Question

Muscle tension in the head region has been associated with tension headaches. Therefore, a physician reasoned that if the muscle tension could be reduced, perhaps the headaches would decrease or go away altogether. They designed an experiment in which nine participants with tension headaches participated. The participants kept logs of the number of headaches experienced during a two-week baseline period. Then they were trained to lower their muscle tension in the head region using a biofeedback device. For this experiment, the biofeedback device was connected to the frontalis muscle, a muscle in the forehead region. The device told the participants the amount of tension in the muscle to which it was attached (in this case, frontalis) and helped them achieve low tension levels. After six weeks of training, during which the participants had become successful at maintaining low frontalis muscle tension, they again kept a two-week log of the number of headaches experienced. The following are the number of headaches recorded during each two-week period. Participant #1: # Headaches before training: 17 # Headaches after training: 2 Participant #2: # Headaches before training: 13 # Headaches after training: 7 Participant #3: # Headaches before training: 6 # Headaches after training: 2 Participant #4: # Headaches before training: 5 # Headaches after training: 3 Participant #5: # Headaches before training: 5 # Headaches after training: 6 Participant #6: # Headaches before training: 10 # Headaches after training: 2 Participant #7: # Headaches before training: 8 # Headaches after training: 1 Participant #8: # Headaches before training: 6 # Headaches after training: 0 Participant #9: # Headaches before training: 7 # Headaches after training: 2

Muscle tension in the head region has been associated with tension headaches. Therefore, a physician reasoned that if the muscle tension could be reduced, perhaps the headaches would decrease or go away altogether. They designed an experiment in which nine participants with tension headaches participated. The participants kept logs of the number of headaches experienced during a two-week baseline period. Then they were trained to lower their muscle tension in the head region using a biofeedback device. For this experiment, the biofeedback device was connected to the frontalis muscle, a muscle in the forehead region. The device told the participants the amount of tension in the muscle to which it was attached (in this case, frontalis) and helped them achieve low tension levels. After six weeks of training, during which the participants had become successful at maintaining low frontalis muscle tension, they again kept a two-week log of the number of headaches experienced. The following are the number of headaches recorded during each two-week period.

Participant #1:
# Headaches before training: 17
# Headaches after training: 2

Participant #2:
# Headaches before training: 13
# Headaches after training: 7

Participant #3:
# Headaches before training: 6
# Headaches after training: 2

Participant #4:
# Headaches before training: 5
# Headaches after training: 3

Participant #5:
# Headaches before training: 5
# Headaches after training: 6

Participant #6:
# Headaches before training: 10
# Headaches after training: 2

Participant #7:
# Headaches before training: 8
# Headaches after training: 1

Participant #8:
# Headaches before training: 6
# Headaches after training: 0

Participant #9:
# Headaches before training: 7
# Headaches after training: 2

Added by Cindy F.