Applications of Psychophysiological Recording

Once an individual is able to record psychophysiological measures successfully, the question arises as to how these measures might be used in understanding the interdependence between psychological and physiological processes. What fields of study might significantly benefit from psychophysiological approaches? Before beginning a discussion of applications of psychophysiological recording, some of the principles of psychophysiology are considered. Psychophysiological studies can be grouped into five categories: response variables, stimulus/situational variables, subject variables, correlational variables, and the applications of psychophysiological research. Studies involving the responsible variables are primarily concerned with properties of the psychophysiological response. Examples include examining the relation between electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha activity and metabolic activity in the thalamus. Three examples of application studies are biofeedback, lie detection, and brain plasticity and pain. Areas that have benefited from psychophysiological techniques are those of attention and cortical plasticity and reorganization after injury.