Motor imagery-based neurofeedback in older adults: neural signatures and feasibility in a randomized controlled trial targeting age-related cognitive decline.

The study was done in healthy older adults without neurological or psychiatric disorders, so it does not address people with diagnosed dementia, stroke, or other neurological conditions. All groups received weekly physical activity as well as cognitive training, so the contribution of neurofeedback alone cannot be separated from exercise or general task engagement. The control group could not be blinded, which may have influenced engagement or expectations. Some participants dropped out and were excluded, so the analysed sample was smaller than the recruited sample. The neurofeedback protocol was not personalised to each participant's brain signals, and training was one session per week, which may have been too low in dose to produce specific effects. Most participants were female, so sex-related effects are not well balanced. The authors did not collect participants' beliefs about which group they were in, so expectancy effects could not be checked.

Funders named in the supplied text are the European Union, Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León, and Universidad de Valladolid.

Do not read the within-group cognitive gains as evidence that motor imagery neurofeedback works. The training group did not differ from sham feedback or classical cognitive stimulation, and every group also received weekly guided physical activity, so the contribution of neurofeedback alone cannot be separated.