Application of Neurofeedback Archives - Page 8 of 9 - EEG INFO

Florence Wald

The death of Florence Wald at the age of 91 is a moment to reflect on the extraordinary change she has worked as a pioneer of hospice care. As a Dean of the School of Nursing at Yale, Wald was troubled by the exclusive focus on cures, with little regard for the wishes of the patient or his or her family about ongoing care. She became acquainted with St. Christopher’s, the first hospice in England that was established by pioneer Cicely Saunders. After quitting her position and spending time at St. Christopher’s, she then established the first hospice in the United States in 1971, which in time became the model for hospices everywhere.

Wald had a larger vision, however. “Hospice care for the terminally ill is the end piece of how to care for patients from birth on,” she wrote. It is this vision that needs to be carried forward, and that has particular implications for us in neurofeedback. In hospice care we have a more balanced view of the needs of the patient. The focus is on maximizing the quality of life rather than mere avoidance of death. It involves the family fully, and relies on home care as much as possible. In this setting, there is a softer boundary between the care givers and the care consumers. Continue reading “Florence Wald”

Infra-low Frequency Neurofeedback Training

The following newsletter is now mainly of historical interest. Discussed here is the design of the first-generation Cygnet, which was intended for operation within the conventional EEG spectrum. There was no recognition yet of the need to cover the extremely low frequency region. The follow-on design, which became available in 2012, was optimized for operation across the entire band, including in particular the infra-low frequency region extending down to 0.1mHz. (Siegfried Othmer, 1/6/2015)

The recent newsletter on Infra-low Frequency Training raised a number of issues within our readership and within the larger neurofeedback community. The principal issues are addressed in the following.

First of all there is the issue of how we detect infra-low frequency activity with an amplifier that “cuts off” at 0.08 Hz. The Cygnet system incorporates a single stage of high-pass filtering into its design. We did so to provide more stable and more graceful operation of the system in its most common applications. Little did we know that down the line our most common applications would extend well into the frequency range that we were cutting off with our filter.

A single stage of filtering yields a gentle filter function, with an attenuation of a factor of ten for a factor of ten in frequency. This is best shown in a graph that uses logarithmic scales, particularly since we are now covering such a broad range in frequency. The amplifier transfer characteristic is shown in Figure 1. At a frequency of 0.008 Hz, for example, our system gain is a factor of ten down from the cutoff frequency of 0.08. Whether or not this presents a real problem is not a matter of the signal level, but rather of the signal-to-noise ratio. At low frequencies, we tend to refer to this as drift rather than noise, but there is no real distinction implied here. Continue reading “Infra-low Frequency Neurofeedback Training”

Northeast Regional Biofeedback Society Fall Conference

The program of the Northeast Regional Biofeedback Society Fall Conference, convening on the grounds of the former Women’s adjunct college of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, quite possibly pointed the way to our near-term future, namely the mutual accommodation of the biofeedback and neurofeedback perspectives. The one-day conference was preceded by an all-day seminar on Heart Rate Variability (HRV) training, conducted by Paul Lehrer, Bronya and Evgeny Vaschillo, and Maria Karavidas.

Ever since I first heard of the renaissance of HRV training on the basis of the pioneering Russian work in that area, I have been starting off the discussion of neurofeedback in our training courses with an introduction to HRV training. It illustrates a number of concepts that carry over into our work. It was a relief to hear that the essential concepts have only become even more firmly established over recent years. Continue reading “Northeast Regional Biofeedback Society Fall Conference”

Homecoming for Veterans

PTSD and Neurofeedback Video Case Study Americans universally express appreciation for the service of our troops overseas. Yet so little is done to support the re-acclimation of our courageous soldiers upon their return home. This problem, which has been with us through many wars, will be exacerbated in the near future with the impending return of tens of thousands of veterans from Iraq — many of whom have served multiple tours of duty.

Every soldier loses something in the battlefield. Certainly, the profound effects of PTSD, depression, and traumatic brain injury are only part of the story. Extended tours of duty under the most challenging conditions of urban warfare have made these and other problems worse. Medical advances are now allowing many soldiers to survive injuries that would not have been survivable in previous wars. But there is no comparable remedy for the mental health consequences suffered by the soldiers. These veterans need assistance they are not currently receiving as they come home to rebuild their lives, their families and their businesses. Continue reading “Homecoming for Veterans”

Folk Remedies and Folk Wisdom

I just went for my vision exam, and since it had been three years the technology had advanced once again in the interim. The bright flash that used to be employed to take a picture of the retina is not as fierce as it once was, and they hand you the trigger so that you even know when it’s coming. Efficiently one wends one’s way from one instrument to another, and it’s all done within a half hour. It is recommended that everyone have his or her vision checked on some schedule.

It is odd that we won’t, as a society, do the same for the brains of our children. Some simple tests every year during the school career could expose certain problem areas that should be specifically addressed. We really know a lot more about help for brain function than is being applied, and it’s not just neurofeedback. But whenever this does start to happen, the testing should be applied universally, not just to the child that is identified as a problem. And the helpful techniques should be applied universally, just as we provide education universally, because every brain can benefit to some extent or another. Continue reading “Folk Remedies and Folk Wisdom”

The Healing Power of Neurofeedback

It is sheer delight for me to just delve into Stephen Larsen’s new book and travel with him the remarkable journey of Len Ochs and his colleagues in the discovery and exploration of the LENS technique (which stands for Low Energy Neurofeedback System). No one could have ever predicted where the initial speculations might eventually lead. In retrospect, the journey represents an almost picture-book case of how clinical research should ideally be conducted. It may not look quite so ideal to those who actually went through it. The personal and financial crises that may have been strewn across the path along the way are mercifully not recounted. But the process can indeed be a model to the rest of us. There was no roadmap to follow. The process was willed forward by a very determined fellow, and yet he also flogged it with skepticism every step of the way. No one applied a more thorough-going critical eye than Len himself.

The initial speculations emerged out of Len’s collaboration with Harold Russell and his colleague Dr. Carter. They were making inroads on specific learning disabilities with some fairly generic audio-visual stimulation techniques at the time. The hope was to have a standard device that could be used inexpensively and across the board with lots of children. With the simple concept that one might be better off “responding” to the EEG with the stimulus rather than “driving” it open-loop, Len set out on a path that would take him to the very opposite terrain, namely toward a technique that is deployed under some fairly tight constraints and with highly individualized parameters, all done under the vigilant eye of an astute, experienced, and sensitive clinician, while taking on some of the most difficult challenges in mental health. Continue reading “The Healing Power of Neurofeedback”