Dysponesis
The Dysponesis HypothesisWe are always casting about for better ways to frame the work that we do in order to make it comprehensible to other professionals and lay persons. Sometime it helps to dip into past history to see how others wrestled with the same issue. One notion that has threaded its way through is […]
The Flash Crash, the Soccer Ball, the Schooling Fish, and the Brain
We are challenged at all levels by complexity. In response, we do our best as scientists and engineers to model system behavior. No matter how far we are along in this process, however, we encounter events which make it clear that the model of behavior does not also model misbehavior. Misbehavior acts differently, and we […]
Wagner, Myth and the Brain
In connection with the current performance of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung here in Los Angeles, a panel discussion was organized at the REDCAT theatre on mythology and the human brain with Antonio Damasio (neuroscientist), Peter Sellars (theater, opera, and movie director, and impresario), and Bill Viola (videographer). (REDCAT stands for Roy and Edna Disney/CAL […]
Introduction to Infra-low Frequency Training
The first convincing evidence for EEG feedback efficacy in the management of pathophysiology was with regard to generalized seizures. The early work by Sterman, Lubar, as well as the subsequent follow-up by others, therefore remains a crucial point of reference for the various feedback techniques that have built upon the early protocol of SMR reinforcement […]
Protocols, Practice and Proof, Oh My!
by Matthew Fleischman, PhD “We’re not in Kansas anymore!” I thought to myself after hearing Dr. Eugene Peniston speak about brainwave therapy for alcoholism at The Menninger Foundation in Topeka in 1988. It was truly an over-the-rainbow idea that we could treat profound emotional and behavioral problems just by training individuals to modify their brainwaves. […]
Sean Casey’s Neurofeedback Story
For a number of years now I have been hearing from Leslie Coates in Florida about his work with a top-rated hitter in baseball. For reasons of client confidentiality, I never had a name to go with the story. When reporters would ask us about sports applications, the best story of all had to remain […]
The Rare Event: Toyota, Tasers, and Autism
The issue of sudden, rapid acceleration in Toyota vehicles presents an interesting case study of how our society approaches rare hazardous events, and a consideration of this history can shed light on how other such instances are handled that are of more direct interest to us here. It turns out that this issue has been […]
Neurofeedback, Global Warming, and the Financial Collapse
To someone who has been educated in the sciences it is somewhat jarring to see so many people blithely dismiss the alarming evidence in favor of global warming. And yet when it comes to neurofeedback, we are quite comfortable flying in the face of mainstream thinking and simply dismissing the mainstream position (of skepticism with […]