and the CRED-nf article, which explains the motivation behind this checklist and provides details regarding many of the checklist items.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Albers C, Lakens D. When power analyses based on pilot data are biased: inaccurate effect size estimators and follow-up bias. J Exp Soc Psychol 2018; 74: 187–95.
1. Algermissen J, Mehler DM. May the power be with you: are there highly powered studies in neuroscience, and how can we get more of them? J Neurophysiol 2018; 119: 2114–7. - PubMed
1. Arnold LE, Lofthouse N, Hersch S, Pan X, Hurt E, Bates B, et al.EEG neurofeedback for ADHD: double-blind sham-controlled randomized pilot feasibility trial. J Atten Disord 2013; 17: 410–9. - PMC - PubMed
1. Babapoor-Farrokhran S, Vinck M, Womelsdorf T, Everling S. Theta and beta synchrony coordinate frontal eye fields and anterior cingulate cortex during sensorimotor mapping. Nat Commun 2017; 8: 1–4. - PMC - PubMed
1. Campbell DT, Stanley JC. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Ravenio Books; 2015.

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Consensus on the reporting and experimental design of clinical and cognitive-behavioural neurofeedback studies (CRED-nf checklist)

Affiliations

Consensus on the reporting and experimental design of clinical and cognitive-behavioural neurofeedback studies (CRED-nf checklist)

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Other Literature Sources

Medical