Neurofeedback
Amplitude is the difference between the peaks and troughs of brain activity – essentially, how big your brain waves are. Amplitude training is therefore a method of Neurofeedback which seeks to increase or decrease the amplitude of your brain waves.
One or more areas of the brain can be treated with biofeedback at once, in a single session, and the aim is to increase or decrease activity to typical levels in these areas. As for all types of Neurofeedback training, electrodes will be placed onto your scalp above the areas of the brain which require training.
This kind of approach is often used for conditions including behavioral issues associated with over-activity of the brain such as ADHD, as well as problems linked to under-activity, such as depression and anxiety.
Your brain’s activity, when monitored, produces a series of different brainwaves. Alpha and theta brainwaves are two examples of these and represent the activity of your brain when it is in a more relaxed state. While alpha patterns appear when you’re awake and alert but restful, theta waves appear while you’re sleeping and dreaming.
Training these two types of brain activity with biofeedback will encourage a disregulated brain to learn how to relax and regulate. Ultimately, it can be used to train you to achieve a state of deep relaxation that’s similar to meditation. For this reason, it’s commonly used to help people with anxiety, addiction and those suffering from the effects of trauma such as in the case of PTSD.
We also work with individuals who wish to improve their creativity and performance as a way of focusing their mind.
With this type of training 1 to 19 sensors are placed on the scalp (typically 4). The waves are monitored and analyzed and the data is fed through the Neuroguide Database which converts the waves to standard scores or Z Scores. Different frequencies of brain waves can be analyzed, inhibited and reinforced in parallel with numerous combinations of relationships between the sensors being trained simultaneously. Z Score training is also useful for training the relationship between two pairs of sites at the same time – something known as ‘coherence’. Training the coherence between numbers of sites improves the way in which these areas of the brain communicate, making the activity more efficient by either increasing or decreasing their interaction. We may find that certain parts of your brain should be working more closely together, or conversely, less closely together.
This training targets frequencies below 1 hertz. Two sensors silver chloride sensors are used that are typically placed at the temporal lobes. Infra Low is used in some cases with children diagnosed with ADHD.
HRV or Heart Math isn’t actually a type of Neurofeedback: it’s a type of biofeedback training that helps to harness and deal with stress at its source by calming and training your heart rhythm rather than your brainwaves.
We can help train you to modulate and regulate your own heart rhythm by showing you your heart’s activity and then teaching you how breathing patterns can change them to a more relaxed state.
The technology we use here at the Center for Neurofeedback involves placing a sensor on your index finger or earlobe to record your heart’s rhythm. You’ll see it on a computer screen and visual and audio cues will help teach you when it is at its most regular and consistent rhythm. Learning breathing exercises alongside this kind of biofeedback will mean you learn much more quickly how to regulate your heart in times of stress and difficulty. It is often carried out in conjunction with Neurofeedback training.
Neuroshifter Micro Tesla is a technology that uses ultra-low output pulsed electromagnetic field (pEMF). pEMF provides the brain with information that the brain is then able to use to alter brainwaves. pEMF increases the brains ability to be flexible and adjust into patterns of more optimal functioning, i.e. increases wave activity where there are deficits. pEMF works at an intensity that is much less than what energy a cell phone puts out and similar to what headphones put out. pEMF may be widely unknown, but it has been around for decades and there have been thousands of clinical studies to prove its efficacy and safety. Neuroshifter output is over 10 million times weaker than medical stimulation devices and does not induce a current into the person or de-polarize the neurons.