Neurofeedback Conference Call Minutes
10.9.2010
Pre-conference Discussion: Doug will try his best to ensure that Devon and I get added to Larry’s emails
Recruitment
Discussed the plan for dealing with Larry’s contacts Devon and Jana will mail the letter & a hard copy of the filer Recruitment of local college newspapers underway How to incorporate the NY Times article
Piggyback off of the small mention of neurofeedback research being done in depression
Bring to light the fact that they didn’t mention the results found in double blind studies
Larry to send a meta-analysis by Martain Arns (Netherlands) & and an article by Gevensleven to Fred, Devon & Jana,
Gevensleven: one of the more recent European, double blind neurofeedback research articles.
Possible critique of Gevensleven’s research is that it may not have actually been a valid double blind study, i.e. it was not a sham procedu.
Sham may be the only “evidence’ based double blind procedure, it is the highest caliber of double blind
Pitch our research study as being done by the book, using a sham, the most reliable double blind procedure and that teen depression has the highest incidence yet the lowest efficacy Discussion about Cambridge recruitment with Matt Matt’s CARD contact A former student of Matt’s answers phones at CARD
Contact her (Devon & Jana meet her and discuss in person) and ask her to send wait-listed CARD participants (who convey depressive symptoms) to us Larry to email Vince Paquette with our questions
Larry will email draft of email to Vince to Matt and Fred to make sure all of our questions are included in his email (if he remembers to send it/has time)
*potential questions from 9/24 call included: guidance on mindfulness, questions regarding coaching (is it helpful or not), what does awareness of the screen do/does it affect mental awareness, should they be trying to do something with their feedback (have a goal) or should they simply be making associations, should they know their goal, etc..
Text Messaging Participants Need to include/revise IRB Need to sort out what text message will include and do a dry run Scaling: 1-10 or anchor, 1,3,5 Should there be wording (none, some, a lot) and a number (1, 3, 5) Devon and Jana to look at previous research to find a model to follow
Larry has used 1-10 scale in the past and it has worked. Unless we find otherwise, we should use 1-10 scale
Possible measurements: anxiety, mood, irritability.
Anxiety may be difficult for teens to rate? Use worry? Nervous?
Change irritability to crankiness? May be easier to teens to understand
Is asking teens to respond to 3 ratings too much?
Send all 3 in one text may work well. Have teens report their 3 numbers for the day
Concern about ordering their responses correctly and understanding the differences between each component they are rating Decided to have 2 measurements: happy versus sad and calm versus nervous
We want them to go from negative to positive but question about high to low, is one better or worse or could there be both components in each?
Larry will work out the bugs of the texting and make sure to keep it under 160 characters so that it will all be sent in one message
Will send a test run message to all of the team
Other Issues? Need to clarify neurofeedback instructions Larry will have someone give him information or a written script
Next Meeting 10/22, 12:30 p.m.

Problem with craigslist/site email Form works but email does not All agree to remove the email option and to direct prospective participants to the form