Biofeedback is a type of mind-body technique you use to control some of your body’s functions, such as your heart rate, breathing patterns, and muscle responses. During biofeedback, you’re connected to electrical pads that help you get information about your body. The biofeedback provider places painless sensors or devices on your body. The sensors measure physiological signals from your body, such as breathing with bands around your stomach and chest that have sensors to measure your breathing rate and patterns.
An example of a biofeedback instrument is a basal body thermometer. Biofeedback instruments are used to measure physiological signals like body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, among others, which people can then monitor and use strategies to try to voluntarily control these normally involuntary bodily functions.
A basal body thermometer can provide feedback on small temperature changes related to hormonal cycles, which can be instrumental in understanding and managing certain health conditions.
Computerized biofeedback and neurofeedback equipment include EMG machines, EEG, qEEG, sEMG, ECG, Heart Rate Variability, body temperature thermometer, Respiration belt, and Skin Resistance to measure sweat gland activity, which is used to measure the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. When sweat glands open and close, they change the skin’s resistance to an electrical current passing through the tissue. This change can be measured by placing electrodes on the skin and passing a small electrical signal through them. As the rate of sweat secretion increases, skin resistance decreases.