Glossary
Glossary of neurofeedback terms
This glossary is a plain language list of the terms used across this site, each defined in one or two sentences without industry shorthand.
Terms are alphabetical. Every heading has its own anchor, so you can link a definition directly to someone who needs it.
How should you use this glossary?
Read the definition, then check whether a provider uses the word the same way. Vocabulary drift is where most confusion in this field starts.
If a term you met elsewhere is missing here, send it to us and we will add it or say plainly that we do not use it.
- Amplitude
- The size of an electrical rhythm in a recording. Larger amplitude means the summed activity swung further, not that anything is better or worse.
- Artifact
- Anything in a recording that came from something other than brain activity, such as jaw tension, a blink, or a loose sensor. Artifacts are common and must be accounted for before a reading means anything.
- Biofeedback
- Any method that measures a body signal and returns information about it. The regulatory category our equipment sits in is biofeedback, indicated for relaxation training and muscle reeducation.
- EEG
- Electroencephalography, the practice of recording electrical activity through sensors on the scalp. The recording itself is coarse because skull and skin sit in the way.
- FDA clearance
- A regulatory pathway in which a device is allowed to market for a stated use because it is substantially equivalent to an existing device. Clearance is not evidence that a practice produces a benefit.
- Frequency band
- A labelled range of rhythm speeds in a recording, such as alpha or beta. Band names describe speed. They do not name a mood or a mental state.
- Impedance
- A measure of how easily current passes between a sensor and the scalp. High impedance usually means poor contact, which is why paste and clean hair matter.
- Microampere
- One millionth of an ampere, the unit used to describe the current in a microcurrent session. It is a very small quantity of current.
- Microcurrent neurofeedback
- A passive session in which scalp sensors read activity and return an extremely brief, very low current signal, with no task asked of the person in the chair.
- Montage
- The particular arrangement of sensors used in a session or recording. A montage describes where contacts sit, not what they do.
- Neuroplasticity
- The general capacity of a nervous system to change with repeated experience. It is a real and broad phenomenon, and it does not by itself support a claim about any specific practice.
- Passive neurofeedback
- Any approach where the person receiving the session does not respond to feedback and performs no task. Microcurrent sessions are passive in this sense.
- Protocol
- The plan a practitioner follows across a series of visits, covering sensor sites, signal duration, and how much changes between appointments.
- Sham control
- A comparison group that goes through an identical session with the active element switched off. Without one, it is hard to separate a practice from expectation and rest.
- 10-20 system
- A naming convention for positions on the scalp, based on measuring the head and stepping across it in intervals of ten and twenty percent. It lets two practitioners describe the same spot the same way.
Questions people ask about this
Please read this
Momentous Neurofeedback is a wellness practice. We use an FDA-cleared biofeedback device indicated for relaxation training and muscle reeducation.
We do not provide medical care and we do not assess or identify health conditions. We make no promise about any outcome, and nothing on this site should be read as one.
Sessions are not a substitute for care from a licensed clinician. If you have a health concern, speak with your own provider. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
If a word here is doing too much work, tell us
We would rather rewrite a definition than let borrowed vocabulary stand. Send a correction, or come ask in person.