The goal of this study is to determine whether an open-loop sham neurofeedback system can effectively modulate EEG alpha rhythms, which are associated with attentional control. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does positive sham neurofeedback lead to a decrease in relative EEG alpha power compared to a control condition without feedback?

Researchers will compare the effects of positive and negative sham-neurofeedback conditions to a control condition without feedback to assess the system's impact on alpha rhythm modulation. Participants will:

Experience three conditions (positive sham-neurofeedback, negative sham-neurofeedback, and no feedback) within a virtual reality environment.

Undergo EEG recordings to measure changes in alpha power as a marker of attentional resource allocation.

Provide written informed consent and complete the study following ethical guidelines.

This study seeks to explore the potential of open-loop feedback systems to enhance attentional control by modulating alpha rhythm.

Attention is a vital cognitive process that enables selective focus on behaviourally relevant information. A perceived lack of attentional control has been linked to mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, often manifesting through maladaptive coping strategies like rumination. As a trainable cognitive skill, attentional control can be enhanced through learning processes, particularly when reinforced by positive feedback within a classical operant conditioning framework. EEG studies have demonstrated that decreases in alpha rhythm power are associated with increased attentional resource allocation. While neurofeedback systems, especially those targeting alpha rhythms, typically rely on closed-loop modulation during attentional tasks, the impact of open-loop feedback on EEG alpha modulation remains unexplored. This study aims to determine whether an open-loop feedback system can effectively modulate EEG alpha rhythms, as a marker correlate of attentional control. The investigators propose a within-subject experiment where participants will experience positive and negative sham neurofeedback conditions, as well as a control condition with no feedback, all within a virtual reality environment. The investigators hypothesize that relative EEG alpha power will decrease in the positive sham neurofeedback condition compared to the control condition, reflecting a meaningful increase in attentional resource allocation.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults aged between 18 and 60 years.
• Normal or corrected vision.
• Ability to provide written informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy.
• Significant hearing loss or diagnosed hearing impairment.
• Current psychiatric illness or disorder.
• History of migraines or chronic headaches.
• History of substance or alcohol abuse.
• Currently pregnant.
• Discomfort with using a virtual reality headset, assessed during a pilot session.

The study will include adults aged between 18 and 60 years, selected from the city of Paraná and surrounding areas. The population will be balanced in terms of age and gender, ensuring representation across two age groups (18-40 years and 41-60 years).

Participants will be recruited through:

• Word-of-mouth.
• Social media platforms.
• University mailing lists and community boards. Initial contact will be made via telephone or email, where potential participants will be provided with detailed information about the study's purpose, procedures, and eligibility criteria. Recruitment materials and communications will describe the study as a conventional neurofeedback experiment to maintain participant naivety about the specific hypotheses and experimental conditions.

Individual participant data (IPD) will be made available on the 'Open Science Framework' after undergoing the process of anonymization to remove any participant-identifying information. The data will consist of the raw EEG signals and raw behavioral responses. Additionally, the statistical analysis and Python notebooks used to process the data will also be shared

The participant's data and the processing pipeline will be available after the data collection is finished. The supporting information (including the study protocol, the statistical analysis plan and the informed consent) will be uploaded as soon as possible.

The data will be publicly available.