What's New in Neurofeedback
A Monthly Summary of News and Events

Vol. 10 No. 1 - January 2007

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum Intl Inc,
a leader in providing clinical service and training
professionals. Past issues available at
http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe or cancel, see newsletter's end.
Opinions related in this newsletter reflect
author's only. Copyright (C) 2007 by EEG Spectrum
Intl, Inc. or David Kaiser. All rights reserved.
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Announcements - News
In the Spotlight - AAPB - Monterey, 2007
News & Reviews - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word - 2006 Index
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Announcements

What's New in Neurofeedback enters 10th year, the world's
longest-running continuously published webzine dedicated to mental
health (Jan 1998-2007).

* Want a better memory? Stop and smell the roses
* Brain stimulation may ease headaches, studies find
* Study: Seeing Red Lowers Test Scores
* Scientists try to predict intentions
* Technology Review: Fueling Brain Research
* Can a brain scan prove you're telling the truth?
* Quiz: How healthy is your brain?
* Boosting Brain Power May Be Steps Away
* Fighting memory loss through brain games, exercise and rest

All links at: news.yahoo.com/fc/Science/Brain_Research
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In the Spotlight

AAPB - Monterey, 2007

Last month the 38th annual conference of
the Association for Applied
Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB) was
held in Monterey, CA (February 13-15,
2007). As my students have heard before,
you learn the most from these large affairs
in the lounge, often after-hours, one on
one with speakers and other colleagues.
Here we can discuss the hearts of the
matter, a give and take which is missing
from most lectures. So my hope at any
conference is to have as much face-time as
possible with the people I want to see, and
to catch one or two great talks. This
conference did not disappoint.

Groups needs to synchronize and the best
synchronizing event of all time for AAPB
belonged to Herbert Benson, a pioneer in
behavioral and mind-body medicine, who had
an entire auditorium of 300 souls breathing
in unison to start off his keynote address
two years ago. This year we didn't breathe
in unison like a pod of killer whales but
the opening keynote was very good and
helpful, entitled " Stress Enhanced
Hippocampal Throughput & Mesolimbic
Dopamine - A Model for the Development of
Fibromyalgia Syndrome" by Patrick Wood. Dr
Wood explained a model of dopaminergic
involvement which explained FMS quite well.
I know next to nothing about fibromyaglia
but I came away from the talk believing
that one might treat this condition
incorrectly if one didn't understand the
full circuitry involved.

In the evening talk of the first day, Bob
Thatcher presented his interest in phase
reset in EEG signals at the Neurofeedback
Division dinner. He conjectured that phase
reset might be involved in consciousness.
Phase reset suggests a time-sensitive
global inhibitory influence on the entire
cortical circuitry. Amplitude reset also
occurs (Mormann et al., 2005). Bob plans to
investigate phase reset further, studying
its topography and other aspects of
behavior.

The next day I slipped into the symposium
entitled "QEEG Subtype Patterns in Autistic
Spectrum Disorder" by Laurence Hirshberg,
Robert Coben, Michael Linden, and Lynda &
Michael Thompson. More and more we are
finding frontal and temporal connectivity
disturbances in autism and this is very
promising in terms of treating this
condition as now we have the tools for
comodulation and coherence training. I once
thought that prolonged autism structurally
damages the brain, and this may true, but
of late I simply believe that these
individuals have the same complement of
tools and modules we all have and are
simply using them wrong> It's like we've
all been given a Lexus to drive, but these
individuals never learn the consensual way
to work the vehicle and instead drive them
in reverse, without mirrors, and offroad.
It's true that cortical structures may
alter under this severe learning
disability, but if they turn around and
drive on the road with the rest of us, we
might find out how normal the equipment can
become. This talk made me think about a
lecture I gave to students recently on the
Stroop effect and automatic processes.
There are controlled processes in the
brain, such as naming the color ink of a
word, which require attention and our
spotlight of consciousness in order to
work; and there are those functions which
are automatic, like reading or attending
auditorily to the environment, which are
done with little or no effort, often in
parallel, and really occur in our
preconscious. Autism may often be a case of
too many automatic processes remaining
controlled processes, especially
socio-emotive and holistic integrative
functions. We see the wholenesses of the
world because we don't try to see them.

The Claude Bernard Club was scheduled that
night. The requirement for attendance to
this talk is that each person has a peer
reviewed publication to his or her name so
the standard is not out of anyone's reach,
though it might be construed as an elitist
affair. Actually the $50 cover charge makes
it more so. Marco Iacoboni gave a great
talk on the mirror neuron system which
included video presentations of evidence of
the mirror neuron system in monkeys. A
monkey would see movement by an
experimenter and these mirror cells would
fire, ratatatat. The video was more
impressive than the details in any journal
paper. Marco outlined the mirror neuron
system in humans as we currently know it,
with important parts of the MNS in right
Brodmann area 44 and 45, if I recall
correctly, the right side analog to Broca,
along with parietal circuitry.

The next morning was our four hour
symposium entitled "Hemispheric
Interactions in Neuroregulation and
Neuropathology" with Eran Zaidel, Marco
Iacoboni, Dirk De Ritter, M. Barry Sterman,
and myself. Dirk, a neurosurgeon from
Brussels, explained how neurosurgeons are
needing more and more to know how the brain
actually works. As a neurosurgon, what they
only need to know until now was simply how
to get at various structures without
damaging much tissue. His research focuses
on tinnitus and embedding electrical
stimulators to ameliorate the condition,
but there was an opening for gamma training
if such training could triangulate
locations within the cortex with better
accuracy than referential recordings can
do. Barry followed with a discussion of
neurofeedback training effects on epilepsy
and the development of a mirror foci in
seizure disorder in the contralateral site
(homologue). In one case study, a seizure
patient caught in the first year of the
disorder underwent neurofeedback and it
apparently intervened and blocked
development of a mirror focus. I then
presented my evidence of magnitude
asymmetries in homologue sites of focal
seizures. A site's homologue has a very
special relationship with a site, appearing
to govern its energy relationship with
other brain sites. The homologue is not
unlike a spouse, I added, influencing how
much or how little one should react to
circumstances. An anterior callosotomy
patient I presented had an energy
disruption between those brain site
disconnected by the surgery, the cut in the
callosal fibers between them. This didn't
disturb the energy patterns between the two
primary sites adjacent to the cut (F3 and
F4) but each site's relationship to all
other sites was disrupted as each lost its
governing partner. The same was true for a
unilateral temporal lobe seizure case where
the site and its homologue showed abnormal
magnitude relationships with all other site
pairs. I also presented my "periodic table"
of EEG spectral properties, reviewing
local, network, and transformational
properties of EEG, putting each measure
such as comodulation, coherence, magnitude,
band ratios, etc into an extended table
based on phase or magnitude, consistency or
difference, one site or two, one frequency
or two. Eran, one of my two dissertation
chairs, described his impressive research
on hemispheric specialization and Marco
repeated his Claude Bernard talk, but now
with a focus on lateralization of the MNS.
There is evidence of different forms of
information being lateralized in MNS, but
for much of the system is bilateral. One of
the attendees commented at lunch how this
symposium was worth the cost of the
conference, which made the organizer of the
event extremely happy.

So all in all, a stimulating few days among
the neurofeedback community.

-DK
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News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Be a Parent, Not a Pushover: Guide to Raising Happy, Emotionally
Healthy Teens
by Maryann Rosenthal
Parenting guide for those years when children are pulling away but
still in need of guidance, structure, and love.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785218912/eegspectrum

Depression and Physical Illness
by Andrew Steptoe (Editor)
Clinical, biological and epidemiological information on how to manage
depression in people suffering from physical illness.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521603609/eegspectrum

The Frontal Lobes: Development, Function and Pathology
by Jarl Risberg, Jordan Grafman (Eds)
Evolutionary significance of frontal lobes and typical and atypical
development
pathways. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521672252/eegspectrum

The Architecture of the Mind
by Peter Carruthers
Defends evolutionary psychology view of a modular mind -- i.e., brain
composed of numerous semi-independent modules with varying
connectiveness.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0199207070/eegspectrum

Applied Emotional Intelligence
by Tim Sparrow, Amanda Knight
How to develop emotionally intelligence attitudes and tactics for
their application.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470032731/eegspectrum

Freedom And Neurobiology: Reflections on Free Will, Language, And
Political Power
by John R. Searle
Free will debate, relevant to addiction perhaps.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0231137524/eegspectrum


JOURNAL PAPERS

Epilepsy from extended treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. :
Describes a handful of patients who developed epilepsy during extended
courses of ECT.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17185006

Heritability of EEG Spectra in a Sib-pair Population. : Heritabilities
of bipolar EEG spectral power ranged from 0.10 to 0.63 in 38
electrode-pairs, monopolar from 0.23 to 0.68 in 19 electrodes, in six
frequency bands.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17180712

In vivo mapping of functional connectivity in neurotransmitter :
Mapped functionally connected brain areas responding to
pharmacological challenge.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17188903

Independent Component Analysis in the Study of Focal Seizures. : ICA
separated components of ictal onset from propagated activity in focal
seizures.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17143142

Magnocellular advantage in visual impairments in neurodevelopmental
and psychiatric disorders. : Abnormal visual information processing in
neuropsychiatric conditions may reflect dominance of magnocellular
pathway in driving cortical involvement.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17141311

Neurobiology of substance and behavioral addictions. : Neurobiology of
both forms of addictions (chemical and behavioral) may provide insight
for
prevention and treatment strategies.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17146406

Gray matter changes in autism- social and repetitive behavior. : Gray
matter was enlarged in medial frontal & temporal gyri as well as
sensorimotor cortex.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17166273

Awareness of deficits in traumatic brain injury : Low self-awareness
scoring TBI patients exhibited disinhibition, interpersonal problems
and more difficulties in total competency.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17166302

Spontaneous magnetoencephalographic activity in OCD : Prefrontal and
temporal cortices were linked to pathogenesis of OCD.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17156764

EEG abnormalities in adolescent males with AD/HD. : ADHD subjects
showed lower relative beta activity in posterior sites during eyes
closed rest.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17166762

Alcohol and marijuana use during adolescence on hippocampal volume and
asymmetry. : Hippocampal asymmetry and left hippocampal volumes were
associated with adolescent heavy drinking.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17169528
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Events & Locations

Upcoming Courses

A Pathway to Brain Regulation - Neurofeedback helps improve
neuroregulation. It's used by health care professionals for ADHD,
depression, anxiety disorders, LD, mood disorders, and behavioral
problems. This 4-day course, Neurofeedback in a Clinical Practice,
provides the basis for using Neurofeedback clinically. - *28 CEs

4-Day Comprehensive Course Dates (subject to change)

* Houston TX Mar 22-25
* St Louis MO Apr 12-15
* Boston MA May 3-6

Our course is a hands-on experience right from the start. Attendees
consistently say this format is a very good way to learn
Neurofeedback.

"Neurofeedback should be viewed as one of the three essential or
primary forms of intervention - psychotherapy, psychopharmacology,
and Neurofeedback. In my experience, neurofeedback is every bit as
important and powerful as the other two forms of treatment." - Dr.
Laurence Hirshberg of Brown University Medical School, a
psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact Karie Kramer, our training coordinator, for more information
818-789-3456 ext 847 or see www.eegspectrum.com/ Training

*EEG Spectrum International, Inc. is approved by the APA to offer
continuing education to psychologists. ESII maintains responsibility
for the program.

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Conferences for Neurofeedback Clinicians & Researchers

CONFERENCE LOCATION DATES

SABA www.skiltopo.com/saba Avalon CA May 2006
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Last Word

2006 Index

Spotlight articles

1. Autism Neurotherapy Research
2. Blinding the Brain
3. Brain as plurality of organs
4. Epilepsy
5. Heights of rivers, lengths of mountains
6. More about Child Development and Schools
7. Social Normalization
8. Technology-assisted self-regulation
9. Two Angles at Testing Neurofeedback
10. When will Neurotherapy Research go under the microscope?
11. World is Too Much with Us
12. Year in Neurofeedback - 2005
13. Year in Neurofeedback - 2006

Last Word

1. Addiction Numbers
2. Autobiographical and Universal Selves
3. Catering to Agency Deficiency
4. Just a thought
5. New Math
6. Online Resources
7. Other People's Words
8. Re-evaluating one's belief system
9. Selected Psych Films
10. Somewhere over New York

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