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

Vol. 8 No. 6 - June 2005

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 the author's only. Copyright (C) 2005
by EEG Spectrum Intl, Inc. or David Kaiser. All rights reserved.
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Announcements - News
In the Spotlight - School Shootings, High School Size, and
Neurobiological Considerations
News & Reviews - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word - Neuroplasticity and SABA

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Study Shows How the Brain Recalls What Turns It On

Brains Contain 'Celebrity Cells'

Yes, bigger brains mean higher IQ, on average

Brain's Marijuana-like Chemicals Postpone Pain

Brain development may be influenced by genetic parasites

Deep, Dark Secrets of His and Her Brains

All links at:
http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=science&cat=brain_research
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In the Spotlight

School Shootings, High School Size, and Neurobiological Considerations

A disgrunted school board treasurer blamed his farm foreclosure on
taxes paid for building the new school and to exact retribution he
decided to destroy the school, with the children inside. He wired
more than 500 pounds of dynamite throughout the basement the night
before and detonated it at the start of the school day. He also
drove into the schoolyard and detonated dynamite stashed in his car.
A total of 37 students and 6 adults were killed, including the
demented farmer, and nearly 60 more were injured. So began school
violence in America, in Bath, Michigan, on May 18, 1927.

I live in a small town of 2,000 which shares schools with a large
neighboring city, like many towns in America do. Together they pull
in enough students to satisfy the school district, about 1,600 in
the high school, or 400 per (graduating) class. Last month a teenage
boy suspended from school was intercepted by police as he headed to
the school grounds with his own stash of arms and ammunition in his
car. He wanted to prove something to his teachers, or the world, but
fortunately his mother tipped off the police and there were no
injuries, only one arrest. I drove by moments after he was arrested
and when I saw the police cars blocking entry to the school, I had a
feeling what for.

In the last decade there were 14 multiple-injury student school
shootings in the United States, 11 of these in large schools. In
1959 James Conant, then president of Harvard University, contended
that the small high school was the number one problem in education
and advocated for its elimination through district reorganization
and consolidation. Today the number one problem in education is the
large high school.

The past half-century has been a period of unprecedented
consolidation as 200,000 public elementary and secondary schools in
1940 have been whittled down to 65,000 in 2005, despite a 70%
concomitant increase in population. Median public high school size
is 1,200 in suburbs and 1,600 in cities despite the fact that
smaller schools (500 to 800) serve every aspect of a child's
development to a much better degree than larger schools.

Smaller Schools are superior to larger schools on:
-athletic participation
-extracurricular activity participation
-absenteeism
-dropout rate
-student satisfaction
-minor and serious infractions
-self-esteem and locus of control
-interpersonal relationships
-sense of community
-parental commitment
-parental involvement
-interpersonal relations between teacher and students
-teacher attitudes

Smaller schools are generally better on academic measures as well.
The best high school size for improving math and reading test scores
is around 600, 150 per class (Lee & Smith, 1997). Primatology and
anthropology finds that this size -- 150 -- is our natural group
size, the size of many hunter-gatherer bands and horticultural
villages, groups we are survived within for 99% of our species
history. Our brain's large size is believed to be an adaptation to
the social environment (the Machiavellian hypothesis) but even with
a massive supercomputer sitting atop our shoulders we are prone to
confusion when too many neighbors are milling about. When we are
faced with more than 150 faces, our response has always been to
leave, to separate. Bands and villages splinter into daughter groups
and move apart when there are too many people to figure out, when
the group has become too complex for the brain. Neurobiology limits
the number of individuals we can significantly interact with on a
regular basis. This is how humanity spread across the globe in a
relatively short time: constant division, down to appropriate- sized
groups. Kids today, given the same chance to leave large numbers,
will often take this option. The 9th grade percentage drop-out rate
correlates significantly with school size in cities and large towns,
r=.55 and r=.59. Too many faces leads to ingrouping and outgrouping,
alienation and depression, cliques and wars. A school populated with
strangers is an environment that children are biologically unsuited
for, and from which many will separate, emotionally if they cannot
physically.

Below is a list of school shootings with multiple injuries:

LOCATION Injuries* Grade Size
-------------------------------------------
BETHEL, AK 4 74
MOSES LAKE, WA 4 185
EDINBORO, PA 4 240
WEST PADUCAH, KY 8 146
PEARL, MS 10 250
SANTEE, CA 13 468
JONESBORO, AR 15 121
SPRINGFIELD, OR 26 360
LITTLETON, CO 35 475
-------------------------------------------
* includes fatal injuries

School shootings are as rare as airplane crashes and might be
considered in the same vein in terms of analysis. Airline crashes
can be the result of an unfortunate series of random forces and tell
us little about a phenomenon, or they can be quite revealing and
indicate severe structural flaws that otherwise escaped our
attention. The Valujet crash in 1996 exposed operational and
organizational problems with that company which eventually shut them
down for good. I think school shooting incidents fall into the
latter indicative category, the tip of the iceberg phenomenon,
revealing structural decay in how we conceive and administrate our
schools. Large schools are detrimental to emotional, social, and
intellectual development as children do not possess the cortical
resources to integrate and function well within such groups. (Nor do
the teachers.) Educational systems fail our children when they fail
to address and adapt to the neurobiological realities of childhood
and adolescence.

We have had a hiatus from school shootings in America until
recently. A teenager on a reservation shot many classmates in a
small school in Minnesota last month. This reminded me that not all
pressures facing our youth can be quantified by the size of his or
her social environment. It was still the social environment that
failed him, simply the smaller family unit. We police ourselves when
we know one another but require police -- formal institutions of
behavioral control-- when we do not. Reducing school size to within
our children's neurobiological capacity is a form of neurotherapy.
Preventive neurotherapy, the best kind.

-DK
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News & Reviews

BOOKS

Causes of Conduct Disorder and Juvenile Delinquency
by Benjamin B. Lahey
Causal models of conduct disorder are discussed including
developmental pathways. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/
1572308818/eegspectrum

Autistic Thinking
by Peter Vermeulen
Introductory book offers window into autistic mind and the very
individual way in which it processes information. --
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1853029955/eegspectrum

Brain Energetics and Neuronal Activity : Applications to fMRI and
Medicine
by R. G. Shulman, D. L. Rothman
Theories of neuronal activity and disease states.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470847204/eegspectrum

Healing And Hope: Six Women From The Betty Ford Center
by Betty Ford
Six women share poignant stories of the destructive power of
addiction. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0425198308/eegspectrum

Neuroscience : PreTest Self-Assessment & Review
by Allan Siegel
Review neuroscience at a high level with 100s of questions,
explanations, and outlines of key material. --www.amazon.com/
exec/obidos/ASIN/0071436510/eegspectrum

Stress, the Brain and Depression
by H. M. van Praag, et al
Neurobiological changes induced by stress and depression are reviewed.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 052162147X/eegspectrum

Advances in Neural Population Coding
by Miguel A. L. Nicolelis
Historical overview of neural populations and coding schemes.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/044450110X/ eegspectrum

Holographic Reprocessing: A Cognitive-Experiential Psychotherapy for
the Treatment of Trauma
by Lori S. Katz
Use of holographic reprocessing in treatment of trauma, sexually or
physically-derived PTSD. --www.amazon.com/exec/
obidos/ASIN/041594757X/eegspectrum

Full Circle : From Addiction to Affection
by Bruce Codrington
Personal story of drug addiction, incarceration, loneliness,
depression and feeling unloved, and the woman who removed him from
this vicious cycle.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595329160/eegspectrum

Asperger's and Self-Esteem: Insight and Hope through Famous Role Models
by Temple Grandin, Norm Ledgin, Marsha M. Ledgin
Many famous thinkers fell into the Asperger category of
self-representation and object-relations. --www.amazon.com/exec/
obidos/ASIN/1885477856/eegspectrum

Functional Neuroimaging in Child Psychiatry
by Monique Ernst, Judith M. Rumsey (Editors)
Reviews functional neuroimaging techniques and their implications for
child psychiatry. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/
ASIN/0521650445/eegspectrum
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JOURNAL PAPERS

Contributing factors to changes of cerebral blood flow in major
depressive
disorder. : Reduced blood flow associated with depression appears to be a
precursor to an episode rather than a characteristic of depression
itself.
Apparently mental lethargy drifts us into depression.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15916810

On the human sensorimotor-cortex beta rhythm: Sources and modeling. :
Inhibitory neurons drive neuronal synchronization (in the 20 Hz beta
band) than
those onto excitatory pyramidal cells, as we've always presumed.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15907295

Neural substrates of faulty decision-making in abstinent marijuana
users. :
Heavy users of marijuana focus on immediate gratification, which
results in
persistent decision-making deficits and alterations in brain activity.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15907305

EEG biofeedback with Asperger's syndrome. : Pilot study of EEG
biofeedback on 5
boys with Asperger's syndrome showed improved behavior as rated by
parents and teachers.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15900187

Neuroimaging of Epilepsy: Therapeutic Implications. : Neuroimaging
provides new
insights into the pathophysiology and neurotherapeutics of epilepsy.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15897958

Neuropsychological dysfunction in bipolar affective disorder: a critical
opinion. : Reviews possible causes of neuropsychological dysfunction
associated
with bipolar disorder, in attention, learning and memory, and
executive function.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15898960

Intelligence related differences in EEG-bandpower. : Intelligence is
reflected
in EEG activity by both lower and higher activitions; a contradiction
reflecting differences in task difficulty. Intelligence is the ability to
organize energy effectively.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15896490

Neuroimaging of gender differences in alcohol dependence: are women more
vulnerable? : Alcoholic effects on brain function and behavior are
gender specific.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15897736

Neural correlates during cocaine self-administration : Drug craving
correlated
with limbic, paralimbic, and mesocortical activity while high were
inversely
correlated in same areas
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15886020

Functional MRI in ADHD: Evidence for hypofrontality. : Hypofrontality is
apparent in ADHD but a compensatory network including basal ganglia,
insula and
cerebellum for low cognitive load tasks also exists.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15876503

Atypical language representation in chronic seizure disorder : Discusses
inefficiencies of right-hemisphere structure for reading.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15816948

Exteroceptive and interoceptive feedback systems in orbital prefrontal
cortex :
Evidence for two appetitive systems in prefrontal cortex.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15872112

Electrophysiological ratio markers for reward and punishment. : EEG
indices
reflecting motivational imbalances in reward- and punishment-driven
behavior
are described.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15878265

Language-learning disorders and youth incarceration. : Discusses how
language-learning disorders, poverty, and delinquency in boys may be
buffered
against to prevent recidivism
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15862813

Effect of traumatic brain injury on the timing of sleep. :
Investigates sleep
timing in TBI patients and how the Morningness-Eveningness
Questionnaire may be
inappropriate for this cognitively impaired group.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15865324

Deep brain stimulation in treatment of neurological and psychiatric
disease. :
Overviews deep brain stimulation to treat a variety of conditions.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15853543
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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

Charlotte NC Jul 21-24
Woodland Hills CA Aug 11-14

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

ISNR - http://www.isnr.org Denver CO Sep 8-11
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Last Word

Neuroplasticity and SABA

Neuroplasticity is the hottest topic in neuroscience these days, and
neurotherapy is actually well ahead of the curve on this one.
Actually it is the curve: We will be there around the bend when the
bench neuroscientist look up from their microscopes and staining
tools and try to apply what they learned to people. Thirty years ago
George Lucas' film THX 1138 showed a world learning was essentially
forbidden, where every child wore IVs and resisting to take one's
medication was a crime. Set 400 years in the future, the State has
taken control of mental health and everyone is drugged into a
continual stupor. Loudspeakers in the home and work constantly
remind individuals to take the appropriate amount of sedatives.
Avoiding one's medication is a crime. Near the end of the film our
fate is tied to one of the men who has fought the system and failed.
He's about to be arrested and "re-educated." With nowhere else to go
or hide, he sits alone in a lobby, calmly awaiting the authorities.
Here we see for the first time children: a line of boys and girls
calmly step off a nearby escalator, noticeably subdued, passive,
without curiousity. The camera focuses on an IV-tube strapped to
each right arm. One of the children appears frightened and confused
and approaches our man for help. His IV tube has come loose. Our
man, drained of all fight, reattaches the IV tube and with a sweet
smile sends the child on his way... Perhaps this way is best for all
of us, his weak smile conveys..

I've written about this film and its prescience before and I wish is
was more parody and less a growing reality. One goal of neurotherapy
is to stop the current rising trend of overmedication of children.
Short-term psychoactive treatments, stop-grap measures, these will
always be necessary, but too often psychoactive medication merely
mask symptoms and fails to address underlying mechanisms. Short-term
relief from symptoms sometimes is the cure, or at least opens the
road to improvement in many conditions, but in the long run mental
health must be earned by the brain. As we gain mastery over our
lives and its problems, we grow. When "mastery" is given to us, we
shrink.

Here is a brief overview of the 4th conference of the Society for
Advancement of Brain Analysis (SABA) which took place from June
6-12, 2005 on a cruise ship from Vancouver to Anchorage, Alaska.
SABA is a nonprofit membership group and a number of EEG Spectrum
affiliates are members. The point of presenting this overview, in
part, is to show people unaware of the variety of dynamic groups
involved in "therapist-assisted neuroplasticity" and how many
notably practitioners are searching for better answer, better
approaches to treating mental illness.

In the keynote address, Barry Sterman presented his model of the
role of EEG oscillations in learning, dropping down to molecular
levels including transmission facilitation and synaptic
reorganization.

Niels Birbaumer & Connie Weber described two controlled studies
using slow cortical potential and SMR neurofeedback in ADHD which
demonstrated equivalent results than ritalin control and no
difference between the two neurofeedback groups. Neils also
presented a brain-computer interface (BCI) using SMR,
Slow-Brain-Potentials, P-300 and invasive recording of ECoG for
direct brain communication in locked-in patients with ALS or for
movements of neuroprosthesis of a paralysed hand in chronic stroke.

Edward Hallowell provided a number of insightful and entertaining
anecdotes, the most striking being the metaphor for parenting.
Parenting is packing your child's suitcase, to prepare them for the
world. You have 18 years to pack it, and hope it is filled with
confidence, self-esteem, success, and love in order to help the
child make their way in the world. He related a story how a teenage
daughter was friends with a troubled teenage girl and how the father
disapproved and told her that she didn't need friends like that. But
as the daughter explained, "But maybe she needs a friend like me."
Sometimes our children's suitcase are packed better than we imagine.

Michael & Lynda Thompson presented QEEG patterns from child and
adult ADHD patients. For instance they find a common pattern in
adults with ADHD that they call a 'Busy-Brain' (high amplitude
bursts of hi-beta activity, a corresponding dip in SMR, and a high
ratio of 26-34/13-15 Hz). They described other patterns including a
distraction / inattention profile due to rumination that correlated
with bursts of 23-34 Hz activity.

William Sears, M.D. talked about a health care provider model
(Pills-Skills) in which the patient is taught skills in order to be
weaned off any pills needed for the short term. In another talk,
Sears described five Bs for infant caring: bonding at and after
birth, breastfeeding, babywearing, bedsharing, and being sensitive
to the content of baby cries.

Dave Kaiser discussed the differences between two connectivity
measures in QEEG, coherence and comodulation, which measure phase
and amplitude difference consistency, respectively. We also
attempted a Research Pilot Study that examined the role of immediate
consolidation pausing was begun onboard using a counter-balanced,
cross-over experimental design.

Here is a list of the talks:

-EEG Oscillations, Synaptic Reorganization, and Neurofeedback: A Model
for the Mechanism of EEG Operant Conditioning -- M. Barry Sterman, Ph.D.

-Treating the Whole Patient -- Barry Sterman, PhD.

-Biofeedback and the Nature of Self-Regulation in Epilepsy and AD/HD:
Some New Data --Niels Birbaumer, Ph.D.

-Self-Regulation of the BOLD Effect: -- The fMRI-Brain-
Computer-Interface and Emotional -- Regulation Niels Birbaumer, Ph.D.

-Delivered from Distraction-- Edward Hallowell, M.D.

-Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness -- Edward Hallowell, M.D.

-Improving Attention in Adults and Children: Differing EEG Profiles
and Implications for Training -- Michael Thompson, M.D. & Lynda
Thompson, Ph.D.

-Invasive and Non-Invasive Brain- Computer-Interfaces (BCI) for
Paralyzed Patients -- Neils Birbaumer, Ph.D. -

-The Difference Between Coherence and Comodulation -- Dave Kaiser, Ph.D.

-Neuronavigator/QEEG (Introductory) -- Tamara Lorensen, Ph.D. cand.

-From Pills to Skills: -- A New Paradigm for Managing Chronic
Disorders -- William Sears, M.D.

-Feeding the Brain for Optimal Function -- William Sears, M.D.

-An Update on the Clinical EEG and Neuropathology -- Denise Malkowicz,
M.D.

-Diversity in Neurofeedback - -Wolfgang Keeser, Ph.D. & Others

-DK
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