Medical professionals have known about these electrical conversations
for over 60 years, using a devise called the electroencephalogram
(EEG) to record the brain waves. Neurologists (medical doctors that
diagnose and treat diseases of the brain and nervous system) find
the EEG indispensable, looking for distortions in the brain wave patterning
to help diagnose seizures and manage epilepsy, and to help diagnose
or rule out a brain tumor, blood clot, or stroke in those with such
symptoms as black outs, headaches, or unusual behavior.
A few years ago, computer technology had advanced to a point that
a brain wave analysis system could be created that broke down the
complexity of the brain wave patterning. As research in major medical
centers evolved, the Quantitative EEG revealed that there is much
more to brain waves than the detection of brain disease: The technology
can also let us know where and in what way the brain is efficiently
doing and not doing its job.
It wasn't long
before biofeedback researchers figured out that when the power of
the Quantitative EEG is combined with traditional biofeedback technology,
the brain could be led to enhance its own performance. Electrodes
placed on the scalp pick up the electrical energy the brain is producing;
Brain wave signals are sent to the special computer, which amplifies
the signals and rapidly divides the complexity of the brain wave frequencies
into small groups of energy; The Neurotherapist selects a frequency
group known to be important for focus, strategy, or memory, and returns
the information back to the brain as audio tones. As the brain "listens"
to the computer-generated audio information, it senses and analyzes
the tones, just as it does with all incoming information. Noting the
one-to-one relationship between the incoming tones and frequencies
it is using to perform the task, the brain begins to experiment by
increasing or decreasing the energy at that particular frequency.
Finding that increasing the energy improves its performance and decreasing
it makes it worse (or vice versa), the brain begins to activate (or
deactivate) cells to enhance and maintain the new level of performance.
The brain, in other words, uses the neurofeedback
tones to do what it was designed to do by nature: Use information
coming in from the outside world to learn or teach itself something.
In this instance, the "something" it learns is that increasing (or
decreasing) certain frequencies helps it better focus, understand
incoming information better, and execute complex tasks in a more efficient
way.
There is a fundamental difference between
traditional instrumented biofeedback and the more recently developed
neurofeedback. Biofeedback helps us learn to take conscious control
of our internal terrain for better management of stress and stress-related
health problems. With neurofeedback, however, it is not "us" that
learns the new behavior: It is our brain. Just as "we" learned to
walk and ride a bike, all "we" have to do is go through the motions.
(In this case, sit with electrodes on our head and play a video game
or watch a video.) Our brain quickly and easily learns what it needs
to do to perform complex tasks in a better and more efficient way.
What is Neurofeedback?
We
are able to go about our day because our brain talks to itself with
highly complex waves of energy. These internal dialogues allow us
to pay attention and focus on what is going on in our world, to remember
what it is we want to know or need to do, to go to and stay asleep,
and to color our life with emotional actions and reactions.
Specific brain problems...
