Neurofeedback

Personal drug experience doesn't invalidate scientific research

Hamilton Morris argues that the assumption that personal experience with psychoactive drugs makes research biased is inconsistently applied. No one questions a sports commentator who was previously an athlete.

"It's a very widespread idea that if you have personal experience with a psychoactive drug, this biases you in such a way that the research that you do is not trustworthy. But this is something that we don't evenly apply to other disciplines. No one would ever say that a sports commentator is biased because they were previously an athlete."

Long-term cultural change requires openness about marginalized practices

Morris distinguishes between short-term protection through hiding and long-term cultural change through openness. To shift cultural attitudes toward psychedelics, researchers and advocates must be transparent about their beliefs and practices.

"If you want to create a cultural change, you have to be open about who you are and what you care about, even if it means going against the dominant culture."

End-of-life peace can reduce family trauma

Morris reflects on how someone's relationship with their own mortality at the end of life profoundly impacts their family's grief. Psychedelic-assisted therapy research shows promise in helping people find peace with death.

"the way someone ends their life can have a tremendous impact on their family. If they have peace with their own mortality at the end of their life, that can relieve a lot of the trauma for those that lost their loved one."

Neurofeedback therapy for anxiety and PTSD

Daniel describes two types of neurofeedback — active EEG-based brain training with video games, and passive audio-based training that creates micro-pauses when brain waves become too excitable, helping with anxiety, depression, and PTSD.

"it plays you play like basically like a like glorified video games that you kind of control with your with your mind. It's super freaky. It's like total matrix type stuff. But as you kind of do it, it trains different areas of your brain"

Meditation strongly correlates with increased alpha waves and decreased beta waves

Ariel Garten explains that after analyzing millions of minutes of meditation data with EEG, meditation strongly correlates with increased alpha wave activity and decreased beta waves. During focused attention on the breath, alpha waves increase dramatically while beta waves associated with thinking and cogitation decrease.

"And from a neurological perspective, is it possible to say that an alpha state is meditative, a beta state is not, a delta state is deep meditative, or is that just all people superimposing belief systems onto something that you can't really pin down like that? So it's actually pretty close to that. So we've now looked at millions of minutes of meditation from novices to experts using EEG. And what we've been able to find is that meditation really does correlate strongly with strong alpha activity, but that's not the only aspect of it. So, in a focused attention on the breath practice, for example, you're increasing your alpha waves dramatically, you're decreasing your beta waves, which is cogitation thinking."

Consumer EEG devices now match clinical grade quality for meditation feedback

Ariel describes how Muse first brought clinical-grade EEG to consumers in Best Buy in 2014. Over 200 studies have been published with Muse, validating it as a true clinical-grade EEG device. The latest version uses dry sensors with no gel, a PPG sensor for heart rate, and can track sleep as effectively as a real sleep lab.

"So, we first came to market in 2014, where we actually were able to create a consumer grade, clinical grade, consumer comfortable, consumer accessible EEG system that was in Best Buy. So in 2014, you could get a clinical grade EEG in Best Buy to help you meditate. So that was quite radical at the time. Since then, we've been able to improve significantly, adding additional sensors. So this is our latest device, MIS-S."

Muse gives real-time feedback on when your mind is focused versus wandering

Ariel explains how EEG reads the sum total of neuronal firing on the surface of the head. With Muse, they can see specifically when someone is in quiet focused attention on their breath versus when their mind is wandering, because these two states have very predictable and different brainwave characteristics, enabling real-time feedback.

"with Muse, for example, we're able to see very specifically when you're in quiet, focused attention on your breath, when you're meditating, and when your mind is wandering, because these two have a very predictable and very different brainwave characteristic."

Brain flexibility between states matters more than staying in any single brainwave state

Ariel clarifies that the goal is not to be in an alpha state all day long. A healthy brain moves flexibly between different states depending on what you are doing. The real question is whether you have the choice to move between states or whether you get stuck in one.

"We don't want to be in an alpha state all day long, right? What are the sort of cycles that our brain would go through naturally? Yeah, you definitely don't want to be in an alpha brain state all day long. You do want to be able to be flexible in your brain states and be able to shift flexibly from one to the other. So when I'm, you know, listening to a conversation, it's going to be a different brain state than when I'm thinking about something, which is going to be different than when I'm relaxing or when I'm in deep sleep. So, you expect that a brain is going to move through different states."

Neurofeedback creates a brain-computer interface to target specific abnormalities

Dr. Gattis explains that neurofeedback uses sensors to pick up electrical brain activity and feed it into a computer, creating a brain-computer interface. This same technology is used to help paralyzed people communicate by selecting letters with their brainwaves. In therapy, clients watch a movie that gets dark when blood flow decreases and bright when it improves.

"So, we have a little decrease in blood flow, and so what we can do is we put the sensor on the thermal feedback, which picks up the electrical activity in the brain, and we feed that into the computer. And what happens is I'm creating a brain-computer interface, which is actually used to help people, for instance, who can no longer speak to communicate. Oh, interesting. It's the same technology, right? So, they can use their brainwaves to select letters."

Neurofeedback was accidentally discovered through epilepsy treatment

Dr. Gattis describes how the original application of neurofeedback was epilepsy treatment. It was a coincidental discovery that training a particular stabilizing rhythm on top of the head inhibited seizures. Researchers then noticed that patients' depression, anxiety, and attention also improved, leading Joel Lubar to apply it to ADHD children.

"one of the less well-known applications of neurofeedback was the original application of neurofeedback, which is epilepsy"

LORETA neurofeedback uses 19 electrodes to target specific 3D brain regions

Dr. Gattis describes the newer LORETA neurofeedback method which uses a full cap of 19 electrodes to trace the actual source of brain signals and target specific three-dimensional regions. This is much more precise than traditional single-electrode approaches and allows the brain to learn faster, potentially cutting session counts in half.

"Then when you use the cap and you can tell it, no, I want you to change this particular activity in this little three-dimensional region over here."

Comprehensive treatment combining neurofeedback with nutrition and integrative medicine

Tana Amen emphasizes that Amen Clinics offers neurofeedback alongside EMDR, hyperbaric oxygen, integrative medicine, and nutrition because all these things affect the brain and the brain affects everything else. They focus on skills not just pills, offering multiple targeted modalities for comprehensive brain health.

"We have experts in different, you know, that deal with so many different things at our clinics. And I love that because we're really about skills, not just pills here. And so we want to be able to be sure that we can offer people a variety of different treatments depending on what they're going through. I love that we have hyperbaric oxygen, that we have EMDR therapy, that we have neurofeedback, that we have all these different modalities that are not just typical."