Neurofeedback Today

Do you want to see neurofeedback in action? You can watch an excerpt from a video presentation featuring Sue Othmer of the EEG Institute. The EEG Institute site has much helpful information about neurofeedback. Click here to watch the video.   For additional videos see the page on Neurofeedback in the Media.

What is neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback. In biofeedback information about some part of your body is fed back to you, and you are able to gain control over yourself in a way previously unavailable. You're probably familiar with biofeedback as a way of changing ones blood pressure or reducing the pain of a headache.

In neurofeedback the information that is fed back to you is EEG (electroencephalogram) data read by sensors placed on your head. Very tiny amounts of electric energy are read and processed by electronic and computer equipment to provide you with moment by moment information about your brain activity.

This activity is shown to the neurofeedback therapist as wave patterns on a computer screen, and to clients as visual graphics--ranging from rocket ships racing one another to rapidly changing side by side ther­mometers. The goal is explained to the client (make one rocket ship go faster than the other), and the brain learns how to make that happen without the person knowing how they do it. A sound also beeps when the brain behaves as desired, which helps. Simply wanting to hear the beeps seems to be enough to get the brain to cooperate.

The result is that a client practices brain activity in a healthy range, and the brain gradually develops the ability to maintain that behavior by itself. Numerous sessions are required, usually at least 20. Seeing significant improvement in ADHD, for instance, often takes 40 sessions. Typically, sessons are held at least twice weekly so that the carry-over effect from one session to the next is not lost. It's like going to the gym, except that the brain is learning a skill that it can keep.

Neurofeedback works in conjuntion with medication and psychotherapy. Often the amount of medication a client may need after neurotherapy may lessen, though this is never assumed. In the case of ADHD neurofeedback may improve cognitive functioning for some people to the point where medication no longer needed, while others will still need ongoing medication.

Neurotherapy, as the application of neurofeedback is sometimes called, has several goals. They include:

• Stabilizing overall brain function by strengthening the brain's ability to routinely produce brainwaves in healthy ranges
• Improving the ability of the brain to shift from one brainwave state to another smoothly and effectively and then stay there as long as needed
• Improving brain functioning in localized areas of the brain associated with specific problems an individual is experiencing

More Information

Here are some links to information about the nature of neurofeedback. Some of the sources are very comprehensive.

• What is neurotherapy? at Bio-Medical.com, an article about neurotherapy, particularly in relation to ADD.
• An Introduction to Neurofeedback, D. Corydon Hammond, PhD, ABEN, QEEG-D, Professor & Psychologist, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, University of Utah School of Medicine
• Your Brain and Neurofeedback: A Beginner's Manual, Dr. Dana McDougall, Chartered Psychologist, Mission Bridge Psychological Associates, Calgary, Alberta