Research
The Biofeedback Study
The biofeedback study Hemispheric and Autonomic Laterality: Effects of Unilateral Repetitive Activation was conducted at the Nova University Biofeedback Laboratories.
The results of the study, with, p<.001, strongly suggest that activating the right brain hemisphere with a repetitive visual stimulus (The Flow Machine) can significantly impact the recovery from stress.
The study involved 47 volunteer subjects, split between the experimental group watching the Flow Machine, and a control group.
The experimental group is referred to as the “Right Hemisphere Activation (RHA)” group. This group, in addition to watching the Flow Machine, also listened to meditative music. The control group, also referred to as the “Left Hemisphere Activation (LHA)” group, listened to spoken text while also seeing the text projected onto a screen.
- Several biofeedback measures were recorded one each subject during the sessions:
- Bilateral skin conductance level (SCL)
Heart rate (HR)
Each subject came to the laboratory three times a week for two weeks for a total of six sessions. SCL and HR were monitored for the entire 45 minutes of each session with time samples recorded every minute for each variable. The first 15 minutes of each session was a stabilization period. During sessions two, four, and six, three disruptions were randomly presented to elicit a startle response, allowing at least five minutes for recovery from each of nine disruptions. Visual startle consisted of turning on an overhead.
Results
The resulting data was analyzed using various statistical techniques, and proved conclusive: the subjects watching the Flow Machine (the right hemisphere activation group) recovered from startle significantly faster than those in the control group. In other words, after exposure to the Flow Machine, the subjects in the RHA group were able to “relax” significantly more quickly than the LHA group.
Clinical Observations
Users reported:
- time slowing,
- time disappearing,
- reduced temporal urgency,
- continuous rather than segmented awareness.
NOTE: The device referenced in earlier psychophysiological research literature, including the study cited, as the “Kinoscope” represents the developmental predecessor of the present Flow Machine system.