EEG training allows an individual to monitor his or her own brain
behavior, making visible and discrete what is normally hidden and
continuous. This transformation of the invisible to the visible
allows anyone to alter the behavior of his or her own brain. Without
technological assistance, brain behaviors would be simply too subtle
or ambiguous for proper detection and training (i.e., operant
conditioning). This is the strength of neurofeedback – operant
conditioning of psychophysiological responses beyond the level of
normal (unassisted) observation. EEG biofeedback acts like a
telescope to the mental sky.
Behavioral and mental states such as mathematical processing,
reading, or relaxation are believed to consist of unique and distinct
perceptual and cognitive operations and every mental operation has
its own unique EEG profile – that is, a unique pattern of
rhythmic activity in various parts of the brain. This concept is the
foundation of functional neuro-imaging including functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI), a popular method of investigating cerebral
blood flow.
Running on a treadmill helps a physician determine how well a
patient’s heart handles work or stress. Continuous attention
tasks are often used to reveal processing deficits in attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children and executive control
and inhibition tasks for identifying disturbances in the frontal
lobe. When we evaluate children we have to take into account a
degree of neurological immaturity. Most of the energy of an infant’s
brain resides in the slow-wave delta rhythm and more than a decade of
development may pass before an adult brainwave pattern emerges.
Theta rhythms are prominent in many children diagnosed with ADHD
because this reflects the immaturity of the ADHD brain. Theta
rhythms in an adult or non-ADHD teenager often indicate brain-injury
or neurological disease.
Many psychiatric and neurological conditions manifest themselves more
as disturbances in brain connections than as local damage or
disorder. Therapy can focus on restoring activity to isolated brain
areas or focus on re-establishing brain networks. Through trial and
error any individual gradually develops mental strategies that modify
his or her brain rhythms so as to maximize reward and in so doing
alter these rhythms for the better. Neurofeedback works at the level
or one’s will, as in will power. An individual explores what
is and what is not healthy willful behaviors, however indirectly,
through the impact one’s will has on one’s brain rhythms.
The brain is enormously plastic in terms of function as well as
structure and is capable of altering neural pathways in response to
reward. Much like our body, our brain also responds to exercise.
Neurofeedback provides one of the best forms of exercise – regulatory practice, the brain practicing at regulating itself toward empathy, compassion, relatedness and creativity. For more information on neurofeedback and its effects on resilience, regulation and recovery, call our office at 752 6634, or visit our new website: www.Neuro-Gnosis.com.