| |
basic electronic Article
Below,
you'll find extensive information on leading basic electronic articles
and products to help you on your way to success.
Eeg Biofeedback (neurofeedback)
By Phil Bate PhD
by Phil Bate PhD
EEG biofeedback (AKA neurofeedback) has unquestionably proven over the past 35 years to be the best "brain training” method to solve many brain problems such as the ADD-Autism continuum, Depression, Insomnia, Epilepsy, and many similar brain problems. It has continually grown as a "therapy" over 35 years, and at this point, the accepted success rate for ADD/ADHD is about 85%. For other brain problems, this success rate may be even higher.
What the clinicians (charging amounts up to $250 per half hour) don't want you to know is that it is indeed a very simple process, and in all but a very few cases, can be done by anyone with more than a few working brain cells. When I learned this fact in 2000 while co-presenting a seminar in Soviet Georgia, I came out of retirement to lease and sell EEG BF units. I was trying to bring this horrendous price down to where mid income families had an alternative to Ritalin and those other dangerous drugs. Think about it - what alternative does a low or mid income family have to these drugs at prices upwards of $10,000 (for the "usual" 60 half hour sessions)?
Exactly what does EEG BF (AKA neurofeedback) do, and how does it do it? It seems that our brains put out certain audio frequency notes in wave patterns, something like music. The amplitude of these brain signals is very low on the order of millionths of a volt. Only in fairly recent years have we had electronic amplifiers that can make this strong enough to "hear" at all.
When these brain signals were first discovered, they were found to be associated with some brain functions, and were separated (very loosely) into different bands. The lowest frequency band was the 1-3 cycle per second (Hz) band, and this was associated with deep sleep. It was named Delta.
Next, was the band between 4 and 7 Hz. NASA scientists found that this band was associated with attention/concentration problems. If the signals in this band are too strong, it seems to interfere with concentration and attention. Theta is also loosely associated with artistic ability.
Next is the band between 8 and 12 Hz called Alpha. This is associated with meditation, relaxation, etc. Persons in hypnosis, or concentrating on TV or meditating, show high strength signals over this band. A lot of research was done on this area during the 1960's to the 1980's
Above this area, it seemed to earlier researchers that this was the spectrum of the awake mind working or thinking normally, and it covered from 12 Hz up. This huge spectrum was named Beta. (It is probable that as research continues that other significant bands will be discovered and utilized.)
In the 1960/70's, Researchers found that there was a very small signal at about 13 Hz (from 12-14 Hz) that had some very interesting things associated with it. If it was amplified in the brain, it seemed to solve some brain problems, including the ADD-Autism continuum, depression, insomnia and others.
In 2000 at that seminar I first voiced the theory that raising this particular wave somehow changed the brain response to allergy/sensitivity, and that was the mechanism that solved the brain problems. As an orthomolecular psychologist, I knew that allergy/sensitivity was a major cause of all such brain problems.)
So, this newly discovered band was later named Sensory Motor Response, or SMR for short. This was because the "usual" practice was to place two electronic sensors at points equally spaced between the ears on the top of the head. These were designated as C3 and C4, with Cz located at the center of the head. Below these points are the brain areas that seem to be associated with Sensory Motion.
We can actually "see" these brain waves. By amplifying this complex audio signal a million times or so, and then filtering out desired signals (or bands), we can isolate each frequency or band of frequencies, and use this audio signal in various ways. It can be displayed on a computer, and used to drive programs.
One way is to show the amplitude of a particular band as a colored circle (or square) that grows larger or smaller depending on it's amplitude. Many earlier EEG biofeedback used this type of simple display. The trainee simply tried to concentrate on making the Green circle in the middle of the computer screen grow bigger, while holding the Blue (Theta) and/or the Yellow (Beta) small.
This is the "feedback" portion. The trainee "sees" the effect of raising or lowering the particular brain waves, and can actually control this to some extent. With longer training, this control grows, and the SMR signal increases. It's not fast, but it works.
In that scheme, the Theta and Beta waves were mostly used to act as controls so that something that increased all waves (60 cycle hum, noise artifacts, etc) would not be confused with SMR increase. Then, NASA research showed that by holding the Theta brain wave down, it increased attention/concentration. So, almost by accident, this original scheme was successful for ADD/ADHD/Autism attention issues.
Much better schemes like the Play Attention unit were developed specifically for the ADD-Autism continuum. For example, the Theta signal was used to control the altitude of a flying object. If the trainee lost concentration, the object went lower. This was an actual video game that was more interesting than the colored circles or squares.
Because the Play Attention people were teachers, they were aware that ADD/ADHD kids could concentrate on playing the high stimuli (gory) video games for hours, but couldn't concentrate on a low stimuli teacher for many minutes. That is why all the games used on Play
Freelance Work
|
|
