Apr 26th, 2010
by Jay Gunkelman.
This is the first of a few posts with a variety of ways the EEG can show an epileptogenic process. The morphology of the underlying process are quite dramatically varied.
The two images below show the referential and sequential montage display of an active right temporal-parietal spike and slow wave focus, seen in a child clinically diagnosed with an attachment disorder. There was no history of convulsion, nor any suspicion of the actual underlying pathophysiological basis for the behavioral presentation.
Continue reading →
Posted in: Brain Science, neurofeedback, qEEG.
Tagged: Brain Science · EEG · EEG biofeedback · epilepsy · neurofeedback · neurotherapy
Apr 26th, 2010
by Jay Gunkelman.
Epilepsy and EEG have been inextricably linked since the 1930s, when Frederick and Erna Gibbs discovered that epileptic events were visible in the EEG. The evolution of other medical imaging in the 1970s and 1980s provided a better way to localize tumors, and the clinical use tapered off in areas other than epilepsy and encephalopathies. Even with the multiplicity of other methods, the EEG remains the gold standard for identification of epilepsy.
In modern neuroscience centers, the EEG is still the tool of choice in evaluation of convulsive epilepsy, as well as some other non-convulsive forms, such as staring episodes seen in “absence epilepsy” typically as a 3/second spike and wave dominant anteriorly, or temporal lobe epilepsy, which is seen as a “notched” slow wave discharge fronto-temporally. Continue reading →
Posted in: Brain Science, neurofeedback, qEEG.
Tagged: Brain Science · EEG · EEG biofeedback · epilepsy · neurofeedback · patterns · seizure · temporal lobe epilepsy
Mar 16th, 2010
by Jay Gunkelman.
The scientific and academic press is now considering Neurofeedback as one of the ways neural plasticity can be induced/enhanced. The paper below shows the NF training changing the brain’s plasticity measurably within a single feedback session.
This may not surprise too many old-time NF practitioners, except that it is now being proven with well done studies in the traditional neuroscience literature! Neurofeedback can induce changes in brain plasticity!
Jay
First Direct Evidence of Neuroplastic Changes Following Brainwave Training
ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2010) — Significant changes in brain plasticity have been observed following alpha brainwave training.
A pioneering collaboration between two laboratories from the University of London has provided the first evidence of neuroplastic changes occurring directly after natural brainwave training. Researchers from Goldsmiths and the Institute of Neurology have demonstrated that half an hour of voluntary control of brain rhythms is sufficient to induce a lasting shift in cortical excitability and intracortical function.
Remarkably, these after-effects are comparable in magnitude to those observed following interventions with artificial forms of brain stimulation involving magnetic or electrical pulses. The novel finding may have important implications for future non-pharmacological therapies of the brain and calls for a serious re-examination and stronger backing of research on neurofeedback, a technique which may be promising tool to modulate cerebral plasticity in a safe, painless, and natural way.
Continued at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100310114936.htm
Posted in: ADHD / ADD, Addiction, Alzheimers/Dementia, Brain Science, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), neurofeedback, qEEG in the media.
Tagged: Brain Science · cognitive-behavioral treatment · EEG · EEG biofeedback · neurofeedback · neurotherapy · Personalized Medicine
Feb 19th, 2010
by Brian Milstead.
This is an excellent video talking about how seniors can help keep their brains young.
How can we live a fuller and healthier lifestyle as we get older? Perhaps keeping our body and brain engaged can help. That seems to be the case in Japan where the number of centegenarians is greater than 20,000.
THE ART OF AGING:THE LIMITLESS POTENTIAL OF THE BRAIN introduces a number of these “super-seniors” who lead healthy lives at nearly 100-years-old and, through them,searches for the “keys” to living a healthy and vital life regardless of age.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v19832384XKk8wQ5m
Posted in: Alzheimers/Dementia, Brain Science, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), qEEG, qEEG in the media.
Tagged: alzheimers · brain injury · brain mapping · Brain Science · cognitive-behavioral treatment · dementia · neurotherapy
Feb 1st, 2010
by Jay Gunkelman.
This is three sets of data from the same underlying EEG, all with varying coherence results, and with the weighted average showing the alpha hypercoherent pattern with better fidelity than any other for this data. Continue reading →
Posted in: Brain Science, qEEG.
Tagged: brain mapping · Brain Science · patterns · qEEG · technical issues
Jan 14th, 2010
by Brian Milstead.
AAPB is traveling to San Diego, California for its 41st Annual Meeting. Mark your calendars for March 24-27, 2010 to attend this gathering of experts in biofeedback, neurofeedback, and applied psychophysiology. You won’t want to miss this educational event and the networking opportunities available!
We are honored to welcome several high-profile speakers, including:
- Personalized Medicine in the Age of Technology - Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, MD, PhD; Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute
- Regeneration and Stress at Work: Strategies for Improved Employee Health - Tores Theorell, MD, PhD; Professor Emeritus at the University of Stockholm, Sweden
- An Overview of Mind Body Healing - C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD; founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, and past president of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine
- Neurotherapy in the Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury: A Physiological Hypothesis – Paul Rapp, PhD; Professor in the Department of Military and Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Posted in: Brain Science, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), neurofeedback, qEEG, qEEG in the media.
Tagged: aapb · brain injury · Brain Science · Personalized Medicine · qEEG · ramachandran · tbi · traumatic brain injury
Dec 23rd, 2009
by Jay Gunkelman.
A technical guide by Jay Gunkelman, QEEG-D
General comments:
There is a generally reciprocal effect between alpha and beta, as brain stem stimulation desynchronizes the alpha generators, beta is seen. During states of under-arousal, this relationship is not seen, as when the subject is alerted, when both alpha and beta increase.
The point is that the arousal level changes the EEG responses expected, as when a stimulant is given to an under-aroused subject, increasing alpha. In a normally aroused subject, stimulants decrease alpha, and in an anxious (low voltage fast EEG variant) subject alpha will not be seen as changed by a stimulant.
Though there is a response stereotype for each medication, there are also individual responses, which vary. Mixtures of medications become too complex to evaluate each individual medication’s contribution, not to speak of synergistic effects not seen with any single medication, which may be seen in polytherapy.
The following pages represent a summary of many articles, papers, reviews and books on medications and the CNS function, and finally nearly 30 years of experience in clinical and research EEG. The difficulty in this area is the definitions of bands varies, the methods of analysis range from visual inspection of the raw EEG to quantitative measures, not all of which are clearly defined… and thus the need for a brief summary which puts this into a concise form for reference. Continue reading →
Posted in: Addiction, Brain Science, qEEG.
Tagged: Addiction · Brain Science · EEG · qEEG · substance abuse disorder
Dec 19th, 2009
by Jay Gunkelman.
The concern regarding the Mitsar amplifier expressed with so much vigor by those with competing interests has met the reality test of actual recorded data. The concern expressed was over a theoretical time skewing error due to the data sampling of an older version of the Mitsar amplifier.
I suggested at the time that all the emotion was merely an example of someone yelling “the sky is falling”, like Chicken Little. There was no real problem, just lots of crying out and hand wringing.
I requested in an open international forum for anyone to send me a sample of the problem, and none could be produced. I suspected there was no real problem, as the sample issue was concerning a 500 sample/second device having a time skew… though this was in comparison to a database collected on a 100 sample per second device, with the waveforms interpolated from these samples. Continue reading →
Posted in: neurofeedback, qEEG.
Tagged: brain mapping · mitsar · qEEG · qeeg amplifier · qeeg database
Dec 11th, 2009
by Jay Gunkelman.
As the technologies advance and the software speed starts to allow derived measures to be used for feedback, the field is being offered many new tools for neurofeedback, including ICA based feedback, LORETA based feedback, and Z-score feedback.
All of these new tools will require clinical validation prior to being able to be considered standard techniques within our field’s armamentarium of efficacious techniques and clinical applications. All of these techniques offer great hope at this time with preliminary results, but careful clinical outcome studies remain to be performed.
In this brief note I will discuss Z-score feedback. This promising technique offers to set normative boundaries around the mean of many features of the EEG, and allow feedback to be controlled by these parameters. This obviously offers great hope to clinical outliers, as their Z-score divergence should be related to their pathology. One difficulty is that database Z-scores also show divergence when an adaptive or counter-balancing feature is used to cope with an abnormal finding. A crutch is not a normal finding, but you can’t walk without it if you have a broken leg. Continue reading →
Posted in: Brain Science, LORETA, neurofeedback.
Tagged: neurofeedback · neuroguide · z-score · zscore
