Addressing the Problem of the Homeless with Neurofeedback
The current issue of The New Yorker features an article by Malcolm Gladwell on the problem of the homeless. The title of “Million Dollar Murray” sets the theme: It may be a lot more expensive to manage homelessness than it is to solve the problem. Murray Barr was a homeless person in Reno, Nevada, until […]
Scientific Absolutism
The other day it was 87 degrees in our neighborhood in Los Angeles. Unusual? Yes, but the previous record was 86 degrees, and that was twenty years ago. One can’t base much of a case on such isolated extrema in weather, but viscerally they do give one pause. I have yet to close the sunroof […]
Reflections on the Winter Brain Conference
We just returned from the 14th annual Winter Brain Conference in Palm Springs. I can give only a partial perspective on it since it is impossible for any one person to take it all in. Conference attendance was impacted both by the Biofeedback Foundation of Europe Conference, which drew away some of the usual key […]
A Tribute to Richard O. Lawrence
Over the years we have been following the technique of using music-based auditory challenges to help with auditory processing deficits, the work that arose out of Tomatis’ original research in France. It is apparently still a much smaller field than our own, and it has had its own growth pains along the way. The field […]
Hysteria and Hysteresis
There is a Buddhist saying, “you can never step into the same river twice.” And it may similarly be true that we never train the same brain twice. One of abiding mysteries about our way of training is that the advantages of optimizing reward frequency can be so obvious to us and yet remain so […]
Service Delivery Models
There has been a lot of discussion round and about with regard to professional ethics in the last few months, mostly as a reference standard for judging who may rightly deliver neurofeedback services. Essentially all of the relevant ethical criteria refer to the relationship of the clinician and the client. The only social dimension in […]
Neurofeedback in the mental health disciplines
Someone just drew our attention to the position taken by the American Academy of Pediatrics on certain alternative approaches to ADHD. (http://www.aap.org/pubed/ZZZXL1ITXSC.htm?&sub_cat=18) We quote from the website: “The following methods have not been proven to work in scientific studies: Optometric vision training (asserts that faulty eye movement and sensitivities cause the behavior problems) Megavitamins and […]
And Still the Battle Rages…
With the onset of the new year, I wanted to turn the page and start off on a new topic. However, the question of professional boundaries continues to occupy some of the lists. If discussions of this issue are intended to bring parties together, rather the opposite is happening. Arguments are being refined; lines of […]