Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-019-09440-4 Towards a Pragmatic Approach to a Psychophysiological Unit of Analysis for Mental and Brain Disorders: An EEG‑Copeia for Neurofeedback Jean‑Arthur Micoulaud‑Franchi 1,2  · Jean‑Marie Batail 3,4  · Thomas Fovet 5,6  · Pierre Philip 1,2  · Michel Cermolacce 7,8  · Aurore Jaumard‑Hakoun 9  · François Vialatte 9 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract This article proposes what we call an “EEG-Copeia” for neurofeedback, like the “Pharmacopeia” for psychopharmacology. This paper proposes to defne an “EEG-Copeia” as an organized list of scientifcally validated EEG markers, characterized by a specifc association with an identifed cognitive process, that defne a psychophysiological unit of analysis useful for mental or brain disorder evaluation and treatment. A characteristic of EEG neurofeedback for mental and brain disorders is that it targets a EEG markers related to a supposed cognitive process, whereas conventional treatments target clinical manifestations. This could explain why EEG neurofeedback studies encounter difculty in achieving reproducibility and validation. The present paper suggests that a frst step to optimize EEG neurofeedback protocols and future research is to target a valid EEG marker. The specifcity of the cognitive skills trained and learned during real time feedback of the EEG marker could be enhanced and both the reliability of neurofeedback training and the therapeutic impact optimized. However, several of the most well-known EEG markers have seldom been applied for neurofeedback. Moreover, we lack a reliable and valid EEG targets library for further RCT to evaluate the efcacy of neurofeedback in mental and brain disorders. With the present manuscript, our aim is to foster dialogues between cognitive neuroscience and EEG neurofeedback according to a psychophysiological perspective. The primary objective of this review was to identify the most robust EEG target. EEG markers linked with one or several clearly identifed cognitive-related processes will be identifed. The secondary objective was to organize these EEG markers and related cognitive process in a psychophysiological unit of analysis matrix inspired by the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project. Keywords Neurofeedback · Psychophysiology · Research Domain Criteria · EEG · Event-related potential * Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi jarthur.micoulaud@gmail.com 1 Service d’explorations fonctionnelles du système nerveux, Clinique du sommeil, CHU de Bordeaux, Place Amélie Raba-Léon, 33076 Bordeaux, France 2 USR CNRS 3413 SANPSY, CHU Pellegrin, Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France 3 Academic Psychiatry Department, Centre Hospitalier Guillaume Régnier, Rennes, France 4 EA 4712 Behavior and Basal Ganglia, CHU Rennes, Rennes 1 University, Rennes, France 5 CHU Lille, Pôle de Psychiatrie, 9000 Lille, France 6 Univ. Lille, CNRS UMR 9193, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Afectives (SCALab-PsyCHIC), 59000 Lille, France 7 Pôle de Psychiatrie “Solaris”, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sainte-Marguerite, 270 Bd de Sainte-Marguerite, 13009 Marseille, France 8 Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (LNC), UMR CNRS 7291, 31 Aix-Marseille Université, Site St Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseille Cedex 3, France 9 Laboratoire Plasticité du Cerveau, UMR 8249, ESPCI Paris Tech, UMR 8249, ESPCI Paris Tech, PSL Université Recherche, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France