ABOUT NEUROFEEDBACK Neurofeedback is biofeedback of brain electrical activity for the purpose of helping the brain learn to re-regulate its own function. Sensors are attached to scalp and ears to pick up brain electrical activity.  An amplifier amplifies the signal and a computer displays the raw signal and analyses it into frequency bands.  A game-like representation of the brainwaves is fed back to the learner (auditorily and visually), rewarding needed changes in the frequency bands.  The learner attends and intends (to make the display go using only their brainwaves) and allows the ‘automatic pilot’ (unconscious mind) learning to occur.  Over a number of sessions, the learner practices being in that more regulated state until it becomes automatic. The brain is nudged gently away from rigid, predictable, unfavourable, hyper-ordered patterns of functioning, allowing its own natural patterns to arise and healing to occur on multiple levels. Neurofeedback is 'learning' (by operant conditioning and shaping – though some say it’s more than this), rather than treatment in its usual sense. You can think of it as making the brain a better conductor of the body-mind orchestra, or as exercise for the brain that brings increased efficiency, flexibility, ease and stability of function. It can also be viewed as providing direction for brain timing and encouraging neuroplasticity. After neurofeedback training, the brain is better able to modulate levels of arousal, regulate the sleep/wake cycle, organise cognitive processes, normalise processing of sensory information, inhibit inappropriate motor responses, manage moods and emotions, and organise memory. Neurofeedback falls into two general categories: 1.      SMR/Beta training (12-18 Hz) for disorders of arousal, mood, attention and behaviour - and 2.      Alpha/Theta training (4-12 Hz) to augment psychotherapy in e.g. recovery from addictions, PTSD and Dissociative disorders. Some groups are now exploring the use of feedback of very low frequencies. Alpha/Theta training can facilitate profound and integrating healing in the pyschological domain – It can also enhance performance, well-being and awareness.  Clinical experience suggests that these two areas of neurofeedback complement each other, and may both be needed in many situations. "Neurofeedback facilitates quieting the mind, which for some people, can become a way to strengthen and deepen spirituality - regardless of any associated religious doctrine." Also known as EEG Biofeedback, EBT (EEG Biofeedback Therapy), Neurotherapy, Neurobiofeedback, and with more than 30 years of research behind it, its use is now growing in the United States, Australia, Europe and other countries. Neurofeedback is non invasive, benign and cost effective when measured against long term costs, and savings in services no longer needed. It has the ability to improve functionality and independence for the client, often when these could not otherwise be expected. This training can be done concurrently with other treatment and works synergistically with other treatment. Medication may possibly be reduced or discontinued. The good results are long term when a sufficient number of sessions are done.  The rate of clinical effectiveness is high, regardless of which form of neurofeedback is used, which perhaps speaks to the ability of the brain, which is  exquisitely sensitive to rhythmicity, to make good use of the information it is given. A variety of health professional disciplines utilise neurofeedback in hospitals, schools, prisons and in private clinics around the world. Medical research is beginning to provide explanations that make sense of how neurofeedback works - e.g. as in "Thalamocortical dysrhythmia: A neurological and neuropsychiatric syndrome characterized by magnetoencephalography" as a source of symptoms. (Rudolfo Llinas et.al. Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, N.Y.U. School of Medicine. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 96, Issue 26, December 21, 1999).   MRI Tractography info That electrical activity measured at the scalp reflects and influences what’s happening in deeper brain structures, is illustrated by the MRI Tractography picture of brain electrical activity below. (This picture is part of a diagram featured in a recent paper “Mapping the Structural Core of Human Cerebral Cortex.”  Hagmann P, Cammoun L, Gigandet X, Meuli R, Honey CJ, et al. (2008) from the Department of Radiology, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Signal Processing Laboratory (LTS5), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, 3 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America, 4 Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America - an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License)   Jan  Bowers.  MNZAC.  NZRN.  BA (psyc/educ). “Kowhai Tree Lodge”  17 Kinloch Place, Papakowhai, Porirua, Wellington 5024  Ph:(04) 2378 892 - Cell Ph:021 0237 6647  Email: JanBowers@xtra.co.nz         Webpage: www.neurofeedback.co.nz