Mapping the brain
Computers offer neruofeedback an in-depth look at our brains at work
by Gretchen Morse
Imagine playing a video game, controlling the action with only your
brain, and at the same time reducing your depression! This technique
is called neurofeedback, and it is finding its way into the offices of
psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers around the country.
How does neurofeedback work?
We are born with certain patterns of brainwaves. Other patterns develop
over time and after exposure to life events. Scientists and researchers
have studied the brainwaves of thousands of individuals, and have
developed models of what are considered “normal” brainwave patterns and
distributions.
For example, brain images and digital EEGs (or Electroencephalograms)
have shown us that the frontal lobes connect with emotion. Individuals
with higher activity on the left frontal side of the brain are
generally happier and more positive than those individuals with higher
right frontal activity. Neurofeedback gives therapists the opportunity
to record an individual’s brainwaves, look for this and other
imbalances, and then “re-train” the brain to produce higher (or lower)
frequencies in specific areas.
So, for someone with depression, who has higher frontal activity on the
right, we might place a sensor to record their brainwaves on the left,
and program the computer to “reward” them with a sound or moving visual
every time they produced higher frequencies on their left side. Over
many sessions, the brain can learn to maintain the desired frequencies
over longer periods. An important thing to remember is that nothing
gets put into the brain; we are only recording and giving feedback to
the existing brainwaves.
Skeptical? Consider the famous late 1960’s experiment in which
scientist Barry Sterman trained cats to produce more of a particular
brainwave frequency. In a subsequent (but unrelated) experiment for
NASA, he exposed cats to rocket fuel. Sterman found that many of the
cats had seizures and died when exposed to the fuel, however, the ones
that survived happened to be the ones he had trained with
Neurofeedback. This spawned new research and success in using
Neurofeedback to treat Epilepsy in human subjects.
One of our many success stories is a female client in her 60s, with
fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, depression, social anxiety and panic
attacks. Neurofeedback has given her (in her words) an improved sense
of well-being, lifted her depression, reduced her panic episodes and
given her additional ability to cope better in daily life. It has been
a joy to see clients like her “come alive” again. Neurofeedback has
helped her in areas that medications were not addressing, and will most
likely be a long-lasting change for her even after she finishes her
treatments.
Neurofeedback gives a new hope for many cognitive and emotional
conditions for patients that have not been helped by traditional
treatments. Specific protocols are shown to help with age-related
cognitive decline, as well. It can also help executives, musicians and
athletes decrease performance anxiety and improve focus. Neurofeedback
is a non-medicinal approach that can have life-long benefits.
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