Riding the Brain’s Waves

The Power of Neurofeedback

by Kelley Granger and illustrations by Annie Internicola, September 28, 2009

We expect miracles.

If you research neurofeedback long enough, you’ll eventually come across that phrase. A miracle—by definition, a marvel or event that appears so far from human capability that it must be attributed to supernatural forces—seems an appropriate word for this noninvasive therapeutic endeavor, which is showing profound effects on those who’ve suffered emotional or physical trauma to the brain. It also seems a fitting description, since the actual mechanisms by which the healing process takes place are still a mystery.

“Inevitably, someone will say, ‘How, exactly, does this work?’” says Dr. Daniel Meyer, a psychologist who recently opened the Hudson Valley Center for Neurofeedback (HVCNF) in Poughkeepsie with Barbara Monaco, a licensed clinical social worker. “And the answer is that nobody understands exactly how this works—but we know that it works.”

From attention deficit disorder, epilepsy, and post-traumatic stress to performance optimization, the potential of neurofeedback is wide ranging and ever growing.

GETTING FEEDBACK
Neurofeedback is considered a subcategory of biofeedback, the system of analysis through which information about the body is given back to a person, usually with the help of electronic devices that can register changes in heart rate, breath, perspiration, and more. Armed with this information, people become aware of, and can learn to control, physical processes that otherwise happen involuntarily. Neurofeedback takes this idea and applies it to the brain and central nervous system, supplying the client and his or her therapist with valuable information.

How this information is put to use is the basis of a variety of approaches in the field of neurofeedback. At the HVCNF, Meyer and Monaco begin their work with a new client by doing a brain-mapping session, where a cap with sensors is placed on the head to pick up the frequencies of brainwave activity at 19 different sites simultaneously. A computer program records, analyzes, and quantifies the results, providing a quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG). Activity at each brain site can be scrutinized individually, and communication between sites can also be evaluated. In addition, clients are given a subjective self-assessment questionnaire regarding their levels of anxiety, inattentiveness, learning difficulties, and other factors. These results are compared with the QEEG, often showing considerable correlation.

The results of the evaluation are then weighed against those in an extensive database. “We can show them the extent to which a frequency at a given site is or is not at normal limits, and we can show them the extent to which different parts of the brain are or are not communicating effectively with each other,” says Meyer. “It’s really important that we talk about both those things, because it’s not simply about how [just one] site is operating.” In order to be functioning at an optimal level, different areas of the brain need to be doing their jobs alone proficiently but also successfully working together. Take vision, for example. “It’s important how well I see in my left hemisphere and how that’s working with how well I see in my right hemisphere,” Meyer says, “and then how that’s communicated to my frontal lobes, so that they can tell me what I’m seeing and what I need to do next.”