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

Vol. 10 No. 9 - September 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.
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements - News
In the Spotlight - Current Perspectives in Neuroscience, 2007
News & Reviews - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word - Living up to our Name
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Announcements

-Bad Memories Stick Better Than Good
-Breakthrough drug for schizophrenia
-Study Probes Roots of Fearful Memories
-Blossoming brains

All links at: news.yahoo.com/fc/Science/Brain_Research
--------------------------------------------------

In the Spotlight


Current Perspectives in Neuroscience, 2007

"Current Perspectives in Neuroscience:
Neuroplasticity and Neurofeedback," the 15th Annual
conference of International Society for Neurofeedback
and Research (ISNR), was held in San Diego last week.
I designated this conference a "quiet-the- chatter"
affair going into it. I had no talks to give, just
workshops, so I minimized distractions and maximized
interactions. This way I could reestablish
connections to as many people as possible without
being pulled about by anyone's agenda, including my
own. It worked so well that I missed nearly every
scheduled talk, along with the Saturday night gala at
the famous San Diego Zoo; but I did get a chance to
talk with many different people, more than usual.

Scientists and clinicians analyze EEG in one of three
ways. We (1) qualify it with our brain (clinical
EEG), or use a computer and (2) quantify and average
large segments (QEEG) or (3) quantify and average
short segments (ERP, EP). The latter has always been
resistant to operant conditioning due to the low
signal-to-noise of isolated segments, but Juri
Kropotov believes he has a way to train ERPs. He
leverages topographic and frequency information to
train aspects of the ERP, those latter elements in
time (100 ms+) involving volition such as the P300
latency. The funniest group moment at the conference
occurred when Juri explained his idea and asked us,
the audience, whether we had achieved the "happiness
of understanding" from his talk. We did. Belgian
neurosurgeon Dirk DeRidder followed Juri and he
talked about synchronized hyperactivity of
thalamocortical loops and argued that unhealthy brain
behavior is often due to dysfunctional networks, not
dysfunctional modules. Blame the neighborhood, not
the brain area.

Jaime Pineda presented his work with autistics,
Autistics show reduced mu activity in response to
other people's action but not their own. It suggest
impairment of the mirror neuron system, which emerged
in primates to facilitate sociality. Every time we
follow suit and fold our legs in response to our
companion's leg movements, or yawn with our
neighbors, our mirror neuron system has momentarily
taken over. The mirror neuron system appears impaired
in autistics, and the impairment can be quantified by
EEG, but one question remains -- what exactly is mu?
I've heard about it for years, but like the Yeti it
remains elusive to some of us. Is mu another name for
SMR? Or is mu alpha activity over the motor strip? I
was taught that mu was in the alpha range, over the
motor strips, and wicket shaped, and that only 10% of
people show it. How can anything fundamental in
neurophysiology appear only sporadically in the
population. Such a statement sounds to me like, only
10% of people show evidence of a cerebellum. Huh?
Perhaps mu is SMR or alpha and the unique waveform
morphology is due to overlapping fields of energy,
two flows masked as one. If an electrode is placed
directly above a sulcus or similar curvature of the
cortex below, I suspect the incoming fields from
adjutting gyri could mask each other and produce the
wicket. I've never seen mu in my records, but I
wasn't looking for it. I wonder if I saw it, could I
move the electrode a few millimeters away and lose
the wicket. If so, then mu is alpha. But the other
idea is that mu is alpha with some SMR cells
incidentally recruited, which would make it a
different animal entirely.

Leslie Sherlin and Marco Congedo explained
independent component analysis, which is very
promising. With ICA we transform the cacophony of
signals at the scalp into independent signatures.
Eyeblinks have distinctive signatures, alpha bursts
have distinctive signatures, anything systematically
generated from cortex, including mu, presumably.

I talked briefly with Karl Pribram about imaginary
numbers and dimensions. He co-developed the theory of
the holographic universe decades ago with Bohm,
Einstein's colleague, that all is surface. I prefer
volumes, although I see the pull of such a theory.
And math seems stuck on surfaces in terms of number
systems (imaginary and real) with little
consideration of a 3rd dimension of numbers. Karl
reminds me how there is only one life, as there is
only one universe.

I sat down with Bob Thatcher at his booth and was
impressed by his reduction of coherence into two
parts, a chaotic stage where information control is
selected, followed by a locking stage where the brain
unites under selective pressure. Phase shifting and
locking between sites may be independently tracked
(phase reset and continuance). I held off including
phase reset to my SKIL software because I wasn't sure
which comparison to derive my phase relationships
from --should I use autophase or cross-phase? Bob
chose cross phase, phase relationship mapped to a
common site (such as Cz), which is not a solution but
a start. For some reason he doesn't busy himself with
energy relationships, and the analogous amplitude
reset. As it so happens, coherence is the composite
of phase behaviors, phase freedom and phase pressure.
Comodulation likewise captures energy behaviors.
Magnitude consistency (comodulation) reflects energy
freedom and energy locking, energy gain and loss.
Energy is a form of extreme timing -- there is so
much timing it is difficult to see or quantify. A
comparison of energy and timing would reveal when
phase gain coincides with energy gain and when it
does not. Recent research suggests memory itself,
memory formation, is a coupling of hippocampal
archicortex to rhinal neocortex (Mormann et al.,
2005), so understanding the interaction of energy and
timing would lead to applications that restore
memories and other applications which relieve and
eliminate painful memories.

Students are the lifeblood of any field and our
student presentations were top notch, remarkably
solid this year as always. I like to welcome students
to our interesting field with the following greeting,
"Welcome to the Center of the Known Universe." It is
their first warning.

Finally I ran into my spiritual neuroscience crew,
Mario Beauregard, his beautiful counterpart Johanne
Levesque, and Vincent Paquette. Last AAPB I
introduced Mario as the older brother I wish I had
grown up with. Such a brother could have made things
easier for me, I'm sure. And harder. We share common
sensitivities. In fact I spent most nights in our
hotel labyrinth walking about, flowing between
raptured and disrapture, and wondering about God and
Jesus and whether I would know anyone at the local
pub. Speaking of pubs, Mario just published "The
Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the
Existence of the Soul" which I found in the Religion
section of Borders. Religion is one way to study the
infinities of our dimension. (http://
www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Brain-Neuroscientists-Case-Ex
istence/dp/0060858834/)

www.isnr.org/PanelsClinicalCorners.cfm

This is the first September in nearly a decade in
which I will not teach. I'll be working on raising
the dead instead. Well, nearly so, as we are building
an EEG monitor for neurointensive care
(wavestate.net). Apparently medical science has use
for quantification of cerebral activity after all.
The state of the art in coma induction and
maintenance for treating status epilepticus and head
injury is by registering regular properties of the
EEG (i.e., quantifying the signal). Brain injury is a
silent epidemic in our country, striking nearly 1.5
million Americans each year and responsible for
50,000 deaths. Nearly 1 in 3 people will suffer a TBI
during his or her lifetime and 1 in 14 will be
hospitalized. Pediatric head injury is unimagineably
worse, happening during a developmental trajectory.
My goal is to introduce QEEG assessment of cerebral
activity after brain injury to the UCLA brain injury
crew, with the hope that neurotherapies will follow.

-DK
--------------------------------------------------

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences with Autism and Asperger Syndrome
by Stephen M. Shore
Early 1960s diagnosee describes his life.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931282196/eegspectrum

Dementia: A Clinical Approach
by Mario Mendez
Information about dementia for clinicians.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0750674709/eegspectrum

Brave New Brain: Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of the Genome
by Nancy C. Andreasen
First stirrings of genetics contribution to symptomatology.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195145097/eegspectrum

Biological Psychology: Behavioral, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience
by Mark R. Rosenzweig
Useful textbook for any neurotherapist or similar professional.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0878937099/ eegspectrum

Facing Shame: Families in Recovery
by Merle A. Fossum
According to Fossum, it's all about setting limits.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393305813/eegspectrum

--------

JOURNAL PAPERS

Cortical Connectivity Reflected in EEG Coherence in Autism. : Locally elevated
theta coherence was found for ASD adults, especially within left hemisphere
frontal and temporal lobe.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17336944


Genetic influences on bipolar EEG power spectra. : Variability in bipolar EEG
recordings are derived to a great degree by genetic factors.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17383039


Quantitative EEG in aging and in the evolution of dementia. : EEG may be used
to predict future declines associated with mild cognitive impairment and
Alzheimer's disease.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17413018


Electrophysiological activity underlying inhibition in late-life depression :
Frontal dysfunction in the depressed group was observed in p300b measure for
Go/NoGo task.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17462822


EEG power and coherence in dyslexic children : Dyslexic children show increased
slow activity in frontal and right temporal regions
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17472228


Ten Hz rTMS on resting EEG power spectrum in healthy subjects. : Over left
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, 10 Hz rTMS induced reliably increased delta.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17478041


Meditation on frontal alpha-asymmetry in previously suicidal individuals. :
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is effective to counter decreased relative
left-frontal activation and associated suicidality in suicide attempters.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17426604
----------

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)

* Chicago IL Sep 27-30
* Irvine CA Oct 11-14
* Nashville TN Oct 25-28
* San Jose CA Nov 12-15
* San Antonio TX Nov 29-Dec 2
* Glendale CA Dec 13-16


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.


------------------------------------------------------------
Conferences for Neurofeedback Clinicians & Researchers

CONFERENCE LOCATION DATES

AAPB - www.aapb.org Daytona Beach, FL May 13-18, 2008
SABA - www.skiltopo.com/saba Tampa Bay area, FL Apr 28-May 1, 2008

------------------------------------------------------------


Last Word

Living up to our Name

** Let your clarity define you ** Rob Thomas lyric

No species on the planet owes its existence more to
climate change than us. Three million years ago
Africa went dry and we
are the result.

The creative continent released 2 or 3 editions of
humankind every 500,000 years or so, but most were
absorbed by the many climate cycles (50) since our
separation from apes. Only a lucky few of us stuck
around. Those who fought off cold, heat, arid
conditions, rise and fall of critical vegetation,
somehow adapted genetically and culturally and
survived. Until the next crisis. For good or bad the
few has become one. We are Last Standing, the sole
bearer of the title of humankind out of two dozen
attempts at Hominid.

Here are our attempts, in near chronological order,
according to a few physical anthropologists:

Sahelanthropus tchadensis
Kenyanthropus platyops
Ardipithecus ramidus
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus africanus
Australopithecus bahrelghazali
Australopithecus aethiopicus
Paranthropus boisei
Paranthropus robustus
Australopithecus anamensis
Australopithecus garhi
Homo rudolfensis
Homo habilis
Homo ergaster
Homo erectus
Homo antecessor
Homo heidelbegensis
Homo neanderthalensis
Homo sapiens
(subspecies) Homo sapiens sapiens


We were not the only species or genus affected by
climate cycles but we were the only group to win an
eternal advantage from periodic chaos. Stormy weather
acted like a rogue wave righting a capsized ship. We
were restored to Predator. We return to our mammalian
roots, Insect Eater, a method of inspection,
response, and pursuit that successfully routed large
reptiles and after 100 million years of cohabitation
with dinosaurs, dinosaurs. Bipedal primates went from
being eaten to eaters in moments, geologically
speaking, prey to predator. We no longer chewed for a
living, afraid for our lives from the Killers; we now
ate. When East Africa went dry 2.7 million years ago,
we parted ways with earthier cousins (Paranthropus),
who chewed for a living and continued to fear
Killers, and we tried our hand at hunting. We began
small, foraging for the occasional ripe tidbit or
unlucky rodent who crossed paths. But as time moved
forward, so did we. As fellow hunters, we now had a
chance against Killers. It took a while, but we
eventually uprooted the great cats from their throne,
thanks to Mother Nature and a growing brain. (The
aftermath of this great victory, tooling ourselves
into Greater Killers, remains with us to this day.)


But Mother Nature was not done with us yet. Our lack
of jaw power forced us to use whatever was at hand to
meek out a living. Fast-forward a million years and
our lack of mandible muscular saved us when Mother
Nature threw another curveball at Planet Earth,
killing off the vegetation our bamboo-chomping
brethren relied upon. Gorillas would eventually
repopulate the chewing-for-a-living slot left by our
extinct cousins, but we hardly noticed, obsessed as
we were with our hands. We motored on, fending off a
series of curveballs. The Ice Ages descended and we
now faced competitors of our ilk, hominids, in
habitats we needed for our continuance, in Asia and
Europe. We adapted. We loved our hands, but we added
Thought to our arsenal. We responded with response
inhibition, thanks to a growing focus on our brain's
control of our beloved hands. Response inhibition --
holding off the movements of the hands -- led to
love, the most powerful idea yet created. With love
came social inhibition and connection, and with it
came diversity, enabling those like us and unlike us
to join together. We loved each other, and this
allowed us to group more freely, while Neanderthals
grouped only one way, the primate way, tightly. We
could group tightly and loosely. Our sense of
ourselves deepened. We could now manage dozens of
faces, many times the social capacity of our
competitors. And with such numbers grew variety of
action and response, creativity and foresight. All of
our competitors used tools, but we built more of
them, more types, more varieties, more uses. We built
hammers and saws and IPods... and all the while we
have been living on borrowed time.


We live between ice ages. We are 12,000 years into a
warm spell (Holocene era) but everything will rotate
back to ice and snow in a few thousand years if we
don't intervene. Earth is phase locked on three axes,
rotational precession (our wobble), tilt variation
(drifting between 23 and 24 degrees), and elliptical
eccentricity of our orbit around the Sun. We should
expect Ice Ages for some time into the future, unless
we change it. And it looks like we have.

We intervened, perhaps prematurely, before we can
control a global transformation. Until now, the Sun
and Earth were to blame for weather, magnetic fields
on one side, mechanics on the other. Add carbon and
we are faced with a crisis of our doing. Or undoing.
Regardless of the source of our current heat wave --
solar system dynamics or red meat production -- we
face a crisis, and our species will survive only if
we respond maturely. We are faced with the greatest
threat to agriculture since its inception, and the
eventual return of hundreds of cities to the sea. In
our own lifetime we may take a gondola down the
canals of New York City.

Some of us need to look past responsibility and begin
to consider our response. We are in free fall. Who
pushed us off the cliff is significant but irrelevant
to our strategy. We may be able slow free fall,
perhaps, but we cannot stop it. Instead we need to
learn to fly and quickly. We need to extend our wings
and glide into a landing if we are to survive. We
need to take control of weather, protect our coastal
cities from water, and move resources to higher
ground.

That we live in an age of catastrophic weather is
nothing new. That our kind recognizes it is. Climate
change was the engine behind brain growth. We leapt
from bipedal primates (australopithecus) to brainy
bipedals (Homo habilis) to brainy toolmakers (Homo
sapiens) in large part because we couldn't stand the
heat of the African sun. We won a neural "arms race"
lasting tens of millions of years against cats and
our own kind and all the while it was played out
against a backdrop of habitat loss.

The Earth hosted three human species as recently as
25,000 years ago, Erectus, Neanderthals, and us. We
emerged victorious in our two-front encounter, Europe
and Asia, perhaps because we lived up to our
subspecies' name, Homo sapiens sapiens, which means
"man, twice as wise". The question is, are we be up
to the task again?

-dk

----end--