BRAIN TRAINING
This article is being reprinted from:
Health & Fitness Journal; March/April 1999, Pages 62-64
You are reading an article and your thoughts drift-suddenly
you have lost the focus of what you are reading...
You are listening to a person giving a speech and you lose the
thread of the speaker's argument.....
You put your keys down and then don't remember where you left
them…
Sound familiar? We find all kinds of excuses to explain our
lapses of thought: "I'm getting old," "I'm too
stressed and distracted," or simply, "My mind isn't
working well today."
When your body gets flabby, it's easily noticeable. Your body
sends you the message that it needs conditioning. Although over
90% of your behavior is controlled by your brain, your tiny
yet frequent mental lapses never seem to signal, "I've
got to get my brain back into condition," or "My brain
needs exercise."
When it comes to thinking, remembering, problem solving and
decision making, we don't immediately consider sharpening our
brains. But, if the mind is so important, why not spend more
time training it?
In fact, there are not many ways available to exercise your
mind. Furthermore, there have not been any good ways of determining
that you are successful, even when you try. But in the last
5 to 10 years, a new procedure has been quietly gaining clinical
respectability for the enhancement of brain function. It is
called EEG (electroencephalogram) biofeedback or "neurofeedback."
This procedure is the first that lets you train the brain directly,
and verifies how successful you are.
Neurofeedback is a procedure for training brain waves. Brain
waves are a representation of the electrical activity, or means
of communication, of many nerve cells in the brain.
Neurofeedback "brain training" may help you in a variety
of ways: you could improve your athletic performance in a specific
sport, for example, or improve your ability to stay focused
for your job or creative projects. It can also be valuable in
treating specific physical and emotional problems.
Neurofeedback allows us, for the first time, to know when the
brain is in specific mental "states" that make it
more efficient and sharper. It can also help individuals go
into states that facilitate other types of functioning, such
as giving access to the subconscious.
Initially found to be effective in reducing seizures in epileptics
by Dr. Barry Sterman and colleagues at UCLA, this procedure
was then found effective with attention deficit disorder (ADD),
by- Dr. Joel Lubar and others.
Getting Hooked Up
What's it like to have a neurofeedback session? At a trained
professional's office, an electrode is attached to a specific
area of the scalp, with two other electrodes that serve as reference
and ground, attached to each ear. The electrode picks up the
minute brain electrical signals through the skull and the skin.
The brain wave or EEG signal is then fed into a computer that
is able to separate out its different components, such as theta,
or slow wave activity (which is a less focused, more relaxed
brain state), or beta activity (a faster wave activity which
is common during periods of focused attention). This information
is then displayed on the computer monitor, moment by moment.
Now, wouldn’t it be great if you were able to control
these brain wave states, to either relax yourself and de-stress
, or think more clearly and with greater focus? Well, with neurofeedback,
you can!
Using software specifically designed for this purpose, you might
hear a pleasant sound when your brain waves go above a certain
level. Or, your success might be represented by a Pac Man-like
image going faster on the screen and gobbling up more little
figures. The more successful you are at achieving the desired
brain state, the more success you will have at the computer
game on the screen.
Neurofeedback does two valuable things: 1) It lets you know
when you are in the right brain state, thus yielding an important
awareness, and 2) It lets you know if you are doing better at
getting into the correct brain state. You can even see it on
the computer monitor as it is happening.
People who have participated in neurofeedback sometimes notice
an enhanced sense of clarity They may also experience increased
energy. If they are experiencing pain, they may notice a reduction
or elimination of that pain. For the full benefits of the treatment,
10 to 40 sessions are generally recommended. In some cases,
additional sessions are necessary.
When To Use Neurofeedback
One of the important pieces of information we have about EEG
is that children-and adults-with ADD, have an excessive amount
of the low frequency theta brain waves. These brain waves are
between 4 and 7 cycles per second.
When a child or an adult is trained to suppress the lower, theta
frequencies, and at the same time learns to increase the higher,
beta frequencies of 15 to 18 cycles per second, it coincides
with a shift to a greater ability to focus and stay alert. This
change is frequently accompanied by an increase in IQ score.
In my office I have worked with both children and adults to
improve focus and concentration.
Just as neurofeedback can help a person with ADD be more focused
and attentive, it can help people without this deficit including
athletes-to be more focused.
If you want to play a better game or be more alert and focused
for any purpose, you can use neurofeedback to learn how to produce
the correct brain waves for concentration and focus. By training
athletes to be able to go into the higher frequency brain wave
activity more readily, I have helped them improve their accuracy
in shooting basketballs, hitting a golf ball and even hitting
the perfect spike in volleyball.
Which Brain Waves Are Best?
One way of determining the most effective brain wave pattern
for specific situations is to study top performers and see how
they do it. Dr. Barry Sternian, a colleague at UCLA, studied
Air Force pilots to determine what their brains did when they
needed to be most alert, efficient and accurate while flying
an F- 15 jet. These pilots' brains would go into alpha rhythm,
between 8 and 12 cycles per second, and a very focused calmness
in preparation for a task.
When I reinforce this same type of brain wave activity in tennis
players, it prepares them to receive a serve by helping them
be highly focused and ready to respond.
Although much still needs to be learned about neurofeedback,
it is a process that holds tremendous promise for improving
the functioning of the mind. And since the mind controls the
body, this approach also helps the body to function more effectively,
including facilitating the healing process. If you think neurofeedback
might help improve your health or physical performance, consider
discussing the option with a psychologist.
Stephen I. Sideroff, PbD, is a licensed clinical psychologist
in private practice in Santa Monica. He is also Assistant Professor
in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences of
UCLA's School of Medicine. For more information or to experience
neurofeedback, call (310) 828-1113.
Quote:
When it comes to problem solving and decision making, we don't
immediately consider sharpening our brains. But, if the mind
is so important, why not spend more time training it?
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