How Neuromatrix Neurofeedback Training Works

     The brain has an innate intelligence, being designed by Nature to survive and perform in a maximized way, regardless of environmental circumstances. Also in the design are physiological mechanisms to rapidly adapt the brain to sudden and unique conditions and environments.
     Those able to perform effortlessly at optimal levels have brains structurally and functionally able to do what Nature has designed it to do -- precisely, with efficiency, and "on demand." The brains in those with attention, learning, memory, and mood problems, on the other hand, are not able to its job efficiently: Inappropriately slow brain waves overwhelm the faster frequencies required for peak attentional states, necessary frequency resources are locally or globally deficit and not available for specific tasks (reading, for example), or the brain is energetically "locked" into a particular brain wave pattern and not able to easily shift from task to task. Nature is not able to do its job, and performance suffers.
     If a brain is physically damaged (from birth trauma, near drowning, or traumatic head injury, for example), it begins to repair itself. When the brain senses the repairs are as complete as its resources allow, it "locks itself" into place. This "locking in," called homeostasis, is nature's insurance policy -- it is how nature insures the brain won't lose ground again to become worse. As valuable as the process is for maximized survivability, it also locks in performance. Long-term improvement is slowed or stopped, negatively impacting life and future learning and earning potential.
As demonstrated daily at Neurofeedback Centers of America, if the damaged and inefficient brain is given informational assistance on how it is performing, it will unlock its patterning and use the external resource (biofeedback) to further improve its performance.
     The previous symptoms of the damage or dysfunction (the inattention, learning difficulties, memory problems, or disabling moods) falling away opens the possibility for superior attention capability, maximized attentional flexibility, and elite performance in the classroom, on the job, or on the athletic field.

Understanding how Remedial Neurofeedback Training™ works requires thinking about correcting neurological inefficiencies such as learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD, memory problems, depression, and the effects of head injury in an entirely different way.
Remedial Neurofeedback Training™ is not a drug treatment, nor is it drug-like in its action. There is no "active" ingredient, and no possibility for side effects. It does not treat any "disease," nor does it act in a drug-like fashion to suppress symptoms. In fact, Remedial Neurofeedback Training™ doesn't "do something" to the brain -- except give it information on how it is performing.

Remedial Neurofeedback Training's™ answer to neurological inefficiencies and peak performance training is dramatically different from anything found in any traditional medical, psychological, educational or athletic performance system. Its purpose is singular: To give meaningful information to the brain on how it is performing, with specific frequency resources it can use to improve its performance. Using the information, the brain, on it's own, restores (or creates) optimum function.

     What kind of job would you do if you did not have a mirror to shave or to put on your makeup? Could you do it? If so, what kind of job would you do? How would you know if you did a good job?
     As simple as it is, a piece of reflective glass is a biofeedback system. A mirror allows you to instantly collect and analyze a tremendous amount of information. Based on what you see, you can perform very complex tasks easily and effortlessly.
     Remedial Neurofeedback Training™ acts for the brain as a mirror acts for you and your face - it gives instant feedback for enhanced performance.

     In the typical Remedial Neurofeedback Training™ session, the trainee (and, therefore, the trainee's brain) is given a complex task to perform --- a video game requiring the manual manipulation of shapes moving in space. As a result, the visual centers in the back of the brain, the strategic functions of the frontal lobes, the memory and auditory processing function of the temporal lobes, the spatially oriented parietal lobes, the sensory motor strip (where the brain senses incoming information and causes the body to do a specific task), and the supplementary motor area (the brain area used for intentional performance) are all engaged in processing and executing highly complex activity.
     With all this is going on, an additional and even higher level of activity is presented to the brain: A computer generated audio tone derived from the brain's own brain wave patterning. The brain is told, as it works, how it is responding and executing the game's challenges.
     In the same way a mirror allows you to shave without cutting yourself, or to put on makeup without smearing the lipstick, the tones allow the brain to make fine and critical adjustments to its performance.
The difference in playing a video game at home, and playing a video game with feedback to the brain on how it is performing, is the same as putting on makeup without -- or with -- a mirror.

Think of Remedial Neurofeedback Training™ as a biological information system - a virtual engineering Research and Development library for your brain. The Quantitative EEG (computerized Brain Wave Analysis) tells the Neurotherapist where and in what way your brain is inefficient; specific Remedial Neurofeedback training™ protocols give your brain information it can use to repair itself and enhance performance. Just as you use a mirror to do a better job on your face, your brain uses the auditory feedback information to restore and enhance its brain wave patterning.