Clinical biofeedback: a behavioral analysis

Clinical biofeedback studies have shown that patients can learn to control highly specific physiological responses such as relaxation of the internal anal sphincter, contraction of the external anal sphincter, heart rate and intracardiac conduction patterns, or blood pressure. Findings from a number of studies indicate that the ability to learn to control abnormal responses is highly reinforcing and facilitates further learning. Other findings indicate that learning tends to be specific to the response being trained. If it is desirable to teach patients to control more than one response, it may be necessary to teach each response independently.