Biofeedback is the technique of gaining greater awareness of many physiological functions of one's own body by using electronic or other instruments, and with a goal of being able to manipulate the body's systems at will. Humans conduct biofeedback naturally all the time, at varied levels of consciousness and intentionality. Biofeedback and the biofeedback loop can also be thought of as self-regulation. Some of the processes that can be controlled include brainwaves, muscle tone, skin conductance, heart rate and pain perception.

Biofeedback may be used to improve health, performance, and the physiological changes that often occur in conjunction with changes to thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Recently, technologies have provided assistance with intentional biofeedback. Eventually, these changes may be maintained without the use of extra equipment, for no equipment is necessarily required to practice biofeedback.

Meta-analysis of different biofeedback treatments have shown some benefit in the treatment of headaches and migraines and ADHD, though most of the studies in these meta-analyses did not make comparisons with alternative treatments.

Information coded biofeedback is an evolving form and methodology in the field of biofeedback. Its uses may be applied in the areas of health, wellness and awareness. Biofeedback has its modern conventional roots in the early 1970s.

Over the years, biofeedback as a discipline and a technology has continued to mature and express new versions of the method with novel interpretations in areas utilizing the electromyograph, electrodermograph, electroencephalograph and electrocardiogram among others. The concept of biofeedback is based on the fact that a wide variety of ongoing intrinsic natural functions of the organism occur at a level of awareness generally called the "unconscious". The biofeedback process is designed to interface with select aspects of these "unconscious" processes.

The definition reads: Biofeedback is a process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance. Precise instruments measure physiological activity such as brainwaves, heart function, breathing, muscle activity, and skin temperature. These instruments rapidly and accurately feed back information to the user. The presentation of this information—often in conjunction with changes in thinking, emotions, and behavior—supports desired physiological changes. Over time, these changes can endure without continued use of an instrument.

A more simple definition could be: Biofeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many physiological functions primarily using instruments that provide information on the activity of those same systems, with a goal of being able to manipulate them at will. (Emphasis^[which?] added by author.)

In both of these definitions, a cardinal feature of the concept is the association of the "will" with the result of a new cognitive "learning" skill. Some examine this concept and do not necessarily ascribe it simply to a willful acquisition of a new learned skill but also extend the dynamics into the realms of a behavioristic conditioning. Behaviorism contends that it is possible to change the actions and functions of an organism by exposing it to a number of conditions or influences. Key to the concept is not only that the functions are unconscious but that conditioning processes themselves may be unconscious to the organism. Information coded biofeedback relies primarily on the behavior conditioning aspect of biofeedback in promoting significant changes in the functioning of the organism.