Overview
The brain has an amazing capacity to learn and to change. Neurofeedback is a technology that allows us to harness this ability and train the brain to make positive changes. This is accomplished through the use of real-time feedback given to individuals of their brains' electrical activities. In other words, someone sees a representation of his or her current “brainwaves” on a screen. Through the use of various audio and visual stimuli, the person who is training receives reward signals when his or her brain is functioning optimally and accomplishing the desired brainwave activity. Through this process, the person’s brain actually learns how to change its patterns of brainwave activity and make other physiological changes as well. These adaptations in the brain result in positive changes in the person’s cognitive abilities and behavior.
"You're not stuck with the brain you've got."
Check out this short video to get some general information about neurofeedback.
Our Brain Training Process
Before individuals begin with their brain training protocols (neurofeedback) it is important to get a full, comprehensive picture of their brain functioning. In order to do this, we first perform a qEEG. This gives us a detailed map of the individual's brainwave activity. We then analyze their specific brain activity and contrast the results with symptoms they are experiencing. This allows us to identify areas that could either be causing a problem or be trained to function more optimally. Additionally, we are able to process the client’s qEEG through a “normative database." This database compares their brain maps with the brain maps of people in their age group in order to further identify any possible abnormalities.
Once we have the client’s brain map, and have identified their specific goals, we use all of this information to develop a specific training protocol.
Neurofeedback is the technology that is used to implement this brain training protocol for individuals. Neurofeedback teaches them to make changes to their own brains, and regulate their brains' electrical activity more efficiently. This method is very empowering because they are learning to regulate and make these positive changes themselves.
What Exactly Does Neurofeedback Look Like?
Step 1: Set-Up
When an individual has a neurofeedback session, sensors are placed at different areas on his or her scalp, corresponding to the areas of the brain that are going to be trained. These sensors are simply used to measure the electrical activity coming from the brain, so an individual will not feel anything other than the sensors resting on the skin. Once these sensors are in place, the specific protocols that are to be used for the training session are input into the computer system, and the neurofeedback session begins.
Step 2: The Training Session
Depending on the specific protocol that is being used, individuals will be instructed to do one of a number of things. They might simply sit back and watch a screen on which there will be some form of visual stimulus. This may be a movie or television show, a game or perhaps they will see their actual brainwaves represented.
The neurofeedback software monitors the person's real-time brainwave activity. The neurofeedback software will give the client a reward signal when they are accomplishing the desired brainwave activity. The reward feedback can take different forms, depending on what visual and auditory stimuli are being utilized. For example, if the client is watching a movie, when their brainwaves are falling within a desired range (unique for each person), the movie will continue to play. But then, when their brainwaves fall out of the desired range, the movie will become fuzzy and the sound will be distorted. The longer the brain receives this feedback, the better it will become at maintaining the desired brainwave activity. This corresponds to better cognitive performance and fewer negative symptoms. Eventually, with enough training, the brain will maintain these changes outside of the neurofeedback sessions, and the individual will experience the benefits of these positive adaptations all the time.
Step 3: Subjective Self-Assessment
After each neurofeedback session the client will be given a checklist to take home with them. This checklist lists a variety of different cognitive functions and symptoms that are broken down into four main categories: Cognitive processing, mood, emotional control, performance and sleep. The client will monitor themselves over the 48 hours following each neurofeedback session and use this checklist to record any changes that they experience. The client will bring this checklist with them for their next session and any changes experienced will be assessed prior to the beginning of the training session. This checklist is used in conjunction with many other quantifiable measures to monitor the client’s progress and ensure that the neurofeedback sessions are producing the desired outcome in the most efficient amount of time.
Why/How Does Neurofeedback Work?
The brain is a stimulus seeking organ. The brain is designed to constantly be gathering information from the environment around us and to interpret that information and learn from it in order to function more effeciently. Neurofeedback takes advantage of this attribute of the brain by providing real-time feedback of its electrical activity. This feedback is manipulated in an intentional way so that the brain is rewarded when it is accomplishing a desired brain wave pattern.
The brain learns to relate this feedback with the particular brainwave patterns that it is creating and then further learns to change those patterns so it will continue to receive the reward stimulus given by the neurofeedback system. This process of giving and removing a reward in order to increase or decrease a behavior is rooted in a concept called operant conditioning.
Another important concept to understand, through which neurofeedback produces these desired changes in the brain, is something called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form new connections and pathways throughout an entire lifetime. What this means in the context of neurofeedback is that a client’s brain is physically changing and establishing new connections between brain cells in order to continue producing the brainwave patterns that will allow it to keep receiving the reward signals during neurofeedback. Our brains are truly amazing! The brain is designed to grow, learn and heal throughout our entire lifetimes.
What Can Neurofeedback Be Used For?
Neurofeedback is a well-researched and sophisticated modality that can help with many different disorders and problems. Typically, practitioners divide neurofeedback training into two categories. One category is viewing neurofeedback for cognitive or peak performance training. The other view of neurofeedback is for the treatment of a particular disorder. At Woodlands Psychotherapy and Brain Training (WPBT) we view it a bit differently.
How someone’s brain is functioning falls on a spectrum. Every person has his or her unique brain and cognitive abilities, but this same spectrum of brain functioning applies to everyone. You can see this concept illustrated in the graph below.
On the absolute right side of the spectrum is a brain that is healthy and functioning optimally. When a person’s current brain function falls near this end of the spectrum, it correlates with operating at his or her fullest potential. Natural neuroplasticity and the use of neurofeedback helps individuals obtain their unique goals and live out their potential in numerous areas of their lives.
On the absolute left side of the spectrum is a brain that is unhealthy and functioning poorly. When a person’s current brain function falls near this end of the spectrum, it correlates with struggle.
The farther on the left side of the spectrum one's brain function falls, the more likely symptoms of disorders occur. The middle of the spectrum is what we call neutral, and it relates to a lack of suffering or no symptoms. Neurofeedback can certainly help push someone who is on the left side of the spectrum to the middle of the spectrum where we will see symptom abatement. But our goal at WPBT is to push all of our clients as far to the right side of their personal spectrum as possible. The farther to the right side of the spectrum a person’s brain is functioning the more likely they are, not only to be symptom free, but to thrive.
This is why we do not view peak performance training and treatment of disorders as separate categories, but as opposite ends of the same spectrum of brain functioning. Our goal at Woodlands Psychotherapy and Brain Training is to help our clients get as far to the right side of that spectrum as possible for the long-term.
Below is a list of issues for which neurofeedback has been shown to be helpful.
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ADHD (Attention Issues)
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Anxiety
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Depression
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Learning Disabilities
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Dyslexia and Dyscalculia
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
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Autistic Spectrum Disorder
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Traumatic Brain Injury/Concussion
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General Cognitive Decline
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Memory Problems
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Insomnia
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Epilepsy/Seizure Disorder
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Trauma/PTSD
How Long Do Changes Last?
This is a common question when someone is considering neurofeedback. I have to preface the answer by saying that, just as every individual’s brain is different, results can be different also. The changes that are gained from neurofeedback can be, and often are, permanent. Since neurofeedback is training for the brain, consistent training sessions will results in greater gains. At least two training sessions a week allows the brain to learn what is being taught and master it. This is the key to making the changes gained from neurofeedback long-lasting.
Occasionally there will be a client who wishes to come back every so often for maintenance sessions or for a follow up qEEG to get a quantifiable measure of the changes they have made in their brain. The goal is to empower clients to make the changes brainwave patterns and physiology that will directly lead to positive changes experienced in every area of their lives. These positive changes that are experienced will then act as “feedback” for their brain and continue to positively reinforce the changes that have been made during the neurofeedback training. In this way, the neurofeedback will be replaced by the feedback they are receiving in their lives and help to make the changes in their brains permanent.
It is time to have the brain, and the life, you deserve!