A great video on the brain from Vilayanur S. Ramachandran MD, PhD
Secrets of the Mind
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2661634191857056612
Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease: LORETA findings
Thanks to Jay Gunkelman who made a very informative post on January 27 on this forum entitled Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. There he described the EEG patterns that we should expect and detect when evaluating for AD or other dementias.
I’d like to just throw out there a few other findings that were discovered in a few exploratory investigations while working on some studies with our colleague Alicia Townsend, at the time at Univ. of North Texas. Lexicor funded these projects and now the arrangements are such that I can’t disclose more than was published in the abstracts from our talks at ISNR and AAPB. I did at least want to point to these very preliminary findings because theoretically they are in concert with your explanations.
First, we explored 10 participants between the ages of 65 and 85 were recruited at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Each was diagnosed by the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale and a medical interview. The aim of the study was to identify current source density markers in AD. EEG recording of the eyes closed condition of an AD group was compared to an age-sex matched control group using within-subject multiple t-test procedures. sLORETA difference maps in nine frequency bands were investigated. Interestingly the results showed that there was a significant increase in current source density in the delta and theta bands in the Brodmann Area (BA) 39 of the right temporal lobe and BA 31, the cingulate gyrus respectively. Additionally there were decreases in alpha in the BA 21 of the right temporal lobe and right inferior parietal lobule (Sherlin, Townsend & Hall, 2006). Continue reading →
A discussion on LORETA software use and licensing.
April 30, 2009
Leslie Sherlin, PhD
There recently has been some discussion regarding the use of low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography or LORETA, sLORETA and eLORETA. I felt compelled to make a few comments regarding this since there may be some confusion of how LORETA works and the usage of LORETA as an inverse solution specifically the licensing agreements of the KEY Institute for Brain-Mind Research at the University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich.
My intention is to very briefly explain the license agreement so that the end user can be informed. I’ll do so in an informal way by telling the story of the implementation of these methods from my perspective. For a more formal description of the use of LORETA families and some examples you can see a recently written chapter 4 by myself (Sherlin, 2009) in the latest edition of the book Introduction to Quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback edited Budzynski, Budzynski, Evans & Arbarbanel.
In 2000 I had the great privilege to visit with Roberto Pascual-Marqui PhD, the developer of the LORETA family, with my colleague and fellow student Marco Congedo. At this time the LORETA-Key software (Pascual-Marqui, 1994, 1999), had not been widely distributed and utilized in the United States. Marco had significant interest in using LORETA for visualizing brain activity and for exploring newer methods for neurofeedback and had many questions for Roberto. So upon the invitation of Roberto, Marco found funding to travel to Zurich and learn the details from the creator and I happen to be standing in the right spot at the right time. Roberto Pascual-Marqui trained us extensively on how to use his software, named LORETA-Key, which had been already released as free academic software. The LORETA-Key software is a collection of independent modules that the user must run in sequence in order to get from raw EEG to LORETA images. Continue reading →
Neurofeedback Foundation Award 2009
In his role as the Managing Director of the Foundation for Neurofeedback and
Applied Neuroscience John Fisher recently announced the Foundation’s selection of a recipient of the Neurofeedback Foundation Award.
The Foundation gives an award to the author(s) of the publication which has
“contributed the most to furthering the field of neurofeedback” during the
past year. Past recipients have included Drs Rob Coben, John Gruzelier, as
well as Johan Levesque and Mario Beauregard.
This year the Foundation has chosen Professor Dr. Juri Kropotov as recipient
of this years award, based on his book and the body of work Juri has
contributed over the years.
This award selection was announced recently at the EEG Spectrum Clinical
Interchange Conference in Los Angeles. The award includes a gorgeous plaque
as well as an honorarium.
We salute both the Foundation for helping promote the fiend of NF, as well
as all the award recipients for their publications and the substantial
contributions they all have given to our field.
Sensory + Motor Homunculus
The homunculus is a spatial representation of the cortical topography of the
somato-motor strip which is dedicated to either motor or sensory function.
The two have different structural details, since there are sensory inputs
from non-motor areas.
Some people have tried to create 3D creatures which show the spatial
distortions, with the enlarged surface proportionate to the motor expression or sensory sensitivity, with varied results.
See if you can identify the differences between the sensory and motor
version, and also critique the accuracy of the artist’s rendition of these
various versions.
Have fun with the exercise!
Jay
In Memory of E. Roy John PhD - World Renowned Neuroscientist
Life offers us many teachers, and we generally only learn a small sliver of what they have to offer from the breadth and depth of their experience.
One such teacher was E. Roy John, who most knew as a brain researcher, though he had so much more to offer… did you know he was “blacklisted” as a liberal, or that he worked on the Manhattan Project making Plutonium? Did you know he is considered the grandfather of Cuban Neuroscience? How about his love of boating…
Perhaps a quick look through his obituary will make us all appreciate just a bit more the actual magnitude of our loss from his passing…. And then you can look over the diagram of the brain and see some of the complexity of the models Roy passed on to those who now have to carry on without his wise counsel.
Joyful in having known him, and saddened by our loss,
Jay
Congressional Briefing on TBI for Wounded Soldiers
The Brain Injury Task Force offered its recommendations to Congress today from a conference last fall, sponsored by the congressional task force on brain injuries.
The group suggested that an assessment tool be used in wartime to determine if a soldier should return to duty. It also recommended improvements to traumatic brain injury research, identified the barriers to treatment and strategized on the improvements for continuum of care and more resources for families of troops with TBI. The Congressional Briefing was highlighted on front page of MSNBC in an article titled “Better Brain Trauma Testing Urged for Troops”.
Letter to APA regarding qEEG
This letter has been sent to the American Psychological Association because they have for so long seemly ignored a growing number of psychologists who provide neurofeedback and QEEGs to people who have many disorders , often, disorders that were”incurable”.
Our organization needs to provide information regarding the types of training/treatment that has been proven over and over to help clients that have severe impediments to their lives. If you feel similarly and would like to either sign this letter or write your own, it may cause some movement in APA and the Monitor to recognize the services we provide.
Merlyn Hurd PhD;BCIAC/EEG Fellow
Editor of NeuroConnections the ISNR/AAPB Neurofeedback division
Letter to APA regarding qEEG - March 09 2009
James H Bray PhD, President APA
Rhea K. Farberman, Executive Editor Monitor on Psychology
750 First Street, N.E.
Washington, DC 20002-4242
Dear Drs. Bray and Farberman,
Imagine the excitement of seeing “Brain Imaging” on the front of the Monitor for the March 2009 edition. Finally, the APA is writing about QEEGs (quantitative electroencephalograms) and the types of work that is being done by thousands of psychologists in the neurofeedback world. Continue reading →
Is neurofeedback an efficacious treatment for ADHD? A randomized controlled clinical trial
Background:
For children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a reduction of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity by neurofeedback (NF) has been reported in several studies. But so far, unspecific training effects have not been adequately controlled for and/or studies do not provide sufficient statistical power. To overcome these methodological shortcomings we evaluated the clinical efficacy of neurofeedback in children with ADHD in a multisite randomised controlled study using a computerised attention skills training as a control condition. Continue reading →
EEG based Personalized Medicine in ADHD
Neurophysiological studies in ADHD have shown a relatively uniform picture with regards to EEG - QEEG data (based on group data). Most studies find excess slow brain activity (theta) (Hermens et al., 2004; Mann et al., 1992; Chabot and Serfontein, 1996; Clarke et al., 1998, 2001; Lazzaro et al., 1998, 1999) and a decreased fast brain activity (beta) (Hermens et al., 2004; Clarke et al., 1998; Mann et al., 1992; Lazzaro et al., 1998, 1999). Theta EEG activity is often associated with an “inattentive” or a dreamy state, and beta activity is often seen when the brain is very busy with for instance solving a cognitive task. Figure 1 shows an example of this based on the data of the Brain Resource International Brain Database of 275 patients with ADHD. In this example the increased theta and decreased beta can be clearly seen, with a frontal localization.
Theta Absolute Beta Relative Beta
Figure 1: This figure shows the average brain activity (quantitative EEG – QEEG) of 275 children with ADHD, compared to a control group. On the left the increased theta EEG activity (p<.0001) can be seen, in the middle the absolute beta EEG activity (p<.0001) and on the left the decreased relative beta EEG activity (p<.0001). This deviant brain activity has a fronto-central localization. This pattern is found in almost all ADHD studies.