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

Vol. 12 No. 9 - Sep 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing services and training professionals. Past issues are available at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2009 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

Announcements  - News

Spotlight     - 17th ISNR conference

Reviews - Books & journal papers

Events - Conferences, Courses

Last Word    - EEG and Aviation 
 
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Announcements

=Could The Hot Stuff In Chili Peppers Ease Your Tingling Nerve Pain?
=Milestone Discovery In Cell Behaviors
=Link Between Genetic Defect And Brain Changes In Schizophrenia Demonstrated
=New Light On Nature Of Broca's Area
=Promising Therapeutic Target For Central Nervous System Injuries Identified
=Mechanism Of Gene Linked To Autism, Schizophrenia Pinpointed
=Tiny But Adaptable Wasp Brains Show Ability To Alter Their Architecture
=Colombian Guerrillas Help Scientists Locate Literacy In The Brain
='Molecular Trigger' For Sudden Death In Epilepsy Found

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain

 
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Spotlight

17th Annual ISNR conference

wives are like children you raise who never leave home... kind of like chimpanzee research
The 17th annual conference of the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research (ISNR) was held in Indianapolis IN, Labor Day weekend with more than 400 people in attendance. We had a number of new faces, a few famous faces (in science), and many of the regulars. As usual, I spent my time talking to people at the bar and lobby and less listening to the lectures, but here are some of the highlights:

Internally generated cell assembly sequences in the service of cognition By György Buzsáki, MD, PhD Buzsaki recently published "Rhythms of the Brain," a well-received volume on brain activity, and his talk focused on how cell assembly sequences underlie cognitive processes.

Self, Other and Object Processing in the Addicted Brain By Rex Cannon, MA, Debora Baldwin, PhD, Joel Lubar, PhD Rex is interested in substance abuse recovery and uses QEEG/LORETA to identify neural correlates of perception of self. The maladaptive self-referential cortical processes need to be address to remediate addiction.

Out of Injury Comes a New Discovery of Neurofeedback for a Baseball All-Star By Sean Casey, Wes Sime, PhD, Leslie Coates, PhD Ex-Boston Red Sox player Sean Casey enthusiastically described his use of biofeedback to improve his baseball hitting and mental performance. He said one winter he did little physical conditioning but started up with the biofeedback and he was in a race for the batting championship that entire season and credits the biofeedback with his ability to hit so well deep into the 162-game season of Major League Baseball.

EEG Coherences Validated by MRI Diffusion Tensor Imaging: An Autistic Case Series By Robert Coben, PhD Rob discussed his impressive work with co-registering axonal pathways with EEG activity, which I missed, unfortunately.

Group ICA of Brain Resting-state Networks: Nearly Identical Findings on Two EEG Databases By Marco Congedo, PhD, Marco explained his approach to EEG analysis using independent component analysis.

Limbic Dysrhythmia By Dirk De Ridder, MD, PhD, De Ridder discussed how many brain disorders included limbic disregulation and may be evaluated and monitored by measuring theta activity.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation By Felipe Fregni, MD, PhD Fregni discussed transcranial direct current stimulation to treat psychiatric disorders.

Referenced EEG -Ready for Medication Implementation: A Review of the Recent Research By Daniel Hoffman, MD Hoffman described a growing industry in QEEG, its use in predicting the effects of specific medications based on a database of past users.

Quantitative EEG in Children with Early Histories of Abuse, Trauma and Neglect By Jack Johnstone, Edward Hamlin, PhD, Jeff Atkinson, Andrea Meckley, MA, Michael Vendetti Children diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder exhibited a significant reduction of delta power over frontal sites.

More Words Than No: Two Cases of Juvenile Autism Treated with the LENS By H. Stephen Larsen, PhD, Nicholas Dogris, PhD Steve showed video of the rescue of two autistic children from solipsism and isolation.

Intensive Neurotherapy Facilitates Recovery from Severe Brain Injury and Seizures By Denise Malkowicz, MD, Diana Martinez, MD, Jorge Leon Morales, MD, M. Barry Sterman, PhD, David Kaiser, PhD Denise described how a 29 year old man who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury after a motor vehicle accident 10 years ago underwent successful treatment with neurofeedback.

EEG Suppression: A Theoretical/Clinical Talk on an Important New Variable in Neurofeedback and Neuroscience By Len Ochs, PhD Len described his new concepts of EEG suppression that differs from anesthic concepts of suppresssion.

Neuroplastic Effects of Endogenously Entrained Brain Rhythms: A TMS-EEG Study By Tomas Ros, MSc, Moniek A.M. Munneke, Diane Ruge, John H. Gruzelier, and John C. Rothwell Ros provides evidence of neuroplastic change following discrete training sessions.

Effects of Neurofeedback-based Behavioral Therapy on ERP Measures of Executive Functions in Drug Abuse By Estate Sokhadze, PhD, Christopher Stewart, MD, Guela Sokhadze, Margaret Husk MD, Allan Tasman, MD Tato explained his assessment and training approach to executive dysfunction in addicted individuals.

Autism and EEG Phase Reset: A Unified Theory of Deficient GABA Mediated Inhibition in Thalamo-Cortical Connections By Robert Thatcher, PhD, Duane North, MS, Carl Biver, PhD, James Neubrander, MD, Stuart Cutler, PhD, Philip DeFina, PhD Bob explains how cortical recruitmnt may be measured in EEG (i.e., using phase reset) and how cortical recruitment was limited in autistic spectrum individuals.

QEEG-Guided Neurofeedback for Remediation of Migraine Headaches By Jonathan Walker, MD, Jon described his treatment for migraines using neurotherapy.

Dr. Joe Kamiya on Neurofeedback, Biofeedback and First Person Science by Joe Kamiya, PhD, Thomas Collura, PhD Joe and Tom talk about studying physiology to study subjectivity.

QEEG Guided Amplitude and Coherence Neurofeedback for Autistic Spectrum Disorders by Michael Linden, Ph.D., Robert Coben, PhD, Jonathan Walker, MD Mike and other experts reviewed EEG profiles of Autism and Aspergers disorders.

Neurofeedback: The Past, Present and Future by Nancy White, PhD, Joe Kamiya, PhD, Juri Kropotov, PhD Three experts discussed their experiences.

We ended the conference at Jullian's, two dozen of us listening to music and sitting outside in the cool air, last night of the conference. I'll see most of them in San Diego this March, and then again after that.

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Reviews

NEW &/OR USEFUL BOOKS - Focus on Dawkins and Dennett

 The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins
Classic text from revolutionary biologist and now renown atheist.

 The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
Richard Dawkins
Continuation of the selfish-gene hypothesis.

 Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life
Daniel Clement Dennett
Dennett's theory of the evolution of consciousness is explained.

 Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder
Richard Dawkins
Dawkins attempts to explain why poets and artists often disparage science in their work.

 Consciousness Explained
Daniel Clement Dennett
Classic text by philosopher of the mind Dennett.

 The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene
Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett (Afterword)
Dawkins examines evolution of life and natural selection.

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JOURNAL PAPERS

QEEG reveals different physiological profiles between multiple sclerosis types
Changes in the high EEG frequencies (beta-2 and gamma) in MS patients reflect important aspects of this syndrome.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19025654

Comparison of quantitative EEGs between Parkinson disease and age-adjusted normal controls.
Parkinson disease patients exhibit diffuse slowing compared to controls.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18997624

Integration of cortical areas during performance of a catching ball task.
Integration of left frontal, central and parietal activity reflects expectation, planning and motor preparation in catching a ball.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18822348

SCP neurofeedback in ADHD
SCP neurofeedback improves selected attentional functions.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18762860

Neuroscience of alcoholism: molecular and cellular mechanisms.
Reviews functional, genetic, and neurochemical research associated with alcoholism.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19756388

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

  Events /Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

-Dallas, TX Nov 5-8
-Glendale, CA Dec 3-6
-Scottsdale, AZ Jan 14-17
-Orlando, FL Feb 11-14
-San Diego, CA Mar 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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact EEG Spectrumfor more information 818-789-3456 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

AAPB - aapb.org San Diego, CA  Mar 24-27 

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Last Word

EEG and Aviation

Years ago we worked with Northrup and NASA evaluating aviation issues with EEG such as what makes a good space shuttle pilot or how can we detect inattention in air force pilots. With modern cockpit displays we worry about overloading the pilot with all the information provided, and with more automation we worry about underloading the pilot, having the entire cockpit fall asleep over the Pacific. One of our pilots, Scott H., the first Jew in space Barry would say, flew the shuttle twice and underwent our EEG tortures once.

The perceptual defensiveness work is included among these papers. The DMT (Defense Mechanism test) quantifies how to what extent an individual may subconsciously block the perception of negative information. The test consists of multiple illustrations of violent events or implied violence, which are presented quickly, in steps of 50 ms increments. The same slide is shown over and over, with longer exposures. Most will not recognize a picture of a woman holding an axe above a crib when it is flash in front of them for 50 or 100 ms, but they will be able to make out the gist of the picture which it is on the screen for 250 ms, 500 ms. But individuals who defend against negative information will take more time, longer exposure, until the negativity is consciously perceived. Those who were slow to perceive threat, who blocked out signs of danger, turned out to be dangerous pilots to fly with, especially in experimental aircraft, where recognition and action at the onset of something going wrong is critical.

I found about 200 aviation and EEG papers, on a range of topics. Here is our lab's work:

Sterman, M.B., Kaiser, D., Mann, C. and Francis, J. (1992). Topographic EEG correlates of the basic attributes test for air force candidate selection. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society, 1-824, 62-65.

Sterman, M.B., Mann, C.A. and Kaiser, D.A. (1992). Quantitative EEG patterns of differential in-flight workload. In: Space Operations and Research (SOAR), NASA Johnson Space Center, II: 466-473.

Sterman, M.B., Mann, C.A., Kaiser, D.A. and Suyenobu, B.Y. (1994). Multiband topographic EEG analysis of a simulated visuomotor aviation task. Int. J. Psychophysiol., 16, 49-56.

Poe, G.R., Suyenobu, B.Y., Bolstad, C.A., Endsley, M.R., and Sterman, M.B. (1991). EEG correlates of critical decision making in computer simulated combat. Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, 2, 758-763.

Sterman, M.B., Mann, C.A., Suyenobu, B.Y., Beyma, D.C. and Francis, J.R. (1993). Application of quantitative EEG analysis to workload assessment in an advanced flight/mission aircraft simulator. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society, 1-64, 118-121.

Sterman, M.B., Olff, M. and Ursin, H. (1992). Electroencephalo-graphic correlates of psychological defense. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society, 1-824, 76-80.

Sterman, M.B. and Olff, M. (1991). Topographic EEG correlates of perceptual defensiveness. Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, 2:764-769.

Sterman, M.B. and Mann, C.A. (1995). Concepts and applications of EEG analysis in aviation performance evaluation. Biol. Psych., 40, 115-130.

Sterman, M.B. (1995). Application of quantitative EEG to aircraft assessment, management, and control. Proceedings, American Control Conference, 2, 1378-1381.

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

Vol. 12 No. 8 - Aug 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc., the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.

Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2009 by ESI or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

• Announcements  - News
• Spotlight     - Neurocosmology and the Law
• Reviews - Books & journal papers
• Events - Conferences, Courses
• Last Word    - Science of Learning 
  
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Announcements

-Whole-brain Radiotherapy After Surgery Or Radiosurgery Not Recommended For Brain Metastases -Brain Researchers Discover Molecule Responsible For Axonal Branching
-Radiologists Use Light To Scan The Inner Workings Of The Brain
-AIDS vaccine protects people, shocks researchers
-Lack of sleep may play role in Alzheimer's: study

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain

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Spotlight

Neurocosmology and the Law

Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions. -Evan Esar (1899 - 1995)

The study of neuroelectromagnetism is part Cosmology, part Psychology, closer to studying Creation than anything physicists have buried underground. We are investigating how Thought creates Light, or vice versa; how currents of electromagnetism emerge orderly out of matter and control infinitely more matter, the body. Matter is only sluggish light, making the sequence less mysterious, but still the ability to condition the regulation of energy in one's brain is akin to physicists trying to create alternate universes in the lab; but in our case each person who walks through the door represents an alternate universe, a unique way to create light and organize matter, and given their appearance at a neurotherapy clinic, probably in an inefficient or unregulated manner.

I equate EEG analysis to Cosmology in contrast to our legal system, which generally equates EEG analysis to Neurology. Recently I testified in a court case where a psychologist relied on quantitative EEG evidence of frontal lobe immaturity to mitigate the intention of an individual convicted of first degree murder. It was the DA's job to undermine the credibility of the analysis but I explained to the judge and lawyers who were present how individuals trained in psychology interpret neuroelectromagnetism differently from those trained in neurology, that EEG may reveal structural deficits (neurology) as well as functional ones (psychology) like the ones my friend revealed with his analysis. In fact when Hans Berger developed the first amplifiers sensitive enough to detect neuroelectromagnetism in humans in 1924, he studied his son's thought processes and behavior first, and only later did he find other uses for this technology such as identifying seizure activity and brain disease.

My psychologist friend examined the man-child with a number of test instruments but the QEEG results were by far the clearest, revealing extensive immaturity of the frontal lobes missed by conventional neuropsych testing. Anyone trained in functional EEG analysis would come to the same conclusion as my colleague, that the convict's frontal lobes were significantly underconnected in nearly every index of shared EEG information (connectivity). Energy was not being shared across his brain as it should and its regulation resembled that of a teenager than a man of his age. .

The practice of law is the practice of science, an ideal slowly actualized through iteration. In both realms progress is slowed by ambition and error, but such is always the case when people are involved. It was instantly clear to me that law was struggling to incorporate a scientific understanding of human behavior in order to remain relevant, and functional neuroimaging in particular was a unique challenge to its authority, arbitrator of intention in behavior and its consequences. Law and science both rely on precedents, though we have an advantage in that we can repeat experiments as many times as necessary to understand human behavior and judges must try to understand the intention that produced a single instance or sequence of behaviors performed only once, in most cases. We can replicate an action and change participants, setting, lighting, anything of interest, but law is forced to play the cards it was dealt, no re-dealing, no replacement cards.

EEG is a tool and like any tool it may be used in multiple ways by different people. Consider a hammer. Judges use hammers to maintain order and carpenters use them to build houses but we wouldn't require all hammers to be round at both ends or add a metal claw to a gavel. Same tool, different uses. During most of my examination and cross, I showed a Vend diagram of two overlapping circles, one labeled Psychology, the other Neurology, with their intersection labeled "EEG." That alone should convey the distinction. Psychology is a science based on inferential statistics and repetition: a phenomenon is best understand when it occurs similarly and repeatedly across individuals and groups and we use EEG technology in a likewise inferential fashion, relying on statistical tests such as M/ANOVAs, t-tests, Bonferroni, and Huynh-Feldt corrections for nonsphericity, to name a few. Neurology is primarily a descriptive science, focused on qualitative techniques of identification such as "eye-balling" a signal to a mental template in one's head. If a behavioral science depends on cross-individual repeatability, behavioral neurology is more of an art, a clinical practice that emerged from case studies, singular examples of brain dysfunction where inferential statistics necessarily fail due to lack of examples. Behavioral neurology began in America with Phineas Gage in 1848 and in Europe with Paul Broca's observations of aphasic patients, notably "Tan" in 1861. Today many of its greatest insights still derive from single cases, uniquely brain-injured patients known only by initials such as the late H.M.

The defense team phoned a few days after my testimony and asked to help undermine the credibility of the opposing expert, a well-known neurologist and friend of a friend of mine. I told them to ask him questions relevant to psychological investigations of EEG. For instance, what would we expect to see in an EEG chart of an individual during a lexical decision task, with or without lateralized presentations... that's easy enough. And what happens at posterior sites when a Blackjack player considers himself ahead of the house? Most of my undergraduates can answer these questions, and these are just two of the many psychological applications associated with EEG analysis, the latter being an application being studied in Monaco and Vegas. More than 120,000 EEG papers have been published to date, and the majority rely on spectral analysis of the EEG signal. In fact in the last decade three times more EEG data was generated under the aegis of psychology -- attention, sleep, consciousness, animal behavior -- than under the patronage of neurology. Identifying and studying organic disorders with EEG has been a minority application my entire life.

The DA asked whether I knew the standard for sampling rates was 200 Hz and I laughed when he told me, disbelief to the point of mockery. Who told you that? Why would any science using frequency analysis rely on a base-10 number? I asked aloud. The defense loved my response and I continued to explain to the unhappy DA how this was 40 years out of date at least!, a relic from the hey-day of Grass and Gibbs in the late 30s, or put in place by Molly Brazier and her crew in the 1950s. Base-10 was like using horse-and-buggy rules to control highway traffic. No serious field would rely on base-10 after the fast fourier transform was invented in 1965, as it sacrifices accuracy, speed, and communication, the trifecta of scientific investigation. We are a power of 2 since 1965, baby, with signal digitization set at 128, 256, 512 samples per second for a reason. The FFT is the perfect way for quantifying frequency information within a time series, light years ahead of any spectral technique in vogue prior to 1965. Approaches to discrete fourier transform (DFT) have been available since the 19th century, but they require endless iterations of trigonometry and floating-point operations, a dicey and memory-intensive operation, whereas the FFT is an N log N algorithm, which is geek-speak for "Hello, Gorgeous!" It was superior in every way, a major algorithmic breakthrough when it hit the world in the late 1960s and all serious sciences that employed frequency analysis – seismology, acoustics, physical oceanography --responded to this change… except neurology, apparently. The fast fourier transform does not multiply the changing raw signal with any function (cosine, sine) but rearranges the numbers to determine the frequency spectrum. It is perfect, no need for anything but summing it all up.

Some say Tukey and Cooley reinvented the FFT and Gauss deserves credit for his 1805 publication of it. But TC made is popular, Gauss' version went unnoticed and only later did this clever idea come to life. Science and mathematics are often this way, where the originator of new material fails to popularize it and not until the next generation or later does the idea come into focus.

During most of my examination and cross-examination the computer screen behind me showed a Vend diagram of Psychology and Neurology, the study of mental functions and behavior and the study of disorders of the nervous system, respectively, with their intersection being "EEG." The assistant DA asked me time and again about the use of the EEG in diagnosing organic disorders and time and again I responded that we were using EEG to study mental operations and abilities. Another distinction between disciplines are their origins. Neurology emerged out of case studies or series, i.e., singular examples of brain dysfunction, beginning with Phineas Gage in 1848 and Paul Broca's observations of Tan in 1861 to the "split-brain" callosotomy patients first described at Caltech in 1962 to the uniquely brain-injured patients known only by initials, such as the late H.M. But psychology was also an inferential statistical field, developing out of group studies from the beginning with Wundt and William James in the 19th century, with only the subfield of psychophysics being an exception at time.

My testimony was being evaluated under the Daubert decision (1994), which produced guidelines for evaluating scientific evidence and testimony in court trials. A technique or theory must be accepted by the relevant scientific community and governed by explicit rules to be viewed as credible evidence in a court of law. Aware of this decision, I explained how science, like law, is not homogeneous nor uniform but an assemblage of independent disparate interest groups, each its own school of thought, largely inert to the successes and failure of adjacent fields. Each science makes its own rules and only rarely do rules of one field extend or cascade into another. Unlike law, science has remarkably few rules shared across disciplines; but they are the following: a measurement must be repeatable, a theory falsifiable, an inference logical, all tools are considered imperfect, and communication between practitioners and the public are honest and transparent, and if you make a mistake, clean it up yourself. Those are our standards, by the way, as we are an applied science. The other day I noticed one of our "practitioners" breaking Rule #4, using the phrase "zero error" on his website to describe his analysis. We should remind ourselves that making a claim of zero error is propaganda, not science.

My take-home message from this experience was two things: the need for clear, exact, but adaptable standards in our own field, and should the FDA being regulated neurofeedback devices at all. Neurotherapy is currently utilized by many professions including general practitioner, neurologist, clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist and other behavior science specialists such as myself, along with neuroscientists, counseling psychologists, occupational therapists, marriage and family counselors, educational psychologists, registered nurses, and many others. The variety of professions using this technology means that we cannot rely on any one profession's standards to govern the use of this technology but must create rules and practices based on the common goals of practitioners. With standards come the need for instructional programs, mentorship, and referral networks to assist practitioners, and much of this is in place but more is needed. We specifically need multi-authored standards papers on the use of normative EEG assessment, multi-channel and source derivation neurofeedback, co-registration of EEG biofeedback with other forms of biofeedback, and how to track and evaluate individuals who undergo neurotherapy. Secondly, the FDA does not regulate psychological tools such as the MMPI, BDI, or TOVA, nor should it, nor does it classify videogames as food or drug, so how does computer-interface technology that encourages mental exercise and attention fall under the umbrella of a government agency dedicated to drug safety? And if it wants to regulate them, it needs to create a new section and include World of Warcraft and other addictive videogames under such regulation. I prefer we establish our own system of evaluating the claims, safety, and efficacy of neurofeedback equipment and let the videogame interest create its own rules.

-DK

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Reviews

NEW &/OR USEFUL BOOKS - Focus on History of Knowledge

 The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain
Terrence W. Deacon
How human thought differs from animals.

 A History of Knowledge: Past, Present and Future
Charles Van Doren
The history of ideas.

 Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Edward O. Wilson, Edmund O. Wilson
The biologist Wilson attempts to unify all of science, starting with his specialties of population genetics, evolutionary biology, and ethology.

 A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Sylvia Nasar
Nobel Laureaute John Nash formulated a theorem of game theory used in many fields, and suffered from schizophrenia.

 Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning

Reviews a new field of inquiry relevant to mental health.

 The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture           How the mind evolves in the savannah and before.

 Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
Stephen Jay Gould
Essays taken from Natural History magazine by the late author.

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JOURNAL PAPERS

Functional Neuroanatomy and the Rationale for Using EEG Biofeedback for Asperger's Syndrome.
Abnormal activity was most often found for the anterior cingulate in Asperger's.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19568927

Delta-alpha ratio correlates with level of recovery after neurorehabilitation in TBI
Delta-alpha ratio may help predict and monitor functional rehabilitation outcome.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19398371

QEEG guided neurofeedback therapy in personality disorders: 13 case studies.
Twelve out of 13 personality disorder subjects who underwent 80-120 sessions of neurofeedback showed significant improvement on personality and attention measures.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19278127

Value of quantitative EEG in differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
Alpha/delta power ratio differentiated those with moderate dementia
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19268969

Traumatic brain injury rehabilitation: QEEG biofeedback treatment protocols.
Reviews QEEG patterns under both rest and tasks conditions for TBI assessment.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19199027

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

  Events

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

Dallas, TX Nov 5-8
Glendale, CA Dec 3-6
Scottsdale, AZ Jan 14-17
Orlando, FL Feb 11-14
San Diego, CA Mar 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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact EEG Spectrumfor more information 818-789-3456 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 - aapb.org San Diego, CA  Mar 24-27 

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Last Word

Science of Learning

Learning is a permanent change in behavior or behavioral potential that is produced as a result of prior experience. Most learning is adaptive, but not all. In fact mental health problems are often maladaptive learning such as depressed mental set, obsessions, or social tendencies that continue to thwart the will of individual. Changes in behavior due to learning also exclude those temporary or permanent changes associated with fatigue or injury and the change in behavior is not a direct product of maturation, disease, or instinct. There are two major laws of learning: Rewarded behavior is repeated, and punished behavior leads to avoidance of the punisher.

Learning phases are as such: acquisition, retention, retrieval, and consolidation. The more an item from memory is retrieved, the stronger the memory trace, the more consolidated its footprint in the mind. Most learning theorists fail to strap electrodes on their subject so they miss one of the critical stages of learning, momentary consolidations, what neuroscientists call "post-reward synchronization or PRS" in the EEG. This momentarily quiescent rhythm allows successfully mastered or learned material to be consolidated into memory.

EEG rhythm learning began informally with Lord Adrian, who in 1934 watched his EEG in front of oscillograph and created alpha bursts at will. A quarter century later, Joe Kamiya at U Chicago developed alpha biofeedback or deep states training (1958). His first subject was remarkable, learning to discriminate his internal psychophysiological states. He began by hearing a tone and at that time he had to say whether the alpha activity was prominant in his EEG. He was correct half of the time, guessing. After a second block of trial he was accurate 65% of the time, and after another block of trials, 85%. During his 4th block, after initial mistakes, he correctly labelled his EEG stae 400 times in a row! Had the first subject of Kamiya's experment been insensitive to his internal states, who knows what would have happened, but instead the work along with other psychophysiological researcher's work lead to the 1st congress in Aspen Colorado on this topic in 1968. Here the field was called "Biofeedback", as the competing term "autoregulation" might have made the teamster union angry, or so a single person put it back then.

 Now we have the Mattel Force Trainer which trains the back of the head to increase its theta activity, from what I hear. Children will learn to slow down their visual centers by floating a pingpong ball in a transparent tube or fan chamber. What happens when children try to experiment and extend their new telekinetic power. Will they be able to move their parents by just thinking?

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

Vol. 12 No. 7 - Jul 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.

Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

Announcements  - News

Spotlight     - Journals of the International Spiritual Neuroscience Group

Reviews - Books & journal papers

Events - Conferences, Courses

Last Word    - Online sources of photos and music
 

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Announcements

-Acute Impact On Brain Function In Earthquake Survivors
-Schizophrenia Gene Linked With Abnormal Neurogenesis In Adult And Postnatal Brain
-Rasagiline Might Slow Parkinson's Progression, Large Multicenter Study Finding
-How We Know A Dog Is A Dog: Concept Acquisition In The Human Brain
-Neuroscientists Find That Men And Women Respond Differently To Stress
-Psychologists Use fMRI To Understand Ties Between Memories And The Imagination

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain

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

Spotlight

Journals of the International Spiritual Neuroscience Group

  Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. - my Cornell lecture buddy, Carl Sagan

I have been editor of this newsletter for 12 years, the Journal of Neurotherapy for 7 years, and writing since 1979. I wrote my first book in 1979, a 600 page fantasy called "High Troy" which I sent to Del Rey Books with the eager hopes of a 15 year old. They said it would take 2-4 weeks to review and return, and I checked the mailbox for their acceptance letter every day after 2 weeks had passed. After 6 weeks I called the company and found that they had misplaced my manuscript, so I sent another, and promptly two weeks later got a form letter rejecting it. So my writing career began with others losing my stuff, hindering my enthusiasm, but such is writing - one must do it for oneself, and if others read over your shoulder, metaphorically-speaking, all the better....

As the son of a minister/basketball coach, spirituality for me can be distilled to a 3-point shot from the outside over the hands of a defender. That I can do this effortlessly and not know exactly how I do it, except for the extensive practice in doing it and my implicit trust in my cerebellum, makes me recognize the value of the smaller mind (cerebellum) inside. The cerebellum works with the grain of the world better than our larger bulky awkard verbal mind can, and I hope to use the same freedom and flow in pursuing these electronic journals as I do in my basketball shots. Day 1 on being a Publisher was last week when I applied for ISSN numbers, and the group is international in that one of my primary collaborators is an Indian physicist. These are to be peer-reviewed electronic quarterlies.

Journals of the International Spiritual Neuroscience Group

(images at http://www.brainandcosmos.com/info.htm)

Aleph Omega, Journal of Spiritual Neuroscience

 Editors
David A Kaiser, MFA, PhD (Editor in Chief)
Roger deBeus PhD
Tamara Lorensen MAppSc
Meg MacDonald MD

Aleph Omega is a journal focused on understanding neural substrates of spirituality including mysticism, worship, and the numinous experience. Research is drawn from functional neuroimaging and behavioral sciences.
 --

Brain and Cosmos

 Editors
Moninder Singh Modgil, PhD (Editor in Chief)
Nicholas Dogris, PhD
David A Kaiser, PhD

Brain and Cosmos is a journal focused on understanding creation in terms of principles common to physics, philosophy and neuroscience. 
 --
Journal of Atheism and Alternative Worship

EIC negotiation

Journal of Atheism and Alternative Worship is a journal focused on how the human tendency for worship may be repurposed when one does not subscribe to cultural normative beliefs. Research is drawn from behavioral sciences, neuroscience, philosophy, and religious studies. (In the figure above, taken from Michelangelo's Creation, I make Adam look to the left, whereas it was painted with him looking to the right at God the father. Does he look at the other half of his parentage?)
 

--
Journal of Stress and Self-Therapy

Editors
Tamara Lorensen MAppSc (Editor in Chief)
Ed Hamlin, PhD

Journal of Stress and Self-Therapy is a journal focused on understanding how personal and occupational stress damage relationships and how to promote self-healing. Research is drawn from neurotherapy, clinical psychology, and related disciplines.
 

--
Journal of Neuroplasticity and Neuromodulation
 
Editors

Roger deBeus PhD (Editor in Chief)
Ed Hamlin, PhD

Journal of Neuroplasticity and Neuromodulation is a journal focused on understanding how brain function and structure adjust to experience, induced magnetic fields, as well as development. Its focuse is statistical analysis of EEG operant conditioning and energy disruption and synchronizing techniques. Research is drawn from developmental neuroscience, neurotherapy, functional neuroimaging and feedback and related disciplines.
 

--
Journal of Extrasolar Life and Intelligence

EIC solicitation to be sent

Journal of Extrasolar Life and Intelligence is a journal focused on understanding environmental conditions that lead to intelligence on Earth and life elsewhere. This includes investigation of what constitutes intelligence and sapience in primate and cetacean species and how to search for likely signs of past and present technological societies (SETI, archeology). Research is drawn from SETI, comparative psychology, extrasolar planetary studies, and related disciplines.
 --

Centurion, Journal of First Century Social Intelligence

 
EIC solicitation to be sent

Centurion is a journal focused on understanding how social order was reorganized when polytheistic (Hellenistic/Roman) and monotheistic (Hebrew) cultures encountered each other in the first century, and the role the Jesus Movement played at this time. We focus on social and theological activity and rabbinic changes during the early centuries of the Common Era. Research is drawn from New Testament and Rabbinical scholarship, and Levant archeology and cultural anthropology.
 

--

JABA, Journal for the Advancement of Brain Analysis

 Editors
David A Kaiser, MFA, PhD

JABA is a journal focused on improving quantitative and normative EEG analysis for use in neurotherapy and functional brain assessment. It is the official journal of the Society for the Advancement of Brain Analysis, pending board approval, founded in 2001.
 

---
Journal of Normative Electroencephalography

EIC solicitation to be sent

Journal of Normative Electroencephalography is slated for distribution in 2011 and is a journal focused on findings in normative EEG analysis, methodology, and technology. Research is drawn from psychology, neurology, neurotrauma, applied neuroscience, educational psychology, and related disciplines.
 

---

Journal of Neuromarketing

 Editors
David A Kaiser, MFA, PhD (Editor in Chief)

Journal of Neuromarketing is slated for distribution in 2011 and is a journal focused on neuromarketing, use of neurophysiological signals including EEG, MEG, and fMRI BOLD and blood flow signals to determine interest in products, advertisements, and individuals. Research is drawn from psychology, consumer research, and applied neurosciences.
 

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

Reviews

NEW &/OR USEFUL BOOKS - Focus on Laterality  (links at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/jul2009.htm )

 Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your Add Child

How to nurture the special skills in children that are often untapped by school.

 Evolving Brains
by John Morgan Allman
Encephalization: its costs and benefits.

 Left Brain, Right Brain: Perpectives from Cognitive Neuroscience

One of the best texts that comprehensives describes laterality research.

 Hemispheric Asymmetry: What's Right and What's Left

One of the more comprehensive but readble textbooks on hemispheric specialization.

 The Alphabet and the Brain: The Lateralization of Writing

How learning to read and write affects brain organization, among other interesting aspects of literary development in people.

 Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step-By-Step
Edward De Bono
Audio book encourages habitual lateral thinking to generate new ideas.

 Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life With Autism
Temple Grandin, Oliver Sacks
Classic book of autism from the inside (Grandin's experience).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JOURNAL PAPERS

Dementia, mild cognitive impairment and quantitative EEG in patients with Parkinson's disease.
An increase in posterior theta amplitude was associated with mild cognitive impairment or dementia and postorior delta increases with dementia in Parkinson patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19715179

Improvements in Spelling after QEEG-based Neurofeedback in Dyslexia
Spelling improved after neurofeedback training in dyslexic children compared to controls.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19711183

Negative symptoms in neuroleptic-naïve patients correlate with QEEG parameters.
Slow wave power was associated with negative symptoms in psychosis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19683895

Relative Efficacy of Connectivity Guided and Symptom Based EEG Biofeedback for Autistic Disorders.
QEEG based connectivity assessment was moste efficacious in the treatment of autism.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19649702

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

Events Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

-Dallas, TX Nov 5-8
-Glendale, CA Dec 3-6
-Scottsdale, AZ Jan 14-17
-Orlando, FL Feb 11-14
-San Diego, CA Mar 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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact EEG Spectrumfor more information 818-789-3456 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

AAPB - aapb.org San Diego, CA  Mar 24-27 

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

 
Last Word

Online sources of photos and music

I work on the computer 8-10 hours a day, my brain being disrupted by the electromagnetism of the large monitor. I listen to online music much of the time, and look for a new background photo every day. Here are my sources:

Free/Public Domain (verify usage rights for each photo)
http://www.freephotos.se
http://pdphoto.org
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net
http://www.burningwell.org
http://www.public-domain-photos.com
http://public-photo.net
http://opendomain.blogspot.com
http://www.picfindr.com
http://www.morguefile.com
http://www.flickr.com (Check rights)
http://www.freephotos.lu (Stock)

http://images.google.com (Most are not free/public domain, but usually okay for educational/noncommercial use)

Free music (and music videos)
http://player.play.it/player/yahooplayer.html (Yahoo player)
http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos (Yahoo music videos)
http://www.vh1.com/shows/series/top_20_countdown (VH1 Top 20)
http://www.pandora.com (Pandora - radio based on similarity)
http://www.youtube.com (Youtube - music videos and endless other videos)

Time
http://onlineclock.net (Alarm to set in background so you don't forget appts while listening to music)
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl (exact time)

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

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

Vol. 12 No. 6 - Jun 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.

Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

Announcements - News
Spotlight     - 8th Annual SABA conference
Reviews       - Books & journal papers
Events        - Conferences, Courses
Last Word     - Brain Function Powerpoints

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

Announcements

-Sleep Loss Linked To Increase In Alzheimer's Plaques
-Cracking The Brain's Numerical Code: Researchers Can Tell What Number A Person Has Seen
-Gammaglobulin Treatment For Alzheimer's Disease To Be Tested
-Certain Colors More Likely To Cause Epileptic Fits, Researchers Find
-Whale, Dolphin Evolution: Origin Of Cetaceans
-Pinpointing Problems In The Brain

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spotlight

8th Annual Society for the Advancement of Brain Analysis (SABA) conference

   Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others. -Groucho Marx

The 8th conference for the Society for the Advancement of Brain Analysis (SABA) was held in Marineland, Saint Augustine, FL May 1-5, 2009 and was sponsored by the University of Florida. SABA is a group of educators, researchers, and clinicians focused on psychological electroencephalography (EEG) with the purpose of integrating knowledge of brain structure and function in the practice of neurotherapy and psychological evaluation. This year's conference focused on both structural and functional neuroplasticity and including some wetware neuroscience (animal research) in addition to conventional EEG studies. Below are selected abstracts:

Real-time fMRI feedback training by Mario Beauregard, Ph.D.
Real–time fMRi methods werereviewed, as well as recent studies showing learned control over localized brain activity involved in various functions (e.g., sensory and motor processing, pain and emotion regulation). The potential therapeutic applications of this new neuroimaging approach was discussed.

Can models of homeostatic plasticity explain nervous system functional stability? by Dirk Bucher, Ph.D.
We are only beginning to understand how nervous systems strike a balance between altering individual neurons and synapses in the name of plasticity, while maintaining long-term stability in neuronal system function. Our research focuses on the question of how stability of network function is achieved through regulation of neuronal properties, including morphology, synaptic and intrinsic membrane properties.

Brain laterality, brain states and ADHD by Sigi Hale, Ph.D.
Adults with ADHD demonstrate increased right hemisphere (RH) contribution during early-stages of sensory information processing, and that this is associated with compromised LH linguistic abilities and abnormal interhemispheric interaction. Moreover, we have found evidence that this is likely a brain-state associated phenomenon rather than reflecting inherent capacity. We suspect that increased RH relative to LH contribution during early-stages of sensory processing is generally associated with ADHD symptoms and that what distinguishes ADHD-pathology from a more typical expression of such traits is a matter of the frequency, duration, and/or adaptive expression of a RH biased mode of processing. Towards this understanding we've recently found evidence of increased rightward alpha asymmetry in frontal and parietal regions of adults with ADHD during an eyes closed condition and during the Conner's Continuous Performance Task (CPT). Moreover, we've found robust rightward high beta asymmetry in parietal regions of adults with ADHD also during the CPT.

Instrumental conditioning of human sensorimotor rhythm (12-15 Hz) and its impact on sleep and memory By Kerstin Hoedlmoser, Ph.D.
The present study sought to clarify the effects of instrumental conditioning of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR; 12-15Hz) in humans on sleep parameters during a 90min midday nap as well as on declarative memory. Twenty-seven subjects were randomly assigned to either 10 sessions SMR-conditioning or randomized-frequency-conditioning. Before and after this instrumental conditioning period subjects had to attend the sleep laboratory to take a 90 min nap and to perform a declarative memory task before and after sleep. The three major findings are: (i) the experimental design was successful in conditioning an increase in relative 12-15Hz amplitude within 10 sessions (d=0.7); (ii) the increased SMR activity is also expressed during subsequent sleep by eliciting positive changes in various sleep parameters (sleep spindle number [d=0.6], total sleep period [d=0.7], sleep onset latency [d=0.7]); and (iii) this increased relative 12-15Hz amplitude is associated with enhancement in declarative memory performance (d=0.9). Results thus indicated that SMR frequency constantly increased over the 10 training sessions (in the SMR group only) and that this "shaping of one's own brain activity" also facilitated the expression of 12-15Hz oscillations during subsequent sleep. Most interestingly, these electrophysiological changes were accompanied by profound positive sleep as well as memory performance.

The Periodicity Table: Introduction to bimodulation and entropy By David A. Kaiser, Ph.D.
The Periodicity Table organizes spectral properties on number of signals, frequencies, and phase relationships. Of recent interest are the measures of bimodulation (Pearson product moment correlation of two frequencies at the same electrode site) and spectral entropy. Spectral entropy is a relative incidence measure from information sciences which may be conceived as a measure of signal disorder or constituent variability. High spectral entropy occurs when activity is spread across most of the spectrum and low spectral entropy is when activity is localized to a handful of frequencies, as seen in sleep and coma states. Nunes likened entropy to freedom of choice in that "conscious cortex is free to move among a huge number of available microstates" when entropy is high. Entropy indexes the number of possible microstate rearrangements which can produce same macrostate. EEG rhythm training is discussed in terms of entropy training, increasing or reducing the possible accessible microstates as indicated by specific EEG rhythms. The value of these coefficients and related measures were discussed in terms of normative EEG assessment.

Decision-making in neurofeedback protocol selection By David A. Kaiser, Ph.D. and Penijean Rutter, MA
Normative EEG analysis can provide dozens or even hundreds of statistical abnormalities for any individual given the large number of EEG sites, frequencies, and spectral coefficients examined by state-of-the-art techniques. General rules for prioritizing EEG findings are direly needed as we tailor our protocols to address specific behavioral or mental impairments. Two models for interpreting normative EEG are presented based on clinical practice and theoretical considerations. In the first model, the brain is conceived in terms of maturation, where functional and structural brain disorders reflect regression toward primitive brain behavior, i.e., ontogenetic as well as phylogenetic immaturity. EEG indicators of immaturity include excessive delta, diminished connectivity, lack of functional differentiation in prefrontal cortex, reduced hemispheric specialization, and lack of coordination between anterior and posterior brain regions. In the second model, the brain is conceived as a reward-seeking machine in which all mental processes work to maximize reward within a limited resource system. Such resource allotment necessitates a hydraulic relationship between brain areas or systems. Whenever resources are allocation to one brain area or system they must be taken from another. With this in mind brain activity is organized along a number of dimensions including inhibition (output gating), meaning attribution (input gating), and recruitment. Disturbances in connectivity and evidence of hyper-recruitment or "resource hijacking" are viewed as likely candidates for EEG training.

Can theories of circuit modification with sensory motor rhythm feedback explain our remarkable effects with epilepsy? By Denise Malkowicz M.D. and Diana Martinez M.D.
After traumatic brain injury our subject had a 10 year history of severe refractory epilepsy with prolonged postictal states. He had failed multiple therapies. Initial QEEG showed diffuse delta and theta (+12 z-score) and no 12-=15 Hz sensorimotor cortex SMR. He underwent 3 spaced periods of intensive SMR EEG feedback training at C3-C4, with 5 months periods separating each of these periods. SMR EEG feedback resulted in seizure control within the first 3 weeks. He continued to improve in all areas of neurological function, including seizure control during the 5 month period between neurotherapy sessions. Post training QEEG showed normalization of delta and theta, increased SMR, and increased alpha and beta.

The SMR story by M. Barry Sterman, Ph.D.
The basic research literature provides ample data to support a very detailed model of the neural generation of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR), as well as the most likely candidate mechanism underlying its efficacy in clinical treatment. Further, while more controlled clinical trials would be desirable, a respectable literature supports the clinical utility of this alternative treatment for epilepsy. However, the skilled practice of clinical neurofeedback requires a solid understanding of the neurophysiology underlying EEG oscillation, operant learning principles and mechanisms, as well as an in-depth appreciation of the ins and outs of the various hardware/software equipment options open to the practitioner. It is suggested that the best clinical practice includes the systematic mapping of quantitative multi-electrode EEG measures against a normative database before and after treatment to guide the choice of treatment strategy and document progress towards EEG normalization. We conclude that the research literature justifies the assertion that neurofeedback treatment of epilepsy/seizure disorders constitutes a well-founded and viable alternative to anticonvulsant pharmacotherapy.

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

Reviews

NEW &/OR USEFUL BOOKS - Focus on Cognitive Science

 Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival
Geert Hofstede
The author calls for better co-operation between countries and different cultures.

 Beyond the Post-Modern Mind
Huston Smith
A treatise on how to transcend materialistic psychology and sciences.

 The Society of Mind
Marvin L. Minsky
A view of the mind and intelligence by one of the original AI researchers.

 Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind
Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
Human minds are products of the brain and culture.

 Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought
George Lakoff, Mark Johnson
Rebuilding Western philosophy through the eyes of cognitive scientists.

 The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
Julian Jaynes
My favorite introduction to 21st century psychology is this book published in 1976. It espouses the revolutionary idea that human consciousness emerged with writing 2600 years ago.

 Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
Douglas R. Hofstadter
A bestseller of brilliant and quirky essays.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JOURNAL PAPERS

Clinical applications of functional MRI in epilepsy.
Reviews biophysics of blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI in use for localizing seizure activity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19774159

Neural correlates of altered consciousness during epileptic seizures.
Epileptic seizures provide a window into the relationship between brain function and altered conscious states.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19772840

Sex, trauma, stress hormones and depression.
Women show greater hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation than men when depressed and the loss of estrogens with menopause can result in HPA axis dysregulation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19773810

Human brain evolution and the "Neuroevolutionary Time-depth Principle:"
Discusses evolutionary aspects of levels of fear beginning with neural circuitry evolved during Mesozoic (mammalian-wide) and Cenozoic (simian-wide) eras which are relevant to phobia and moving on to paleolithic & neolithic (Homo sapiens) circuitry responsible for mate-choice selection and gene-culture co-evolution.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16563589

Need for Individualization in Neurofeedback
Argues for the need for comprehensive QEEG assessment in order to tailor neurofeedback protocols.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19760143

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

  Events Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

-Dallas, TX Nov 5-8
-Glendale, CA Dec 3-6
-Scottsdale, AZ Jan 14-17
-Orlando, FL Feb 11-14
-San Diego, CA Mar 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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact EEG Spectrumfor more information 818-789-3456 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

AAPB - aapb.org San Diego, CA  Mar 24-27 

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

 
Last Word

Brain Function Powerpoints
 
I have put a number of powerpoints online about quantitative EEG assessment and neurotherapy, at http://www.skiltopo.com/demo30.htm

Here are the titles:
-Basic concepts powerpoint
-General intro to Brain Function
-PTSD brain function
-CIC 2009
-ISNR 2008
-1-day Intro
-2-day Intro
-Hemispheric Unity
-Connectivity
-Homologues
-History of SMR Training,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Vol. 12 No. 5 - May 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.
Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2009 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

Announcements  - News
Spotlight      - Primer on Research Methods
Reviews        - Books & journal papers
Events         - Conferences, Courses
Last Word      - Concepts of mental illness
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Announcements

-White Matter Changes May Predict Dementia Risk
-Timing Is Everything: Growth Factor Keeps Brain Development On Track
-Parts Of Brain Involved In Social Cognition May Be In Place By Age Six
-Social Brain Development
-Who Am I? Adolescents' Replies Depend On Others
-Foster Care May Boost Brain Activity Of Institutionalized Children
-In Adolescence, Girls React Differently Than Boys To Peers' Judgments

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spotlight

Primer on Research Methods

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. -James Thurber (1894-1961)
Sound research methods lead to sound conclusions in science. With that in mind I thought I'd run us through a few laps of the scientific method so people get a flavor about what to do and not to do in making conclusions about experiments and how confounds, as they are called, can mar our conclusion. To do this, we will run a memory experiment and you will be the one and only participant. Get a blank piece of paper and something to write with. This experiment examines the effect of delay on recall.

Please read the following list of words, quietly or aloud, whichever suits you, and immediately after reading the entire list, write down all the words you can recall. This is the NO DELAY condition, meaning there will be no delay between encoding (reading) and recall. Ready.... now go ahead and read List 1, below:

Tiger
Apple
Television
Balloon
Night
Water
Orange
Jacket
Soda
Radio
Soap
Lamp

STOP, look away, and write down all the words you can recall.

Now go back to the list and count how many words you correctly recalled. Good! This is the number for the NO DELAY recall condition. Write down somewhere "NO DELAY = #" where # is the number of words correctly recalled. Now cover over the words you just wrote down so you cannot see them and we will run through the 30 SECOND DELAY condition. Please read the next list of words, but after reading them, stare at a clock for 30 seconds. Only after a delay of 30 seconds may you write down all the words you can recall and do not rehearse the words during the delay... think about the numbers on the clock instead. Use your computer clock if you must. So ready.... go ahead and read List 2, below:

Tiger
Apple
Television
Balloon
Night
Water
Orange
Jacket
Soda
Radio
Soap
Lamp

STOP, look at the clock for 30 seconds, thinking about numbers...

Okay, now write down all the words you can recall.

Now go back to the list and count how many words you correctly recalled. Good! This is the number for the 30 SECOND DELAY condition. Write "DELAY = #" where # is the number of words recalled. Compare this number to the NO DELAY condition. Most people will have more words recalled in the 30 SECOND DELAY condition at this point, which we might interpret as meaning that it is better to wait some time before recalling information than immediately recalling the words. That would be a plausible conclusion....

And of course it would be wrong. As the experimenter I manipulated the DELAY variable (NONE vs SOME) and believed that this was the only variable producing change in the results but there is a problem with this experiment as implemented, what we call a confounding variable. There was another variable that changed during the experiment, which was EXPOSURE to the words. By using the same list twice I accidentally manipulated the EXPOSURE variable (NONE vs SOME) and this manipulation could explain the results. I need to revise my conclusion -- maybe it's delay that leads to better recall but maybe it's previous exposure that leads to better recall. To go back to my original intent of the experiment -- the effect of delay on recall-- I need to manipulate only delay and keep exposure the same for two lists or conditions.

Let me rectify this situation by running through another 30 SECOND DELAY condition, but with a new set of words so that the EXPOSURE variable will be held constant (NONE for the 1st list, NONE for this new list). So, again, I want you to read the next list of words, and after reading stare at a clock for 30 seconds, thinking about the numbers only, no rehearsing the words in your mind. After 30 seconds, please write down all the words you can recall on a blank section of paper. So ready.... go ahead and read List 3, below:

Soap
Opera
New
York
New
Hampshire
New
Jersey
East
West
North
South

STOP, look at the clock for 30 seconds...

Okay, now write down all the words you can recall.

Now go back to the list and count how many words you correctly recalled. Good! This is the number for the 30 SECOND DELAY condition. Compare this number to the NO DELAY condition from List 1.

Most people will STILL have more words recalled in this 30 SECOND DELAY condition compared to NO DELAY, so we can interpret this to mean that it is better to wait some time before recalling recently encoded words than to recall them immediately.... our conclusion is again.... INVALID!...

As the experimenter I continue to believe that I am manipulating the DELAY variable (NONE vs SOME) but I introduced a new confounding variable with this new list. The words in the original list were unrelated, but the 3rd list had RELATED words, where one word triggers the rest (e.g., north, south, east, west). In other words I accidentally manipulated a RELATEDNESS variable (NONE vs SOME) and this could readily explain the results, so instead of my conclusion that delay leads to better recall, it's more likely that related words are easier to recall than unrelated words.

Here, let's try one more time to get this right. We'll use the 3rd list results (RELATED, 30 SECOND DELAY) and we will compare it to the next list of words which will be RELATED, NO DELAY. So read the list below and immediately after reading, do not delay but immediately write down all you can recall. Ready.... now go ahead and read List 4, below:

Than
With
Onto
Per
Through
About
During
Since
By
Until
Among
Before

STOP, look away, and write down all the words you can recall.

Now go back to the list and count how many words you correctly recalled. This is now the number for the NO DELAY recall condition. Please compare this number to the number from List 3.... and you will see once again the DELAY condition led to better recall (unless you're a freak of nature). I manipulated RELATEDNESS in both lists, but the form of RELATEDNESS was not the same. List 3 were ASSOCIATED terms, and List 4 were related by all being the same part of speech (i.e., prepositions) -- not the same thing! So you see how an experimenter must control for all factors and manipulate only one variable to draw proper conclusions. If we let other variables creep in, we cannot be sure of our conclusions.

We never did show that NO DELAY is better than DELAY.

In an experiment we have a number of variables. The independent variable (IV) is the variable, or circumstance, or factor manipulated by the researcher, and we measure the dependent variable (DV). The DV is expected to change as a result of the researcher's manipulation: it "depends on IV," thus its name. We also have control variables (CV) which are all factors or circumstances that are kept constant across the conditions of the experiment. In our recall experiment, list length was kept constant at 12 words and thus was a control variable, unmanipulated and always the same. Another control variable was language of the words (i.e., English), and other factors such as the setting (i.e., you read the list in the same room, same seat, same computer screen, presumably). We cannot always keep everything constant and controlled so we also have random variables (RV) which are those factors allowed to vary randomly which we hope will even out across individuals and conditions. For instance, in this experiment, each list was read at a slightly different time of day, minutes apart, but we assume time of day is an RV and that it will not significantly influence the results. Other RVS include fatigue in reading, changes in motivation, lighting or room conditions that might have varied slightly. Had you read the first list at noon, and the 2nd at midnight, then instead of time of day being an RV it might be a confounding variable, a variable whose levels covary with IV conditions and may be responsible for changes. In our experiment the EXPOSURE, RELATEDNESS, and FORM OF RELATEDNESS were all confounding variables, likely responsible for the change in the DV more than the IV (delay or not).

Proper experiments allow us to make conclusions about causality. If we keep variables and groups constant or equivalent and change only one factor at a time, we should be able to make conclusions about a variable on behavior.

Science is a set of rules to keep us from lying to each other and to ourselves. Whenever we spend time investigating the state of the world, we are invested and we use the scientific method to ensure we do not blind ourselves to the truth. The scientific method is an approach to evaluate ideas objectively, with degree of confidence, and comes down to a set of rules on how to collect, summarize, and analyze data. We have to be aware of all the variables involved and consider as many possible confounding variables as we can to make our conclusions about the state of the world (here, the effect of delay on recall).

If we think X occurs because of Y, we might not notice that X occurs whenever Z happens and Z causes Y to occur often. We often infuse causation into correlation, assuming one action causes another when they are merely associated with each other. For instance, in New York City, it is a well-known fact that ice cream sales are correlated with the homicide rate. Is it the case that the sugar in ice cream drives people to murder or do murderers finish their evil and then head off to Baskin Robbins afterwards? This is a silly example of what is called the "third variable problem," a hidden variable that causes both variables to change together in like fashion. In New York City, summer heat increases ice cream sales and the homicide rate increases during summer for a number of reasons. Environmental heat is the 3rd variable causally altering the other two.

Scientific progress is achieved incrementally, building on the shoulders of giants and the industrious. Science is about sharing, which is difficult in today's age of patent rights and stock options for scientific enterprise. In fact one reason neurofeedback has been slow to penetrate the psyche of the mass market is the lack of dollars generated by investment protection through patenting. Lack of protection means lack of investment. If I spend my dollars investing or advertising my scientific product and anyone in the field can take advantage of this expenditure, my return for the dollar is minimal. Because we build on the work of others, we need to be as honest as we possibly can in our presentation of data and results. We can only build on a firm foundation, not sand. We have entered an age in neuroimaging of vast sharing of data. Every few months a new fMRI data-sharing center opens up, and I suspect the same may become true for normative EEG when institutional support increases. These databases will bring about an understanding of the brain we have yet to imagine, one which will benefit neurotherapy immensely, as we discern what exactly goes awry in anxiety, depression, autism, and an assortment of mental disorders. But to use these databases, we rely on the honesty and reputation of its participants and this will be especially true as the data becomes more complex and uncertain. To rephrase it, "science is nothing more than a system of rules to keep us from lying to each other," Ken Norris, dolphin researcher.

-DK

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Reviews

NEW &/OR USEFUL BOOKS - Focus on Mind/Body

The Evolution of Consciousness: The Origins of the Way We Think
by Robert Ornstein
  Examination of the evolution of the mind, how we are adaptive and not rational; Darwin over Freud.

Mapping the Mind
by Rita Carter, Christopher Frith
  An exploration of the modularity of brain function, with useful graphics.

The Secular Mind
by Robert Coles
  A autobiographically-flavored treatise on the replacement of religion by science in Western intellectual culture.

The Mind's I
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
  Some call this classic a cosmic journey of the mind, in terms of self and self-consciousness.

Others:
-Unsnarling the World-Knot: Consciousness, Freedom, and the Mind-Body Problem
-The Enigma of the Mind: The Mind-Body Problem in Contemporary Thought
-Mind in a Physical World: An Essays on the Mind-Body Problem and Mental Causation
-Cognitive Science and the Mind-Body Problem
-The Body/Body Problem: Selected Essays

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JOURNAL PAPERS

Massimini M, Tononi G, Huber R. (2009). Slow waves, synaptic plasticity and information processing: insights from transcranial magnetic stimulation and high-density EEG experiments European Journal of Neuroscience, 29,1761-70.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to induce NREM-like slow waves in the cerebral cortex.

Meynier C, Burle B, Possamaï CA, Vidal F, Hasbroucq T.(2009). Neural inhibition and interhemispheric connections in two-choice reaction time: A Laplacian ERP study. Psychophysiology. Apr 8.
Motoric inhibition is implemented in a feedforward manner between cortical zones controlling different response alternatives.

Perry A, Bentin S.(2009). Mirror activity in the human brain while observing hand movements Brain Research, Jun 3.
Mu suppression was larger contralateral to a moving hand and larger when hands grasped different objects in different ways than when movement was repetitive.

Schienle A, Schäfer A.(2009). In search of specificity: functional MRI in the study of emotional experience. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 73,22-6.
Advocates co-registration of fMRI and EEG to study emotion-specific brain activation.

Schinkel S, Marwan N, Kurths J.(2009). Brain signal analysis based on recurrences. Journal of Physiol Paris. Jun 12.
Another attempt to improve quantitative analysis of human EEG, a complex nonstationary signal.

Schmidt B, Hanslmayr S.(2009). Resting frontal EEG alpha-asymmetry predicts the evaluation of affective musical stimuli. Neurosci Lett. Jun 7.
Resting frontal alpha-asymmetry reflected affective response to music.

Slater R, Worley A, Fabrizi L, Roberts S, Meek J, Boyd S, Fitzgerald M.(2009). Evoked potentials generated by noxious stimulation in the human infant brain. European Journal of Pain. May 28.
Authors use ERP to verify that newborn infants are capable of the sensory-discriminative aspects of pain.

Statler KD, Scheerlinck P, Pouliot W, Hamilton M, White HS, Dudek FE.(2009). A potential model of pediatric posttraumatic epilepsy. Epilepsy Research, Jun 9.
Late seizures after TBI are uncommon (in an animal model) but EEG spiking is common.

Thai NJ, Longe O, Rippon G.(2009). Disconnected brains: what is the role of fMRI in connectivity research? International Journal of Psychophysiology, 73,27-32.
Discusses how fMRI has been used to study cortical connectivity in autistic spectrum disorders and how other techniques such as EEG may address the limitations of fMRI in assessing brain connectivity.

Vardi Y, Sprecher E, Gruenwald I, Yarnitsky D, Gartman I, Granovsky Y.(2009). The P300 Event-Related Potential Technique for Libido Assessment in Women with Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder. Journal of Sex Medicine, Apr 23.
The p300 ERP was used for libido assessment in sexually dysfunctional women.

Willand M, Rudner R, Olejarczyk E, Wartak M, Marciniak R, Stasiowski M, Byrczek T, Jalowiecki P.(2009). Fractal dimension--a new EEG-based method of assessing the depth of anaesthesia. Anestezjol Intens Ter. 2008 Oct-Dec;40,166-71.
Fractality reflects depth of anaesthesia similar to the BIS.

Wu D, Li CY, Yao DZ.(2009). Scale-free music of the brain. PLoS One. 4,e5915.
EEG rhythms of different mental states of the brain were converted to sound.

Zanon M, Busan P, Monti F, Pizzolato G, Battaglini PP.(2009). Cortical Connections Between Dorsal and Ventral Visual Streams in Humans: Evidence by TMS/EEG Co-Registration. Brain Topogr. Jun 5.
This group uses simultaneous recording of EEG during the application of TMS to map brain connectivity.

Zyss T.(2009). May depression be a form of epilepsy? Some remarks on the bioelectric nature of depression. Medical Hypotheses. May 28.
The author suggests an overlap of seizure disturbances with depressive disorders.

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

Events Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

Woodland Hills, CA - Aug 6-9
Stamford CT - Oct 8-11
Omaha NE - Sep 10-13

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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact EEG Spectrumfor more information 818-789-3456 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 - isnr.org    Indianapolis IN      Sep 3-6 

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

  Last Word

Concepts of mental illness

__Time Period__      __Concepts of mental illness_______________

Prehistoric           Evil spirits possessed the body, must be driven out
4th century BCE       Hippocrates believed psychological disorders originated from natural reasons like other diseases, rather than displeasure of gods or demonic possession. 
15th century          Institutions (asylums) such as St. Mary of Bethlehem ("bedlam"), and "warehousing" of the mentally ill. Mental institutions were often tourist attractions.
18th century          Reform movement. Chains started to be removed and a need for medical care recognized. 
19th century          Mental health legislation. Hospitals for mentally ill established for long-term custodial care.
20th century          Mental health movement. Large state hospitals built, community health care centers, short-term care with goal of returning patients into society. Also a focus on prevention.
21st century          Neuroscientific explanations of mental illness. Environmental-genetic interactions. Brain-based disorders modulated by environmental triggers.

Although current trends may seem positive, negative attitudes towards mental health have not changed dramatically in recent years. For instance a survey from a few years ago reported that

43% believe people bring on mental disorders themselves
35% see disorders as caused by sinful behaviors
19% point to a lack of willpower or self-discipline as a cause

The definition of abnormality is something to consider. There is no sufficient or necessary element for abnormality, except that the more of the following criteria, the more likely we would call one's behavior abnormal.

1. Suffering
2. Maladaptiveness
3. Irrationality
4. Unpredictability
5. Rareness and unconventionality
6. Observer discomfort (inappropriate interpersonal boundaries)
7. Violation of standards

Of course there are hazards of defining abnormality with the above. When society goes mad, the sane appear insane. Resistance to social norms and reformers ahead of their time are often classified as abnormal. For instance, using the above criteria, Jesus of Nazareth, Saint Paul, and other religious figures would be classified as abnormal by their fellow first-century peasant peers. Gandhi's nonviolent resistance of British colonialism meets at least 4 of these criteria as well, at least in the short term. People who pierce themselves for entertainment are also classifiable as abnormal, although some make a living at it as performance artists.

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

Vol. 12 No. 4 - April 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc., the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals. Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom. Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only. Copyright (c) 2009 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
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Announcements  - News
Spotlight     - Brodmann Areas and 10-10 Electrode Positions
Reviews - Books & journal papers
Events - Conferences, Courses
Last Word    - Narrative infliction

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Announcements

-PET Scans May Improve Accuracy Of Dementia Diagnosis
-Glutamate Receptor Believed Dead Comes To Life
-Alterations In Brain's White Matter Key To Schizophrenia
-Successful Neurosurgery With Transcranial MR-guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound
-Tumor Suppressor Gene In Flies May Provide Insights For Human Brain Tumors
-Melanopsin And Sleep Modulation: A Bright Future For Light Therapy?
-Statins Can Protect Against Alzheimer's Disease, According To New Study

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain

 
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Spotlight

Brodmann Areas and 10-10 Electrode Positions

Architecture is one part science, one part craft and two parts art. - David Rutten

In 1909 Korbinian Brodmann (1868-1918) published his delineated sections of the primate cortex based on cell types and distributions. He divided the brain into 52 areas in each hemisphere for non-human primates (and 47 for humans) based on the technology of his day, the light microscope. Years earlier he published a morphological organization of the neocortex, but this was an exhaustive evaluation of cortical structure across the brain, with the possibility that certain functions might be associated with specific cellular organizations. In many instances there is a clear link between microscopic organization and function, such as the primary visual cortex (area 17). However, visual appearance does not necessarily reflect function and higher functions often involve multiple areas simultaneously or sequentially, such as reading aloud (e.g., area 17, 39, and Broca's area, minimally). An example of such microscopic changes can be seen at

http://webvision.med.utah.edu/imageswv/VisualCortex-Nissl.jpg

 
A significant issue with using stereotaxic coordinates for an ideal head (x,y,z-space e.g., Talairach or MNI) is that functional and structurally heterogeneity is the rule across humans and other higher species, not homogeneity, so akin to the Heisenberg principle, the tighter we localize activity of a single voxel in someone's head, the less certain can we be of its function and also that this voxel serves the same function in another head. With this in mind, I created the Brodmann montage in November 2006 while developing the new SKIL 3 analysis software, relying on Pascual-Marqui et al's 1988 Laplacian solution to pinpoint energy differences at the surface (which I corrected empirically with a tape measure and a dozen willing skulls) and functional and structural data from Van Essen & Drury (1997) and others. The LORETA solution solves the inverse solution (EEG tomography) using 2,000 or more voxels whereas I reduced this to essentially "mega-voxels", or center points of 55 Brodmann areas which had sufficient size to contribute to the scalp given their distances from the scalp. In other words the Brodmann montage approximates surface EEG from 55 sources placed in the center of structurally homogeneous areas whereas LORETA places thousands of equally spaced sources throughout the cortex. In the Brodmann montage all 55 sources are chattering away, with energy equal to their area, and the surface EEG informs me as to the amount of chatter per area.

Is LORETA with 2,000+ voxels more accurate than the Brodmann montage? Yes and no, may be the answer. In science we are always faced with how accurate to measure a phenomenon, given the nature of the phenomenon. We can answer this by considering the goal of our measurement. With the Brodmann montage I wanted to create ideal brain divisionsthat would map reasonably well to the functions of all or most of the people we would record EEG from. If humans exhibited no structural or functional variability across individuals, then we can cut up the brain into an infinite number of voxels and accurately resolve functional changes in all individuals; but this is not the case. We have an amazing diversity of structure and function below the skull across individuals, ranging from reverse dominance (speech motor centers in the right hemisphere), differences due to handedness, gender, age, maturation, injury, and other factors. So considering all this variability I cautioned on the side of fewer sources in order to increase the reliability for each source. For instance, the voxel 9, -53, 14 , which refers to x, y, z coordinates in millimeters in Talairach space, falls in the right posterior cingulate gyrus for most people, though not all, and it may serve emotional perception in one person and somato-emotional processes in another. By limiting activity to Brodmann areas only, instead of sub-area voxels, we also have reasonable mapping to neuropsychological test data. Further divisions of Brodmann areas may be reliable, but I resist the equally-spaced technique of LORETA for this more neuroanatomically-constrained solution. To further understand why I like to limit our measurement, consider the following:

In science we have to decide how best to measure a phenomenon. We can easily measure or sample a phenomenon too tightly or too loosely and we want a measure that best captures a phenomenon that suits our communication and various purposes. Let me explain what I mean by analogy. If I want to estimate the number of people who are baseball fans and I make my sample very tight chronologically or spatially; in so doing I may omit a vast number of people who consider themselves baseball fans. If my definition or measurement of what constitutes a baseball fan is whether they attended a baseball game yesterday or are currently sitting in the stands at a game, this is too tight a sample by most people standards. If my definition of a fan is anyone who has attended a major league game during their life, or everyone in the greater Boston metropolitan area a baseball fan, I include many people who do not consider themselves baseball fans. Too tight or too loose a definition or measurement will be unreliable, even nonsensical. So we want to measure the middle ground of a definition, and this is how I chose the reasonably large Brodmann area, smaller than a cortical lobe, over the cubic millimeter voxel used by fMRI and other technologies as it served communication and correspondence to other fields well (neuropsychology, neurotherapy).

A Brodmann area trainer that uses multiple electrodes to triangulate activity from each Brodmann area is under development (part of the SKIL EEG Operant trainer), but until that is complete, we can use a "poor-man's version" of Brodmann area training by training the electrode nearest each Brodmann area. Below is the 10-10 electrode position closest to each area in the Brodmann montage, and the proportional distance from each electrode.

Closest 10-10 Electrode position to each Brodmann area*

Area  LEFT  RIGHT  Left distance  Right distance  
ba01  C3  C4  0.21  0.27 
ba02  C3  C4  0.21  0.37 
ba03  C3  C4  0.43  0.46 
ba04  C3  C4  0.27  0.27 
ba05  C1  CP2  0.24  0.20 
ba06  FC3  FC4  0.31  0.36 
ba07  P1  P2  0.22  0.20 
ba08  F1  F2  0.21  0.24 
ba09  AF3  AF4  0.20  0.17 
ba10  FP1  FP2  0.23  0.26 
ba11  AF7  FPz  1.08  1.43 
ba17  O1  O2  0.18  0.16 
ba18  O1  O2  0.14  0.14 
ba19  PO7  PO4  0.32  0.23 
ba20  FT9  FT10  0.67  0.65 
ba21  T7  T8  0.23  0.18 
ba22  T7  T8  0.26  0.28 
ba23  Pz  Pz  1.82  1.96 
ba24  F1  F2  1.35  1.54 
ba31  Pz  Pz  1.33  1.09 
ba32  F1  AFz  1.14  1.05 
ba37  P7  P8  0.32  0.31 
ba39  P5  P6  0.07  0.11 
ba40  CP3  CP4  0.36  0.23 
ba41  C5  T8  0.38  0.44 
ba42  T7  C6  0.22  0.57 
BROCA/44R  F5  FC6  0.33  0.14 
ba45   F8   0.20 
ba46  AF7  F6  0.26  0.24 
ba47  F7  F8  0.20  0.24 

* limited to SKIL Brodmann montage areas

Here is the anatomical gyral names of the various Brodmann areas. Recall that there is a Brodmann area in both left and right hemisphere, the homologues.

Gyrus (Functional name)

1-3 – intermediate, caudal, and rostral postcentral (Primary Somatosensory Cortex)
4 - gigantopyramidal (Primary Motor Cortex)
5 - preparietal (Somatosensory Association Cortex)
6 - agranular frontal (Premotor cortex and Supplementary Motor Cortex)
7 - superior parietal (Somatosensory Association Cortex)
8 - intermediate frontal (includes Frontal eye fields)
9 - granular frontal (Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, DLFC)
10 - frontopolar (DLFC)
11 - prefrontal (Orbitofrontal)
12 - prefrontal (Orbitofrontal)
17 - striate (Primary visual cortex, V1)
18 - parastriate (Secondary visual cortex, V2)
19 - peristriate (Tertiary or Associative visual cortex, V3)
20 - inferior temporal
21 - middle temporal
22 - superior temporal (caudal section considered Wernicke's area by most)
23 - ventral posterior cingulate
24 - ventral anterior cingulate
31 - dorsal posterior cingulate
32 - dorsal anterior cingulate
37 - occipitotemporal
38 - temporopolar (temporal pole)
39 – angular
40 - supramarginal
41-42 – ant. & posterior transverse temporal
44 - opercular (part of Broca's area on left hemisphere)
45 - triangular (part of Broca's area on left hemisphere)
46 - middle frontal
47 - orbital
48 - retrosubicular

EXCLUDED FROM SKIL BRODMANN MONTAGE due to small size and distance from scalp
25 - subgenual*
26 - ectosplenial*
28 - entorhinal*
29 - granular retrolimbic *
30 - agranular retrolimbic *
33 - pregenual *
34 - dorsal entorhinal *
35 - perirhinal *
36 - ectorhinal *
43 - subcentral *
52 - parainsular *

13, 14, 15, 16, 27, 49, 50, 51 - monkey only

Ironically, we name our cytoarchitechtonic scheme after Brodmann but early researchers relied on von Economo and Koskinas (1925) for a cytoarchitechtonic description of the human cortex.

-DK

References:

Brodmann K (1909). "Comparative Localization Studies in the Brain Cortex, its Fundamentals Represented on the Basis of its Cellular Architecture" (Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde in ihren Prinzipien dargestellt auf Grund des Zellenbaues), Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag, Leipzig.

Brodmann K (1905). Beiträge zur histologischen Lokalisation der Grosshirnrinde: dritte Mitteilung: Die Rindenfelder der niederen Affen, Journal für Psychologie und Neurologie, 4, 177–226.

Pascual-Marqui RD, Gonzalez-Andino SL, Valdes-Sosa PA, Biscay-Lirio R. (1998). Current source density estimation and interpolation based on the spherical harmonic Fourier expansion. Int J Neuroscience, 43, 237-49.

Van Essen DC, Drury HA. (1997).Structural and functional analyses of human cerebral cortex using a surface-based atlas. J Neuroscience, 17, 7079-7102.

von Economo C & Koskinas GN (1925). Die Cytoarchitektonik der Hirnrinde des erwachsenen Menschen. Berlin: Julius Springer.

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Reviews

NEW &/OR USEFUL BOOKS

 Fundamental Neuroscience, Third Edition by Larry R. Squire

 Cellular and Molecular Neurophysiology, Third Edition by Constance Hammond

 Development of the Nervous System, Second Edition by Dan H. Sanes

 Handbook of the Neuroscience of Language by Brigitte Stemmer

 Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Second Edition by Raymond P. Kesner

 Neurobiology of Attention by Laurent Itti

 Theoretical Neuroscience: Computational and Mathematical Modeling of Neural Systems by Peter Dayan

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JOURNAL PAPERS
Barry RJ, Clarke AR, Johnstone SJ, McCarthy R, Selikowitz M. (2009). Electroencephalogram theta/beta Ratio and Arousal in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence of Independent processes. Biologiical Psychiatry. Jun 3.
Theta/beta ratio did not correlate with a skin conductance index of arousal in ADHD

Cohen MX, Axmacher N, Lenartz D, Elger CE, Sturm V, Schlaepfer TE.(2009). Nuclei accumbens phase synchrony predicts decision-making reversals following negative feedback. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 7591-8.
Strategy switches following losses were preceded by enhanced theta (4-8 Hz) phase synchrony between the nuclei accumbens, and a break-down of gamma (20-80 Hz)-alpha (8-12 Hz) coupling.

Cvetkovic D, Cosic I.(2009). EEG inter/intra-hemispheric coherence and asymmetric responses to visual stimulations. Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing Jun 17.
High coherence in the EEG beta band was found during visual processing.

de Fockert JW, Ramchurn A, van Velzen J, Bergström Z, Bunce D.(2009). Behavioral and ERP evidence of greater distractor processing in old age. Brain Research, Jun 2.
The N170 component (ERP) had greater amplitude in older adults during unattended stimuli, suggesting an electrophysiological correlate of a reduced ability to prevent distraction.

De Smedt B, Grabner RH, Studer B.(2009). Oscillatory EEG correlates of arithmetic strategy use in addition and subtraction. Experimental Brain Research, 195,635-42.
Arithmetic fact retrieval produces left-hemispheric event-related synchronisation of theta activity whereas application of procedural strategies is accompanied by bilateral parietooccipital alpha desynchronization.

Flores AB, Digiacomo MR, Meneres S, Trigo E, Gómez CM.(2009). Development of preparatory activity indexed by the contingent negative variation in children. Brain & Cognition. Jun 3.
Young adults show a contingent negative variation in contralateral cortical activation related to motor preparation whereas children do not.

Friedman DE, Gilliam FG.(2009). Seizure-related injuries are underreported in pharmacoresistant localization-related epilepsy. Epilepsia. Jun 10.
A survey revealed that many serious injuries are not documented as seizure related.

Hale TS, Smalley SL, Hanada G, Macion J, McCracken JT, McGough JJ, Loo SK.(2009). Atypical alpha asymmetry in adults with ADHD. Neuropsychologia, 47,2082-8.
Increased rightward alpha asymmetry is adevelopmentally persistent feature of ADHD.

Herrmann MJ, Mader K, Schreppel T, Jacob C, Heine M, Boreatti-Hummer A, Ehlis AC, Scheuerpflug P, Pauli P, Fallgatter AJ.(2009). Neural correlates of performance monitoring in adult patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). World Journal of Biologiical Psychiatry, 19, 1-8.
Adults with ADHD are characterized by deficits in error processing, which diminish significantly with age.

Irimia A, Swinney KR, Wikswo JP.(2009). Partial independence of bioelectric and biomagnetic fields and its implications for encephalography and cardiography. Physics Review E: Stat Nonlinear Soft Matter Physics, 79(5 Pt 1), 051908.
This research group argues that electric potential and the magnetic field find different sources in the brain.

Jones NA, Field T, Almeida A.(2009). Right frontal EEG asymmetry and behavioral inhibition in infants of depressed mothers. Infant Behavioral Development, 32,298-304.
Behavioral inhibition for infants exposed to early maternal psychopathology were explored with EEG.

Kislova OO, Rusalova MN.(2009). EEG coherence in humans: relationship with success in recognizing emotions in the voice. Neuroscience & Behavioral Physiology, 39,545-52.
EEG coherence correlated with recognition of emotions from voices.

Leung H, Schindler K, Chan AY, Lau AY, Leung KL, Ng EH, Wong KS. (2009). Wavelet-denoising of electroencephalogram and the absolute slope method: A new tool to improve electroencephalographic localization and lateralization. Clinical Neurophysiology, Jun 8.
Use of quantitative methods proved superior to conventional classification of seizure EEG in localizing and lateralizing.

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Events Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

-Woodland Hills, CA - Aug 6-9
-Stamford CT - Oct 8-11
-Omaha NE - Sep 10-13

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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact EEG Spectrumfor more information 818-789-3456 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 - isnr.org Indianapolis IN Sep 3-6 

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

Last Word

Narrative infliction

Aristotle said a story consists of three parts, a beginning, middle, and end. Another way to conceive of narrative structure is stability, conflict, and reinstitution of order. The final order should be superior to the initial state of order for a narrative to be thought a success. Good stories often skip a clear depiction of initial stability and throw the audience into the conflict at story's onset. Only from a reinstitution of order do we grasp what may have been an original stability.
Consider the 1988 Best Picture film "Rainman." It opens on conflict and it takes more than an hour into the film before we learn of the original stable state: an autistic brother (Raymond), age 9, lives with and tries to care for his baby brother (Charlie). We imagine the conflict scene retrospectively, what separated Charlie from Raymond, the start of the story we see. Charlier was accidentally burned by hot water during a bath given by his older disabled brother. Order is restored when Raymond and Charlie reconnect and restore a brothership, which also requires Raymond's return to his institutional home and Charlie's promise to visit him.

Narrative (or story) is an informational format by which the two cerebral hemispheres communicate well with each other. And given that all narratives center on deception -- be it deception between people, a suppression of information from the audience, or self-deception in which a character deceives him or herself as to the state of the world -- one goes to wonder whether self-consciousness is a response of the right hemisphere's detecting deception in the information sent by the left hemisphere (LH).

As a narrative unfolds, this deception is manifested and eventually removed. Deception in self-narrative may involve interhemispheric monitoring. One must monitor a representation of an event in order to misrepresent that event to another. This seems best handled in the brain by one hemisphere monitoring the modelling that goes on in the other hemisphere. If deception may occur when one hemisphere has decided (forgive the anthropomorphism) to monitor the processing of the other. Communication between the two hemispheres is interrupted. What could cause this interruption? In my opinion the left hemisphere (in normal right- handers) has developed with the strategy that all stimuli it encounters are interior to it, in essence, its own self- creation, and the right hemisphere processing the contents of its perception as if they are exterior to it, the integrity of the stimuli's existence is maintained, as is. Also, each side of the brain is likely modelling the system which sends it information. Deception may come about from the left hemisphere believing that the right hemisphere's processing is also interior to it, its own self-creation.

Consequently, cooperation between the two hemispheres are lost and the left hemisphere begins to dominate the behavior and processing of the organism. Given that the LH strategy is that all information it receives is interior to it, the results of any action are in a sense prespecified: the end of any act or thought will result in what is already interior to the mind creating the action or thought. Schizophrenia, particularly paranoid schizophrenia, may be an extreme example of this form of deception: the LH of a paranoid schizophrenic dominates the processing of the individual to such restrictive points such that a RH contribution to processing is viewed as coming from a source exterior to the person -- which may explain many of the thought disorders experienced by such patients. In this fashion psychopathology can be viewed as self-deception, which is in turn a narrative infliction.

Repair of a narrative infliction may occur with a return to hemispheric cooperation, a return to a progressing self-narrative. In the case of paranoid schizophrenics, for example, the autonomy of the right hemisphere must be reinstated. Most likely, both hemispheres have a model of the individual's self, created from the experiences of the individual with the world. To repair the self-narrative, these selves need to be reinstated equally, cooperatively. The past should serve the integration of a self-narrative. The optimal situation would be a complete reintegration of both hemispheres, which would, I suggest, result in what Jaynes and others have called the contentless "I". In this case, the self would be both formulated and contentless (or unformulated) at each point in time. In such a situation, I would argue that the two hemispheres have essentially returned to a cooperative effort, a self-narrative. An individual's self returns to the subjective universe of individual experience, one directed towards a constant reinstituting of order. This enables the individual to achieve an understanding of the initial stability of the past, even if the future is unclear. Such knowledge provides the individual with labels, formulas, and information about the past self which can be used to direct the individual to the next experience. In other words, having the past in order helps us understand the future.

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

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

Vol. 12 No. 3 - March 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.

Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

Announcements  - News

Spotlight     - Neurobiology of psychological trauma

Reviews - Books & journal papers

Events - Conferences, Courses

Last Word    - Continuing conversations between a physicist and neuroscientist
 

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

Announcements
Alzheimer's Disease: New Small Molecule Approach To Treatment
Stroke Recovery: Research Reclaims The Power Of Speech
New Way To Analyze Sleep Disorders
Jet Lag Disturbs Sleep By Upsetting Internal Clocks In Two Neural Centers
Maternal Immune Response To Fetal Brain During Pregnancy A Key Factor In Some Autism
Possible Way To Block The Spread Of Deadly Brain Tumors Discovered
Early Isolation Linked To Enhanced Response To Cocaine
Prenatal Methamphetamine Exposure Linked To Abnormal Brain Development
Brain Mechanisms For Behavioral Flexibility Discovered
Prenatal Exposure To Hong Kong Flu Associated With Reduced Intelligence In Adulthood
Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain

 
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Spotlight
Neurobiology of psychological trauma
The goal of therapy is asymptomatic end-state functioning.
Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., a pioneer in the neurobiology of psychological trauma, will be speaking at this year's CIC later this April. Here is a summary of his work during the past decade, to prime you for questions (those who plan to attend):

Hopper JW, Frewen PA, van der Kolk BA, Lanius RA.(2007). Neural correlates of reexperiencing, avoidance, and dissociation in PTSD: symptom dimensions and emotion dysregulation in responses to script-driven trauma imagery. J Trauma Stress, 20, 713-25. [abstract]         Primary right hemisphere brain areas were associated with the avoidance, dissociation, and traumatic reexperiencing of PTSD recovery.

van der Kolk BA, Spinazzola J, Blaustein ME, Hopper JW, Hopper EK, Korn DL, Simpson WB. (2007). A randomized clinical trial of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), fluoxetine, and pill placebo in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: treatment effects and long-term maintenance. J Clin Psychiatry, 68, 37-46. [abstract]         Psychotherapy with EMDR was more successful than pharmacotherapy in sustained symptom reductions for PTSD and depression, but mostly for adult-onset trauma survivors (as opposed to child-onset).

van der Kolk BA.(2006). Clinical implications of neuroscience research in PTSD. Ann N Y Acad Sciences, 1071, 277-93 [abstract]         Traumatized individuals may respond with subcortically initiated responses that are irrelevant or even harmful for the present situation. Traumatic cues activate brain areas involved in emotional intensity and deactivate cortical regions involved in sensorimotor integration, modulation of arousal, and verbal communication of ongoing experiences.

Zucker M, Spinazzola J, Blaustein M, van der Kolk BA. (2006). Dissociative symptomatology in posttraumatic stress disorder and disorders of extreme stress. J Trauma Dissociation., 7, 19-31. [abstract]         Sufferers of PTSD with Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS) exhibit more dissociation, particularly absorption/fantasy and depersonalization/derealization.

Walsh K, Blaustein M, Knight WG, Spinazzola J, van der Kolk BA. (2007) Resiliency factors in the relation between childhood sexual abuse and adulthood sexual assault in college-age women. J Child Sex Abus. 2007;16(1):1-17. [abstract]         Childhood sexual abuse contributed to the possibility offorced adult assault.

Stein DJ, van der Kolk BA, Austin C, Fayyad R, Clary C. (2006). Efficacy of sertraline in posttraumatic stress disorder secondary to interpersonal trauma or childhood abuse. Annals of Clin Psychiatry, 18, 243-9. [abstract]         Interpersonal trauma and childhood abuse were more common in females than males and their presence was associated with longer duration PTSD.

Hopper JW, Spinazzola J, Simpson WB, van der Kolk BA. (2006). Preliminary evidence of parasympathetic influence on basal heart rate in posttraumatic stress disorder. J Psychosom Research, 60, 83-90. [abstract]         Many PTSD suffers do not have elevated basal heart rates.

Spinazzola J, Blaustein M, van der Kolk BA. (2005). Posttraumatic stress disorder treatment outcome research: The study of unrepresentative samples? J Trauma Stress, 18, 425-36. [abstract]         Many published reports in the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies omitted vital data such as exclusion criteria and rates, demographics, and trauma exposure history, and information about comorbidities is critical to research.

van der Kolk BA, Roth S, Pelcovitz D, Sunday S, Spinazzola J. (2005). Disorders of extreme stress: The empirical foundation of a complex adaptation to trauma. J Trauma Stress, 18, 389-99. [abstract]         Trauma early in life often have trouble regulating emotions and impulses, cognitive processes, self-perception, and other important aspects of daily living.

de Jong JT, Komproe IH, Spinazzola J, van der Kolk BA, Van Ommeren MH. (2005). DESNOS in three postconflict settings: assessing cross-cultural construct equivalence. J Trauma Stress. 2005 Feb;18(1):13-21. [abstract]         The Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress did not extract equivalent information as the Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS).

van der Hart O, Bolt H, van der Kolk BA. (2005). Memory fragmentation in dissociative identity disorder. J Trauma Dissociation. 2005;6(1):55-70. [abstract]         Dissociative identity isorder patients first experience somatosensory re-experiencing of trauma before any narrative reliving.

Gupta MA, Lanius RA, Van der Kolk BA. (2005). Psychologic trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, and dermatology. Dermatol Clin., 23, 649-56. [abstract]         Dermatologic symptoms often persist after trauma, such as. cutaneous sensory flashbacks, autonomic hyperarousal, conversion symptoms such as numbness or pain, and cutaneous self-injury

van der Kolk BA. (2003). The neurobiology of childhood trauma and abuse. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am., 12, 293-317. [abstract]         He argues that helping traumatized child to physically respond to current demands of life is more central to therapy than recreating the past.

Van Der Kolk BA. (2001) The psychobiology and psychopharmacology of PTSD. Hum Psychopharmacology, 16(S1):S49-S64. [abstract]         Reviews psychobiology and psychopharmacology of PTSD.

Osterman JE, Hopper J, Heran WJ, Keane TM, van der Kolk BA. (2001). Awareness under anesthesia and the development of posttraumatic stress disorder. Gen Hosp Psychiatry, 23, 198-204. [abstract]         As many as 140,000 patients fail to attain insensation during general anesthesia may produce PTSD, and did in a half of a small sample.

Davidson JR, Rothbaum BO, van der Kolk BA, Sikes CR, Farfel GM. (2001). Multicenter, double-blind comparison of sertraline and placebo in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 58, 485-92. [abstract]         Intrafamilial violence produces pervasive psychological and biological dysfunctions.

Gersons BP, Carlier IV, Lamberts RD, van der Kolk BA. (2000). Randomized clinical trial of brief eclectic psychotherapy for police officers with posttraumatic stress disorder. J Trauma Stress, 13, 333-47. [abstract]         Brief Eclectic Psychotherapy was found effective for police officers with PTSD.
-DK

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Reviews

NEW BOOKS NEW BOOKS
Neuroimaging in Developmental Clinical Neuroscience
by Judith M. Rumsey and Monique Ernst
Reviews deficits of inhibitory control and other issues involved in development.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521883571

Insomnia and Other Adult Sleep Problems (The Facts)
by Gregory Stores
Among other facts reviewed, how ADHD symptoms in children may be the result of disturbed sleep cycles.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0199560838

The Neurobiological Basis of Violence: Science and Rehabilitation
by S Hodgins, EViding, and A Plodowski
Soon to be released review on an important evaluation of the brain correlates of aggression and violent behavior.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0199543534

Island of the Colorblind
by Oliver Sacks MD
Investigation in human vision and psychology by a master author.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375700730

Brain Energetics and Neuronal Activity
By RG Shulman & D Rothman
Neurochemical explanation of brain activity.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470847204

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JOURNAL PAPERS
MTA at 8 Years: Prospective Follow-up
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19318991

Cardiovascular safety of medication treatments for aDHD.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19306385

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in prison: a treatment protocol.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19297632

Sleep Disorders and their Impacts on Healthy, Dependent, and Frail Older Adults.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19300867

Diagnosing and treating patients with symptoms of depression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19317955

The epidemiology and recognition of pain and physical symptoms in depression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19317954

Traumatic brain injury and long-term quality of life
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19317590

Longitudinal trajectories of delta and theta EEG as indicators of adolescent brain maturation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19307577

Mapping the bilateral visual integration by EEG and fMRI.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19306933

Social power and approach-related neural activity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19304842

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Events Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)
Glendale, CA Apr 24-26 (CIC)
Boston MA May 14-17
Baltimore MD Jun 4-7
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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact EEG Spectrumfor more information 818-789-3456 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 - isnr.org Indianapolis IN Sep 3-6 

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Last Word
Continuing conversations between a physicist and neuroscientist
My physicist friend Moni from India swaps questions with me between missives on dark energy and consciousness. In this one I provide my insight into why many of us need therapy and dolphins do not. Moni's questions are numbered, and my replies begin with pluses.

MONI:(1) How would we compare mind of a dolpin, with say, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking? Hawking, with conscious control of one finger, is able to churn out sentences and papers, through a computer on his wheel chair (as well as control the movement of the chair). Perhaps a 3 feet by 6 feet touchscreen display, could significantly boost a Dolphin's creativity and control, in a similar fashion. The dolphin would touch the icons on the touch screen with its snout, and increase scope of its interaction with the environment. Communication between dolphins and humans, could be taken to a new level alltogether using such a touch screen. I would call such a touchscreen "The dolphin-human interface"

+++A student of Lou Herman looked at lexigram boards with dolphins in the late 1980s. I haven't heard of anything remarkable. Dolphin consciousness is thought to be more unimodal (acoustic perception of world and acoustic expression of communication) whereas ours is more cross-modal (visual perception and acoustic expression). Our cross-modality gives us a freedom of representation dolphins may lack and with representational freedom came self-representational freedom and altering of the environment, including graphic symbolization. I go into this in my C-exam paper from 1990, http://www.skiltopo.com/kaiser/html/cexam.htm cf section titled: "Semantic functions in cetacean vocalizations?"

Perhaps solution to the quantum gravity problem lies within the mind of a dolphin.

+++ Is there a quantum gravity problem? Gravity is not light and may not have a quantum property. In fact the interaction between quanta and continuous phenomena may be why there is consciousness, a non-automatic resolution of the two properties. Were EM and gravity readily relatable, we might not be having any conversation ever. Whatever you consider yourself to be more of (light or gravity), consider me the opposite. (That's how I understand my wife :-)

(2) The dolphins could be provided with bionic arms. A cyborg dolphin - so to say.

++ I think you have an amazing project idea there, if PETA doesn't get in the way. You might suggest this to Adam Pack out in Hawaii. I knew Adam briefly 20 years ago. pack@... This sounds like something NOSC and other military users of dolphins would be interesting it trying; though getting a steady harness and some interface with the dolphin to run the arm (via flipper movement or brainwaves) sounds like a 10-20 year project. But someone could make a career doing it.

(3) And some genetic tweaking could give dolphins biological arms. Now that would be some mermaid. One is reminded of the movie Narnia. And what wonders they would do underwater? What Taj Mahal they would make?

++ Beware of PETA when you try to adjust the course of natural lives of animals.

(4) Bouancy experienced in the under water environment gives a sense of weightlessness - somewhat akin to what one may experience in space. As you know, astronauts train within water to simulate the space environment. And the space environment gives profound spiritual experiences - as has been reported by some astronauts.

++The late John Lilly MD, inventor of the isolation tank in the 1960s, moved to dolphin research because of this insight.

(5) Dolphin - as I learnt from David - has a brain which sleeps only one hemi-sphere at a time. Now that is an example of right and left brain coordination. Understanding sleep, may be a vital key to understanding consciousness. Advanced meditators, they say are able to do away with sleep altogether. Perhaps dolphins are better seers then humans - and we could learn from them - by developing the "Dolphin-human interface".

++ To show how a grad student can influence his mentors, my professor for sleep neuroscience is the last author below, Jerry Siegel, and it was my discussion of Mukhametov's research (some dolphins failed to exhibit clear REM) that got him in contact with this Russian research team.

Lyamin OI, Manger PR, Ridgway SH, Mukhametov LM, Siegel JM. (2008). Cetacean sleep: an unusual form of mammalian sleep. Neurosci Biobehav Reviews, 32, 1451-84. Unihemispheric slow wave sleep (USWS) is seen in all members of the order Cetacea examined to date. Cetaceans sleep is characterized by USWS, a negligible amount of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep if any, and asymmetrical eye states. Possible selection pressures that produced such unusual sleep are proposed, such as the need to offset heat loss to the water, sentinel functions and breathing.

(6) What about providing dolphins with neurofeedback !? :-)

+++ Do they really need it? The ones in captivity -- perhaps. :) Unlike humans, who are 99% in captivity on my guestimation, most dolphins still live in the environment within which they evolved and thus are unlikely to have the mental illnesses of a species removed from its natural environment like us. -David Kaiser, Ph.D.

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

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

Vol. 12 No. 2 - February 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.

Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

Announcements  - News

Spotlight     - Sensation and Perception

Reviews - Books & journal papers

Events - Conferences, Courses

Last Word    - What is Greatness 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Announcements

The Human Brain Is On The Edge Of Chaos
Low To Moderate, Not Heavy, Drinking Releases 'Feel-good' Endorphins In The Brain
Cognitive Decline Begins In Late 20s, Study Suggests
Blocked Enzyme Reverses Schizophrenia-like Symptoms
Progress Toward An Alzheimer's Drug That Saves Brain Cells
Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative Announces Completion Of Genome-wide Analysis
How Brain Remembers Single Events
Unraveling The Roots Of Dyslexia

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spotlight

Sensation and Perception

---All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy. - Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

---You bluffed me! I don't like it when people bluff me. It makes me question my perception of reality.- Chris in the Morning as hired gun, Northern Exposure TV show, 1992

"Reality" is shaped by our senses, which detect only a limited range of physical energies. Sensory receptors receive energy from the world in 10 or 11 formats and the nervous system represents these forms of energy in a single format called information. Sensory information is to a large degree relational, a representation of how much change has occurred since the last sampling of the environment. Theories of information are plentiful, and I'm partial to how little information is needed to complete a representation, but of interest to many therapists iswhen information processing is too compressed or incomplete, too little of the world is being sampled.

Sensation gives way to perception and perception is the process by which information is matched to templates and examples stored in memory. This stage is followed by identification, recognizing which events and objects are familiar and which are not. Psychophysicists are those scientists who study how perception and sensation interact, quantifying the relationship between physical stimuli (e.g., air pressure, photon saturation) and psychological sensations (e.g., loudness, brightness). In this way they seek reliable functions between world and mind.

The 10 or 11 formats of energies fall into four families: thermal, mechanical, chemical, and electromagnetic. Primitive mammals (monotremes) possess two electromagnetic senses but more advanced mammals (marsupial, placental) lost electroreception along the way. Electroreception is the sensing of another's electromyographic activity (muscle movements) and other weak electric fields, and what we retained of the electrosensory system became a limited reception of the electromagnetic spectrum, what we call the visible light. In terms of other families, we have two thermal sensors, one for warm and one for cold, which seems odd as it suggest temperature consists of two properties not just one (e.g., we mentally conflate it into one, in other words). We have two chemical senses, smell and taste and human taste buds detect a measly range of chemicals (sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami). Finally we have the mechanical senses, five in all. Hearing (air pressure on ear), pressure on the body, proprioceptive (position & velocity), vestibular (acceleration), and pain, though nociception, another name for it, may not be an independent system but what occurs when any of the above systems are overstimulated.

Consider this arrangement of energies in term of numbers of formats,

WORLD indefinite
SENSES 10
BRAIN 1 (information)
MIND 0 or 1

The mind may have no format independent of itself, which is how 0 creeps in at this point. In clinical applied neuroscience we take neural energies and relate them to mental energies and vice versa. We discern patterns of EEG rhythms as predictors of clinical symptoms and vice versa. Different EEG rhythms reflect different inhibitory rates, which in terms of sensorimotor processing reflect different sampling rates of the cortex.

 Absolute Threshold is the minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus more than half the time. Its complement is the subliminal threshold, the amount of stimulation under which a stimulus is detected less than half the time. Extreme subliminal thresholds were the rage in the 1960s, added a single frame of "SEX" or "Buy refreshments" during a 24-frame-per-second movie to induce consumer action, but its efficacy for inducing action is questionable. However studying subliminal perception is still a useful technique for studying nonconscious states, such as the Defense Mechanism Test which quantifies how unwilling an individual is in perceiving negative information. An illustration of a violence or implied violence is presented in steps of 50 ms increments. The same slide is shown over and over, with longer exposures. Most will not recognize a picture of, say, a mother holding an axe above a baby, when flashed on for only 50 or 100 ms, but will be able to make out the gist of the picture by 250 ms or longer. However individuals who defend constantly against negative information might not make out the gist of the scene until the image is shown for a full second. They might notice a crib at 250 ms, or a baby at 500 ms exposures, and a mother nearby, but the implied violence goes unnoticed until well into conscious perception time. This measure was examined in Air Force pilots by my lab (Eriksen et al., 1996) and those who were slow to perceive threat, who block out signs of danger, an undesirable personality trait of experimental pilots, had higher cortical arousal on average. We need recognition and action at the onset of something going wrong with a plane or space shuttle.

We have a very sensitive absolute threshold for vision, only 3 photons on single receptor across a moment of time will trigger a detection. Our other modalities are sensitive, though chemically we have nothing over sharks which can detect a single drop of blood in thousands of gallons of water whereas we can taste a teaspoon of sugar in only 2 gallons. The absolute threshold of detection depends on a number of factors:

Intensity of stimulus that reaches receptor
Duration of stimulation (temporal integration) – how long the receptor is stimulated
Background stimulation (masking) – does dissimilar information follow the stimulation, erasing it mentally
Prior stimulation (adaptation and fatigue) – our receptors can only fire steadily for so long
Number of receptors stimulated (spatial integration) – are nearby receptors also activated
Sensitivity of receptor
Attention and other CNS processes like arousal, emotions – we can low or raise our threshold depending upon the entire system's vigilance or distractability
Cost of false "detections" – we can set our threshold lower or higher depending upon whether we must not miss any signal (a radar detector) or whether we must not report anything false (like Chicken Little)
Sensory Adaptation is diminished sensory sensitivity when we get constant stimulation which is why we have tiny muscles in the eye which shift an image from receptor fatigued for that stimulation to an unfatigued receptor hundreds of times a second. A chicken lacks this internal ocular movement and supplies movement with gross movements of its head (e.g., while eating).

Human hearing is most notable for its range of energies it can handle, an astounding ten orders of magnitude, which means we can detect air pressure changes from a bee's flapping wings to a jet turbo engine, 10 raised to the power of 10, impressive by anyone's standards.

Human vision is most notable for is iterations, the number of times visual information is re-represented before interpretation, at least 10 times. Its earliest representation occurs in the superior colliculi, the fish's nonconscious processor of visual information, and the lateral geniculate of the thalamus, the advanced fish CPU, along with cortical and brainstem inputs that help direct the eyes and process the visual information.

The brain is very efficient at detecting change, seeking informative changes in energies, and in sensory processes this is called the Just Noticeable Difference or JND. How much must a stimulus change before becoming noticeably different. Years ago Weber determined that for a difference to be perceived, two stimuli must differ by a relative proportion (not an absolute amount). We are most sensitive to sound frequency, which is why the doppler effect (pitch changes with motion) are part of any train stop or truck passing on the highway. Here are the jnd percentages for common stimulations:  Percentage Change

sound frequency < 1%
lifted weight = 2%
sound intensity = 5%
sight intensity = 8%
odor concentration = 15%
saltiness = 20%

Perception is the process of converting raw sensory information into forms (categories) with differences (identity). It is generally transparent to user until it misfires (e.g., blind spot, illusions) and we failed to appreciate the magnitude of problem of perception until we tried to simulate it (machine vision).

 Facts about Perception

Limited (small range of physical energies)
Selective (e.g., Defense Mechanism Test)
Requires memory (else one suffers agnosia)
Not entirely trustworthy (e.g., optical illusion)
Takes time (which is clear whenever one gets suddenly disoriented, like being hit unexpectantly by a door in the face)
Involves active organization of sensory information
Involves redundant and complementary systems
Perceptual organization in the visual system follows a hierarchy, starting with edge detection for an object or scene, discerning its depth and whether it's likely to be stationary or could change (figure-ground distinction). After this comes grouping. Percepts are formed out of the elements by grouping them based on prior knowledge and rules of simplicity and stability, and these principles extend into other psychological domains.

 Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Grouping

Proximity – If figures are near each other we tend to group them together
Similarity – If figures are similar to each other we tend to group them together
Good continuation– We tend to perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones
Closure– When a familiar figure is interrupted we imagine the rest of the figure (we finish the picture)
Texture – When basic stimuli have the same texture people tend to group them together
Simplicity– People tend to group features of a stimulus in a way that provides the simplest interpretation of the world
Common Region– Elements located within some boundary tend to be grouped together
Common Fate – Sets of objects that are moving in the same direction and at the same speed are perceived together (example: marching bands)
Connectedness– When they are uniformed and linked, we perceive spots and lines, etc. as a single unit
The final part of perception is our mindset, a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. What you see is influenced by perceptual set, so if you are at Loch Ness in Scotland and expect to see a pleistosaur swimming about, you may convert a riptide into a scaly undulating back. But if you expect no viable dinosaur population to have survived for 65 million years in the cold windy lake in Scotland, you will see waves. Perceptual Set "dangers" are common and addressed by the field of Human Factors. We don't want to ignore that black splotch and assume it's a shadow and drive over it and find out it is a person walking by.

-DK

References:

Eriksen HR, Olff M, Mann C, Sterman MB, & Ursin H. (1996). Psychological defense mechanisms and electroencephalographic arousal. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 37, 351-61.

 
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Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Calming the Stormy Days with Annie
By M Fattig
-The Annie Books introduce the topic of distractability and ADD to children.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0979580560

Neuropsychological Assessment of Neuropsychiatric and Neuromedical Disorders
by Igor Grant M.D. and Kenneth Adams PhD
-Reviews test batties and other assessment techniques; newly released.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195378547

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Basic Science and Clinical Practice
by Priyattam J. Shiromani, Terence M. Keane, and Joseph E. LeDoux
-LeDoux and colleagues overview PTSD science.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/160327328X

Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests: Administration, Norms, and Commentary
by O Spreen & E Strauss
-Discussion of neuropsychology tests and clinical techniques helpful in making inferences about integrity of brain regions. 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195100190

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies...
by Melody Petersen
-A diatribe against big pharma.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312428251

Links to books at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/oct2008.htm#section2

 
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JOURNAL PAPERS
Predicting aDHD and oppositional defiant disorder from preschool diagnostic assessments.
-Early manifestations of problem behaviors was predictive of later ADHD diagnosis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19309194

Adverse events in childhood and chronic widespread pain in adult life
-Childhood road accidents and institutional care were predictive of pain in adult life in this retrospective study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19304391

Compensatory deficits following rejection: role of social anxiety
-Rejection was associating with renewed interest in connecting with positive social interactors for those low in social anxiety but not high.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19319992

High frequency oscillations in EEGs mark epileptogenicity rather than lesion type.
-High frequency ripples (80-250 Hz)occur predominantly in seizure onset zones.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19297507

Influence of Antisocial and Psychopathic Traits on Decision-Making Biases in Alcoholics.
-Alcohol-dependent males favor risky choices, even those without personality disorders.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19298325

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

  Events

Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

Chicago IL Apr 2-5
Glendale, CA Apr 24-26
Boston MA May 14-17
Baltimore MD Jun 4-7

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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

Contact EEG Spectrumfor more information 818-789-3456 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 - aapb.org     Albuquerque, NM     Apr 2-4 

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Last Word

What is Greatness

This last week I have been entraining myself with rock songs and Christian rock, notably "How Great is our God" and I came across this piece which even fits chronologically with this newsletter, another spiritual piece written by my late father :

=====

During this past month of February, we celebrated the birthdays of two of the greatest people of all time - Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. And whenever we think of great persons, certain questions inevitably arise: Why are some people great and not others? What are the qualities that make people great? In short, what is greatness?

But before we can answer that question, I think we need to dissociate two ideas which are often linked together: bigness and greatness. In America particularly, we tend to believe that something is a hundred times more important than something else if it is a hundred times as big. And we tend to apply that standard when we evaluate a person's character. So if a person is famous, if he or she is rich, if he or she drives a big car and has a big bank account, if he or she can influence others, we tend to apply the adjective "great" to that person. Historians also are often guilty of applying the word "great" to generals simply because they won several battles or conquered many nations, regardless of their personal attributes. And yet there are truly great people who are neither famous nor rich. There are great individuals in every community, in every church, and in this retirement center, because greatness is a quality of the spirit. There are two essential elements of greatness, and without these characteristics, no life, however famous or rich, is truly great. Each of us has the potentiality to be great if we cultivate these two essential elements. And for my examples this morning, I would like to use the lives of the two great Americans whose birthdays we are celebrating this month and the life of a very familiar Biblical character, Joseph.

The first of these essential qualities is the high soul. The great person's house of life is open to the sky. He or she is guided by his or her faith in God. To a truly great person, faith is not a thing to be analyzed or talked about, but it is something to be lived and lived by. I think Joseph particularly exemplifies this quality. Every single important step in Joseph's life was connected with God. He was always very conscious of God's guidance. Even that decisive moment when his brothers sold him to Midianite slave-traders - a moment which just then he would hardly have connected with God - he later saw as an act of God. "It was not you who sent me here, but God," he said to his brothers long afterwards. What will God think of this? was not an afterthought with him, but entered into his decisions beforehand.

This was as true of Lincoln as of Joseph. On one occasion during the Civil War, a delegation of Northern ministers met with Lincoln, and one of them made the remark that "The Lord is on our side." Lincoln replied, "I don't agree with you." Amid general amazement, Lincoln continued, "I am not at all concerned about that, for we know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should always be on the Lord's side."

That Lincoln was a man of piety and of deep religious conviction is obvious from his life. Noah Brooks, out of his close and continuous friendship with Lincoln, wrote that there was something touching in his childlike and simple reliance upon Divine aid, especially in extremities of fateful events. Brooks wrote that, during the Civil War, "though prayer and reading the Scriptures was Lincoln's constant habit, he more earnestly than ever sought that strength which is promised when mortal help faileth." Throughout !Lincoln's career, he believed that he was an instrument in the hands of God.

Washington also possessed the quality of the high soul. Many of his public addresses indicate his faith. For example, he concluded an address to his troops on July 2, 1776, with these words: "Let us rely on the goodness of the cause and the aid of the Supreme Being, in Whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions." Certainly Washington was one of the most dedicated men who ever served the cause of freedom. His faith and courage remained constant in the face of overwhelming odds, and there is the never-to-be-forgotten scene of his praying at Valley Forge when American fortunes were at their lowest ebb.

When we scan history and count the conquering generals who put crowns upon their heads or observe the current world scene in which generals often glide into the role of dictators, Washington's idealism and faith are outstanding. He rebuked his officers who suggested that he make himself a king. When the states fell to wrangling after the Revolution, a disaster that would have offered a personally ambitious man another chance for a crown, Washington met with the governors in Alexandria, Virginia, and initiated action that gave the nation the Constitution. He accepted the Presidency only because of his devotion to duty. Truly, all three of these men - Joseph, Lincoln, Washington - possessed a high soul, a faith in God and a devotion to duty that is as open to us as it was to them.

The second essential quality of greatness is a wide heart. Joseph again had this quality of spirit. His treatment of his brothers, who had so grievously wronged him, showed that he had a heart willing to forget the past, a heart willing to return good for evil. To men who had been as mean to him as they could possibly be, he was as good and generous as he could possibly be. Most of us think we are pretty virtuous if in return for a dirty deal we do just a tiny, grudging act of kindness, and of course, that is better than revenge, but the truly great person is far above measuring what he or she gives by what has been given him or her. True greatness includes more than justice; it also includes forgiveness and mercy.

Lincoln also had this quality. During the War, he once sent a personal message to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. In a very few minutes, the messenger returned to the White House, bursting with indignation. The President looked up in surprise. "Did you give the message to Stanton?" he asked. The other man nodded. "What did he do?" Lincoln asked. "He tore it up," exclaimed the messenger, "and what's more, sir, he said you are a fool."

The President rose slowly from the desk and looked at the messenger quizzically. "Did Stanton call me that?" he asked. "He did, sir, and he repeated it," was the reply. "Well," said the President, "I reckon it must be true then because Stanton is generally right." The messenger waited for the storm to break, but Lincoln returned to his work, and as he lay in death, the same Stanton was to say, "There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever known." This was not the only time that Lincoln showed this quality of the wide heart. In the early months of the war when every message brought bad news, Lincoln went to call on General George B. McClellan, the commander of the Army of the Potomac, taking a member of his Cabinet with him. Official etiquette prescribes that the President shall not visit a private citizen, but the times were too tense for etiquette; Lincoln wanted First-hand news from the only man who could give it.

The general was out, and for an hour Lincoln and the Cabinet member waited in the parlor. They heard his voice at last in the hall, but McClellan brushed by without so much as a word of greeting and proceeded on his way upstairs. Ten minutes passed, fifteen, half an hour, and finally, Lincoln sent a servant to remind the General that he was still waiting. The man soon returned, shocked and embarrassed. The general had said he was too tired for a conference, so he had undressed and gone to bed!

The Cabinet member restrained himself until he and Lincoln reached the sidewalk. Then he demanded that McClellan be relieved from his command because of insubordination. Lincoln laid a soothing hand on the man's shoulder. "I will hold McClellan's horse if only he will bring us victories."

Washington had a similar spirit. He had a sharp temper, but he usually kept it under control. However, he lost it one day as a young man in the course of an argument at a Virginia polling booth. William Payne, a much smaller man, finally hit Washington with a club and knocked him down. To Virginians of the eighteenth century, that kind of incident meant just one thing - a duel. Washington, who was then colonel of the Colonial Regiment, would be expected to show his physical courage. For twenty-four hours, he remained in seclusion. After a while, he cooled off sufficiently to weigh the incident with a certain amount of impartiality. Finally he wrote Payne, asking him for a meeting the next day in the spot where the blow had been struck. A large crowd assembled because fireworks were expected. But before the whole assembly, Washington acknowledged to Payne that his conduct had been wrong and asked to be his friend. Now some people may feel that it is a mark of high breeding never to overlook a slight or an injury, but the truly great persons have been superior to personal resentments and small annoyances. Pettiness brings its own punishment, and persons who return evil for evil hurt themselves more than anyone else. Now you may say that you cannot possibly emulate persons such as Washington, Lincoln, or Joseph, and perhaps you cannot, so far as ability is concerned. But all of us can emulate their spirit. As Gilbert Knight once remarked, "It is one of the highest uses of history to remind individuals and nations that greatness is always possible." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow put it well when he wrote in "The Psalm of Life":

            "Lives of great men all remind us
            We can make our lives sublime
            And departing, leave behind us
            Footprints on the sands of time."

All of us have the seeds of greatness in our own lives, and insofar as we cultivate a high soul. and a wide heart, we will be great persons in our own right.

-Rev Frank Kaiser, Feb 22, 1959; revised Feb 18, 1973

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

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

Vol. 12 No. 1 - January 2009

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.
Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom. Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only. Copyright (c) 2009 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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Announcements  - News
Spotlight      - Quantifying Behavior and the First Amendment
Reviews        - Books & journal papers
Events         - Conferences, Courses
Last Word      - 2008 Index

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

Announcements

This newsletter is in its 12th year!

-Revolutionary New Model For Alzheimer's Disease
-Having A Parent With Dementia May Affect Memory In Midlife
-How We Think Before We Speak: Making Sense Of Sentences
-How We Maintain Visual Details In Short-term Memory
-Robotic Therapy May Reduce Stroke Physical Disability Years Later
-New 'Light' On Fascinating Rhythms Of Circadian Clock
-Blood Pressure Compound May Benefit Brain Tumor Patients
-'Neurological Work-arounds' Offer Hope For Conditions Ranging From Addiction To Schizophrenia
-Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/
 
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Spotlight

Quantifying Behavior and the First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution)

My alma mater Cornell University recently took over housing of arXiv, http://arxiv.org/, a repository of reprints and preprints in physics, mathematics, and all things numerical, and the United States government has taken over the lives of my women (my wife works for Congress, my sister works for the Dept of Justice), and any day now I expect my mother to be recruited by the NSA and all my personal and professional freedom will then hang by a thread. With this in mind I came up with an exercise in freedom, representation freedom. Most of us know that the mind is the ultimate source of freedom, especially a linguistic mind, and our goal as neurotherapists is often to restore mental acuity and flexibility, mental freedom.

Consider the photograph of my son Jared at http://yahoojared.com/jared07.jpg. Looking at this image, you are actually looking at 1,440,054 bytes of information arranged into a two-dimensional array, 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall (compressed with the jpeg algorithm to 71,000 bytes). Each byte consists of 8 bits of information, either a zero or a one, and this allows 256 possible values. Each pixel of a bitmap uses three bytes, one byte each to represent shades of blue, green, and red. A pixel of pure red on my son's baseball cap is 0 blue,0 green, 255 red. With this simple 3-color scheme, we arrive at more than 16 million (256 x 256 x 256) gradations of color, all the colors in the rainbow.

Representations are powerful because any symbol can stand for many instances of a real-world category. The symbol "cap" refers to a plethora of instances, a variety of types and fashions. We can also take a readily understood symbol and obscure its meaning by encrypting it, by transforming it slightly so that a stranger looking at the symbol will no longer recognize what it refers to. The history of encryption is fascinating, especially its role in the Allies' success in WWII, but that is a rich story and what I want to focus on a very simple technique.

We can take the array of pixel information that represents my son's red baseball cap and convert it to a different string of information that will look nothing like a baseball cap unless one knows how to undo our conversion. What I pose here is to use the First Amendment in our encryption scheme. Take the digital information and subtract the First Amendment from the information and we're done! The First Amendment itself may be converted to numerical information any number of ways, but the simpliest for computers is to convert the letters into ASCII characters, which are like assigning 1 to A, 2 to B, and 3 to C, except for the fact that we start our count at 65 (65 = A, 66 = B, etc) and we represent capitals and lower case with different sets of numbers (65 = A, 97 = lower case a).

The ASCII representation of the opening clause of the First Amendment "Congress shall make no law" is "67 111 110 103 114 101 115 115 32 115 104 97 108 108 32 109 97 107 101 32 110 111 32 108 97 119". You might notice the repetition of "32" which is ASCII for the space key. 67 refers to capital C and all other numbers refer to lower case letters (e.g., 111 = "o" and 110 the letter before it, "n"). So we convert the entire First Amendment into ASCII and repeat it many, many times, laying them end to end, until we have a string of numbers 1,440,054 in length, the same length as our picture array. We now take my son's picture values and subtract the ASCII values one at a time in order. Say that the first pixel of the picture is represented as 100 blue, 150 green, 110 red (making a gray). We subtract the first three ASCII values of the First Amendment: 100 - C, 150 - o, 110 - n , which in ASCII is 100-67 150-111 110-110, which comes to 33 blue, 39 green, 0 red. (For any sum less than zero we add 256.) This new value becomes our new first pixel of a new picture, and we continue this process throughout our bitmap, pixel by pixel, until all pixels have had their respective First Amendment values removed from them. We now take this array of data (which is a picture in bitmap format) and post it publically for all the world to see. Depending on the complexity of our scheme, the picture we post may resemble a distorted photo of a boy or it may appear as a splotchy collage of random colors. We tell our friends what was used in our encryption so they can reverse the process and see the original photograph.

In this example, subtraction was the mathematical operation of choice in encrypting our photograph, but we could use all sorts of mathematical operations, with the more complex being the more secure. We can take any photograph and encrypt it in this fashion. In fact we can take material offensive to some people (e.g., pornography, pictures of Mohammad, the TARP bailout plan) and subtract the First Amendment values from it and post the difference online. Now the material will be splotchy nonsense and it will only become offensive when we add the First Amendment. In other words, we have an inoffensive collage of colors, and if we add anything but the First Amendment, the material stays splotchy and nonsensical; but when we add the First Amendment, suddenly it becomes offensive.

This begs the question, what caused the offense? The First Amendment or the splotches? And we need not be restricted to the First Amendment for our encryption; we can use the Ten Commandments or Hamlet or the lyrics of "Let it Be" by the Beatles.

Hopefully this idea has given you pause: It means that anything we look at which is being symbolically represented (i.e., not in the real world) can have the First Amendment subtracted from it and re-represented.

Let's go a step further and relate two photos with the First Amendment. Take my son's photograph and one I find objectional, such as a photo of Saddam Hussein. We subtract one photo from the other at each pixel, and find the mathematical operation that converts the remainder into First Amendment ASCII. We use this remainder conversion and subtract it from my son's photo to generate an initial picture. So this results in an initial splotchy image and we add the First Amendment with adjustments to get a picture of my son. Then we take my son, add the First Amendment with its adjustments, and we get Saddam. In this way objectional material is generated not by merely adding the First Amendment but by adding the First Amendment too many times (twice).

Let's further move this idea into the realm of quantified behavior and we have a philosophical discussion. If we can quantify a healthy eyes resting EEG by a string of spectral coefficients and a seizure by another string of coefficients, what to stop us from moving back and forth between the strings of number with any set of information and its adjustment array. Any measurement of behavior can be equated to any other measurement of behavior via representational transformations.

I call this First Amendment encryption for obvious reasons, but we can use the Bible (e.g., John 3:16) or Stephen King's latest opus, or any form of digital information (e.g., a Google map of New York City or the picture of the Statue of Liberty). Symbols are our greatest source of freedom and we should realize how much freedom they actually provide us.

-DK
 
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Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Not Even Wrong: A Father's Journey into the Lost History of Autism
by Paul Collins
A journey into the realm of permanent outsiders.

 Clinical Neuroembryology: Development and Developmental Disorders
by Hans J. ten Donkelaar, et al
Overviews development of CNS in the context of developmental disorders.

 Geriatric Neuropsychology: Practice Essentials
by Shane S. Bush, Thomas A. Martin (Eds)
Comprehensive guide to neuropsychological applications for older patients.

 Fundamental Neuroscience, 2nd Edition
Edited
Comprehensive textbook that both graduate and undergraduate students.

 Poly-behavioral Addiction And the Addictions Recovery Measurement System Arms
by James Slobodzien
Most addicts are polydrug users; this treatment approach is an ecological viable approach, unlike single drug interventions.
Links to books at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/oct2008.htm#section2

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JOURNAL PAPERS

Neurological correlates of reward responding in adolescents : Externalizing behaviors reflect environmental contingencies difficult to extinguish when contingencies change. 

Electromyographic biofeedback in treatment of musculoskeletal pain. : Electromyographic biofeedback may motivate patients to be active in establishing and reaching goals in rehabilitation. 

Family aggregation of mental disorders in Danish three generation study. : There are different patterns of familial aggregation of major mental disorders. 

High on habits. : Endocannabinoid signaling is critical for habit formation. 

Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: QEEG Biofeedback Treatment Protocols. : QEEG deviations from a healthy group are the basis for an intervention plan. 

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

Events Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)
Las Vegas, NV Mar 5-8
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, Brown University Medical School, 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 - aapb.org   Albuquerque, NM    Apr 2-4 

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Last Word

2008 Index

Spotlight articles

-Co-creation and conformity
-Conversations between a Physicist and a Neuroscientist.
-Frontal Lobe Facts
-Dominant Hemisphere Identification
-Journal of Neurotherapy, 2002-2008
-Journal of Neurotherapy, 1995-2001
-Mindshare
-SABA 2008 Conference
-Start My Day with EEG Spectrum Intl
-16th Annual ISNR Conference
-Underdeveloped Social Intelligence
-Why Licensure?

Last Word

-2007 Index
-Bogen and Consciousness
-DK Games for EEGer
-EEG Spectrum affiliates per state
-Information wants to be free (2008)
-PTSD in US warfighters
-Still Waiting for V
-Spiritual Trainer
-Square roots are hard: Magnitude vs Power
-Task-QEEG Assessment
-Who's in Charge
-William James' words

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

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/

DK: What follows is an argument made for licensure, which would provide minimal standards to adhere to for members of this field and promote colleague consultations between therapists.

By Margaret MacDonald, MD and Cynthia Kerson, PhD; edited by David A. Kaiser, Ph.D.

We want to continue our discussion on the pros and cons of licensure for the clinical practice of applied psychophysiology in the state of California, a discussion first started at the BSC meeting in Asilomar this year. Applied psychophysiology refers to autonomic and central nervous system (ANS & CNS) operant conditioning, peak performance training using neurophysiology, and quantitative EEG assessment. We want to make clear to this group how we all can gain from attaining formal licensure. We are well aware that most clinicians do not have the time nor energy to spend on additional efforts to maintain the scope of their current practice; but none of us want to see our field's reputation degraded by non-credentialed practitioners, those who practice "neurofeedback" with little training or education about physiology, biofeedback or the professional and ethical considerations of how clinical operations should run.

As biofeedback clinicians we believe we need to elevate our standing in the care community. We are medical and psychological practitioners who work with individuals who have serious mental and physical ailments. It is our hope that, by having licensure status in applied psychophysiology, we will be able to provide the public a guaranteed level of care, one which is respected by members of other medical, psychological, and therapeutic communities as well as by third-party payers. To do this, we must standardize significant aspects of our clinical practice and address current sub-optimal practices. For instance, a handful of neurofeedback practitioners offer partial refunds of session fees to any client who feels s/he didn't get "his money's worth" out of the neurofeedback training. An RN member argued that when a patient sees a physician for a $200 visit and is given a prescription that results in an outbreak of hives, the idea of refunding the visit fee would never be raised, nor would there ever be any slight against the physician. And any third party payer would not expect to be refunded the payment for the services performed.

In another example, a neurofeedback practitioner asked for advice regarding a rare organic brain syndrome produced by a malformation of brain tissue. This was done on an unmoderated listserver and one of the responses was that she should ignore the diagnosis and simply train to the behavior. This suggestion ignores what is well known about cortical malformations and the responder did not have the necessary experience or expertise to recommend this course of action. Neurotherapists need to work in collaboration with medical practitioners in many cases, especially when working with clinical conditions that are complex and require extensive experience. But this responder considered neurofeedback a cure-all and did not reference any scientific or clinical literature on the condition in offering his advice. Interestingly, the practitioner seeking a consultation was a medical doctor, a practitioner more qualified for dealing with organic pathology than the practitioner providing advice, but also more aware of ethical considerations in seeking advice for that with which one does not have much experience.

If we claim to care for and improve the health and wellbeing of our clients, we must have a scientific or clinical model of efficacy that addresses each individual's complaints. We cannot proceed blindly into altering the function of the most complex organ in existence and assume all will work out well without an appropriate base of knowledge. We must be clear about what our equipment and software are capable of doing in terms of stimulation or operant conditioning and we must be clear about what our assessments mean in the context of applied psychophysiology. Unfortunately many individuals who have successfully completed certification in biofeedback or related fields are unable to meet these standards. It is our intention that a California Licensed Applied Psychophysiologist will meet a higher minimal standard of care in our field. Licensure should also help us to promote a change in terminology wrt the treatment paradigm as well. By having a separate designation for what we do, we can avoid some of the overlap with other specialties, and can thus respond as needed to symptoms and sources, rather than only to diagnostic or medical labels. For example,if a client comes in with the diagnoses of multiple sclerosis, anxiety, and marital problems and a quantitative EEG assessment reveals a frontal disconnection in the brain and all three problems are alleviated through frontal connectivity training, the current climate would dictate that we would need to be a neurologist, a psychiatrist, as well as a licensed family therapist else be vulnerable for treating outside our expertise. As long as it can be understood that these symptoms are the result of an ongoing but temporary dysfunction of the central nervous system (CNS), it is more appropriate for such a client to be handled by someone with recognized expertise in manipulating the functionality of the CNS.

Establishing educational standards and licensing procedures for practitioners requires introduction and successful passage of new legislation at the state level. The process is tedious and can span one or more two-year legislative sessions, depending upon the level of support. Further, such an endeavor is best attempted in a non-election year, when public policy changes are less likely to be politicized. Our plan is to prepare ourselves this year and submit our proposal to the state legislature in 2010. After designing the bill, we must find a legislator who will carry it through. The bill will then have to pass through policy and fiscal committees of the house and be signed in by a governor (who will not be Scharzenegger at that time) We have been in discussions with a lobbyist who has extensive experience in alternative medicine legislature in California and who is very interested in our project. If the bill is passed, there will be at least another year of work setting up the regulatory structure. Ultimately, the California Bureau of Consumer Affairs would police licensure, through an independent board developed with our assistance or through an agency within the Bureau. Initial costs to licensed persons in applied psychophysiology may be high as initial numbers may be low and we would need to support a board or bureau. But this cost would be temporary and would drop as numbers increase. There would also be a buffer period of time before all practitioners would be required to be licensed.

Grandfathering of existing practitioners will require clear and rigorous guidelines. Proof of years in practice, an applied psychophysiology exam requirement, and/or proof of a minimum level of training beyond what is currently required by BCIA may be in order. These details have yet to be determined and there will be ample opportunity for the membership of BSC and other practitioners to have input into this process. Our goal is to strengthen our field, not weaken it by excluding experienced practitioners. The public wants assurance that all members of our profession are knowledgeable and offering services at the highest possible level.Towards this end we may need to establish courses for practitioners who require additional education or clinical training.

We do want to preserve the advantages of this field over other therapeutic modalities; namely, the central role science and learning play in our work, without undermining the value and depth that clinical experience brings. By having a legally recognized designation, the "traditional" healthcare system will be less likely to disregard our endeavors. The California Medical Association (CMA) and the California Psychological Association (CPA) may lobby against our effort, because of what they may see as turf issues, but, in this first attempt at legislation, we will not be attempting to take over anyone's turf. We seek only to license those who do not currently have any form of clinical licensure. Any efforts to regulate the practice of biofeedback by psychologists, doctors, or any others would be far too difficult at this point. We would hope to show, in the long run, that a new paradigm for care and symptom to source solutions can be recognized, legitimized, and ultimately infiltrate the public's mindset in such a way that the traditional groups will see that they are not able to handle the public's new expectations for treatment, and they will welcome the ability to refer to a licensed Applied Psychophysiologist.

We propose four (4) categories for licensure :

1. Neurofeedback (CNS feedback)

2. Biofeedback (ANS feedback)

3. Quantitative electroencephalography (normative comparison analysis)

4. Peak performance training using neurophysiology

Other more mundane features of the bill will establish the organization responsible for governing licensure and certification, determine what categories are licensed and criteria for inclusion/acceptance. It will also establish regulatory rules for CEs, for ethical issues, and any other issues deemed important to general policy and executive policing. The Board of Directors of ISNR is working to incorporate guidelines for a level of standard practice and equipment quality which it will advise its members to adhere to; and BCIA works diligently to incorporate a useful and practical certificate of competence. Our hope is that these programs fall within the same scope of the California licensure and are not in competition. In preliminary discussions, the ISNR, AAPB and BCIA advocate for the incorporation of licensure. However, to date we await formal advice from these groups. In the thirty or more years of this field, we have been very lucky that no significant lawsuits have affected us. However, the recent article by Cory Hammond and Lynda Kirk outlines very clearly that harm can and has been done within the practice of applied psychophysiology. We need to regulate ourselves before larger agencies decide on this issue for us. The authors and Jay Gunkelman, Past President, will draft the legislative bill during 2009. If you are interested in helping us or have comments that you would like us to take into consideration, please contact us at your earliest convenience, at one of the emails below. We will be presenting a panel on this issue at the upcoming AAPB conference in Albuquerque.

Margaret MacDonald dr.mac@..., Cynthia Kerson crkerson@..., Jay Gunkelman qeegjay@...

-DK

Reviews

Building the Bonds of Attachment

Handbook of Psychological Assessment

Getting Unstuck; Clear Answers for Women on Why We Get Trapped in Depression, Anxiety and Eating Disorders

Keeping Mozart in Mind

Serious Shopping: Psychotherapy and Consumerism

Links to books at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/oct2008.htm#section2

Adrenocortical Functioning in Boys with ADHD : Anxiety problems were associated with greater cortisol reactivity and oppositional problems were associated with adrenocortical activity.

Overtreating chronic back pain: time to back off? : Chronic back pain is not well understand in terms of basic pain mechanisms.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms in mild cognitive impairment : Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in patients with mild cognitive impairment and the presence of multiple symptoms are associated with amnesia.

Long-term stability of resting frontal EEG alpha asymmetry in schizophrenia. : Resting frontal EEG alpha asymmetry remained stable over a 36-month interval in schizophrenia.

Alcohol addiction and the attachment system : Psychiatric symptoms severity is related to attachment system's impairment.

Links to articles at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/oct2008.htm#section2

The figure above shows the EEG Spectrum affiliates saturation (offices per 1,000,000 residents in a state). The data in table format is below.

offices per million residents
2	.Alabama	0.4
3	.Alaska	4.4
8	.Arizona	1.2
3	.Arkansas	1.1
61	.California	1.7
11	.Colorado	2.2
6	.Connecticut	1.7
1	.Delaware	1.1
3	.DC	5.1
19	.Florida	1.0
3	.Georgia	0.3
2	.Hawaii	1.6
3	.Idaho	2.0
11	.Illinois	0.9
1	.Indiana	0.2
5	.Iowa	1.7
3	.Kansas	1.1
2	.Kentucky	0.5
1	.Louisiana	0.2
1	.Maine	0.8
3	.Maryland	0.5
34	.Massachusetts	5.2
9	.Michigan	0.9
1	.Minnesota	0.2
0	.Mississippi	0.0
4	.Missouri	0.7
3	.Montana	3.1
5	.Nebraska	2.8
5	.Nevada	1.9
2	.New Hampshire	1.5
13	.New Jersey	1.5
4	.New Mexico	2.0
17	.New York	0.9
10	.North Carolina	1.1
0	.North Dakota	0.0
6	.Ohio	0.5
4	.Oklahoma	1.1
5	.Oregon	1.3
7	.Pennsylvania	0.6
5	.Rhode Island	4.8
1	.South Carolina	0.2
0	.South Dakota	0.0
2	.Tennessee	0.3
23	.Texas	0.9
2	.Utah	0.7
1	.Vermont	1.6
11	.Virginia	1.4
8	.Washington	1.2
0	.West Virginia	0.0
3	.Wisconsin	0.5
0	.Wyoming	0.0

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

Vol. 11 No. 11 - November 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.  

 Past issues are available at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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Announcements - News
Spotlight     - Underdeveloped Social Intelligence
Reviews       - Books & journal papers
Events        - Conferences, Courses
Last Word     - A Spiritual Trainer 
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  Announcements  (Neuroscience news articles)

-The Psychology Of Deja Vu
-'Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon' Game Provides Clue To Efficiency Of Complex Networks
-Tiny Sacs Released By Brain Tumor Cells Carry Information That May Guide Treatment
-'Super' Aged Brains Reveal First Secrets Of Sharp Memory In Old Age
-How Is Our Left Brain Is Different From Our Right?
-Brisk Walk Could Help Chocoholics Stop Snacking
-Drug-related Preference In Cocaine Addiction Extends To Images
-Unraveling Mystery Of Brain Aneurysms
-Protecting Neurons Could Halt Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Diseases
-How Our Senses Combine To Give Us A Better View Of The World
-Multiple Sclerosis: In The War Against Diseases, Nerve Cells Need Their Armor
-Light Triggers New Code For Brain Cells
-Brain Implants May Help Stroke Patients Overcome Partial Paralysis
-Primary Insomnia Linked To Neurochemical Abnormality In Young And Middle-aged Adults
-Computerized Carer Lessens Dementia Load

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/

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In the Spotlight

Underdeveloped Social Intelligence

   The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence. -- Robert J. Shiller

Is it evolutionarily more useful to develop an understanding of others (social relationships) than to recognize the tracks of a python?

This question divides social species from nonsocial species. The majority of species on our planet are not social and those that are social are more often herd animals than social, unconnected to brethren mentally and emotionally, although physically they may share the same space. Some believe that primate intelligence originally evolved to solve social problems and was only later extended to problems outside the social domain. Others argue that natural selection for intelligence may have acted strongest in the social domain to explain our species' current aptitude for theory of mind and success in the food chain. Group life exerted strong selective pressures during primate evolution on the ability to form complex associations, reason by analogy, and make inferences and predictions concerning the behavior of fellow group members. Two concepts underlie intelligent behaviors in primates and other species: (1) the ability to recategorize information, and (2) the capacity to prioritize concepts, to organize concepts hierarchically. Both of these abilities likely developed in primates to solve social problems. Successful behavior in a social group requires one to prioritize individuals as tools, threats, etc. And one attains many perspectives of other individuals in a group through different encounters. A social entity is different from inanimate objects or even other animals, prey or predator, in that its function changes over time. The capability to recategorize the function, threat, affiliations, of other primates in one's group are extremely valuable. Much of the intelligence exhibited by primates is nearly entirely solely to solving social problems, which may explain why it took three million years from our common ancestors with apes before fire was harnessed and another two million years before we advanced tools and artwork were engineered by our ancestors.

Primates may have adaptive specialization in the social domain which is rarely extended to other domains, what some call "laser-beam" intelligence. "Laser-beam" intelligence is reminiscent of savant skills in autistics, abilities which are extraordinarily powerful when focused in a single domain but much less developed outside this narrow sphere. The social skills of human, as evidence by the human ability to maintain alliances despite rare contact, may be such an example, along with the slowness of environmental problem-solving that continues to this day.

Attribution of mind to others increases as one's communications became more involve in one's mental experiences. Dennett (1987) has a useful method for investigating communication and the attribution of mental states in nonhuman species and nonverbal humans. First we assume that an individual may possess an intentional system, capable of mental states like beliefs and desires. Next we attempt to determine the level of intentionality of this system. Zero-order intentional systems have no beliefs or desires at all. For instance, a vervet monkey may make a specific alarm calls because it is frightened and aroused and different predators evoke different fears and each fear elicits a characteristic alarm call and a characteristic escape response. This would classify the vervet monkey alarm call systems as zero-order. Alternatively, a first-order intentional system has beliefs and desires, but it doesn't have beliefs about beliefs (metacognition). In this case, a vervet gives a leopard alarm call because it believes that there is a leopard nearby or because it wants others to run into trees. The vervet has no conception of his audience's mind, nor does it have the ability to makes the distinction between his own and another animal's beliefs. Alternatively, a second-order intentional system has some conception about both his own and other individuals' states of mind. The creature gives a leopard alarm call because he wants other vervets to believe that there is a leopard nearby. A third-order intentional system makes an alarm call because he wants other vervets to believe that he wants them to run into trees, and so forth. Linguistic communication may require at least third-order intentionality on the part of speaker and listener (Cheney & Seyfarth, 1990); but this might be an overestimation (e.g., cultures in which mental attribution of others is unwelcomed). According to Grice (1988), reciprocal altruism and the detection of cheaters that it implies was responsible for the rapid evolution of cognitive capacities exhibited by higher primates. A third-order intentionality is necessary to detect cheaters and to gain advantages as a cheater (e.g., the recipient wants the altruist to believe that he intends to reciprocate).

Most primates possess incomplete theories of mind, if any at all. For example, vervet monkeys will continue to give alarm calls regardless of whether their audience is already aware of danger (i.e., long after everyone has seen the predator). Monkeys often use third parties as social tools, while apes rarely do (Whiten & Byrne, 1988). For example, a baboon may feign injury or insult from another baboon in order to get his alliance partner to attack the supposed attacker. Chimpanzees, on the other hand, rarely attempt to recruit allies on a regular basis using such ploys.

Deception implies that one has attributed a mind to another, a mind that can be deceived. Chimpanzees have been known to deceive or attempt to deceive others by means of information concealment. For instance, a 9-year-old chimp named Figan would give a loud food calls when he was given bunch of bananas (Goodall, 1986). Consequently, the whole group heard the cries and converged on his site, leaving few bananas for him. The next time Figan was given a bunch of bananas, he remained silent (though Goodall reports hearing faint choking sounds in throat) and ate bananas undisturbed. In a direct examination of deception, Woodruff and Premack (1979) had a common chimpanzee shown which in two containers food was hidden. Following this, either a cooperative trainer (who when showed the food by the chimpanzee always shares it) or an uncooperative trainer (who when shown the location of the food, always eats it himself) enters the area. The chimpanzee always provided correct information to the cooperative trainer, but acteddifferently with the uncooperative trainer. First, the chimpanzee withheld information by turning his back and sitting motionless so as not to cue trainer to where the food was hidden. Later, after many more trials, some of the chimpanzees would gesture or point to the wrong container. So it is clear that active deception can be generated by the 400-gram chimp brain.

However a true theory of mind may elude such a small brain. Pedagogy or teaching is a measure of mental attribution; in order to teach correct information to another, one must be attribute false information to this individual. In most mammals, teaching is stereotypic and is not sensitive to a particular audience's ignorance. There are some anecdotes of teaching by chimpanzees (e.g., Washoe was observed molding the hands of her adopted's son for signs, Fouts, Hirsch, & Fouts, 1982). However, chimpanzees do not usually inform others in ignorance of information which they possess (Premack, 1986). Premack (1988) interprets their behaviors as if each chimpanzee can create a desired state of mind in others, but they are less adept at recognizing situations when other chimpanzees have beliefs which are incompatible with their own. The apparent lack of positive commands in nonhuman primates (equivalent to "yes!" in humans) is strong evidence that apes have difficulty ascribing different beliefs to other minds, and the general lack of pedagogy among nonhuman primates suggests the same.

Self-awareness is characteristic of human mental experience and is closely related to the attribution of mind in others. Evidence of self-aware behaviors are few but interesting in apes. Kanzi sometimes signed bad before doing something for which he would subsequently be punished (Savage-Rumbaugh et al., 1988). That a chimpanzee can refer to his own name (in solving tests and answering questions) implies some degree self-awareness. Gallup developed a mirror test to detect self-awareness in nonhuman primates. An animal is anesthetize and a mark is placed on his forehead. When he awakens, he is shown his reflection in a mirror. If he react to the mark (rubs or presses it), Gallup (1982) argued that this demonstrated self-awareness. Gorillas fail the mirror test, as do children below the age of two (Gallup, 1982). It could be that gorillas are not interested in superimposed body marks and/or lack motivation to respond. Monkeys can use to learn mirrors to manipulate objects and monitor behavior of others, but they also fail the test. The mirror test may indicate bodily awareness or representation more than conceptualization of a self. Pretend play in younger monkeys and apes indicates some self-recognition and self-awareness in that juveniles must be able to distinguish what is real and what is imagined; they must entertain multiple representations of an object or event at the same time.

For therapists, the value of ascertaining a client's theory-of-mind status, even of an adult, may be helpful in understanding the root of one's mental health problems. Autistics notably lack several aspects of theory of mind, and brain-injured adults may lose the tools, but I suspect that a large range of people have underdeveloped social intelligence and rarely move beyond a basic social compass to understand and empathize with their fellow humans and that is how they wind up in emotional or social straits. To take the perspective of another for even a few moments, a few steps in a sequence of events, is very difficult, especially if we are the party being interacted with. Many therapists excel at showing an individual where his or her thinking may be limited, where selfhood and other motives were not fulled extended to another.

Below is a nice summary of those aspects of social intelligence more under volitional control in humans:

Evidence of Mind From Gallup (1985)

-DK

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Reviews

 BOOKS

 The Neurology Of Autism
by Mary Coleman (Editor)
Medical/educational therapies and a detailed evaluation of alternative therapies.

 Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, 4th ed.
by MH Kryger, T Roth, & WC Dement
For trainees in sleep medicine and a standard reference.

 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Bipolar Disorder, Second Edition
by Monica Ramirez Basco, A. John Rush
CBT for bipolar disorder.

 Freedom And Neurobiology: Reflections on Free Will, Language, And Political Power
by John R. Searle
Free will debate, relevant to understanding brain function and mental operations.

 The Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Communication
by Vesna Mildner
One of the most exciting applications for neuroimaging is in the field of human communication - disorders and normal development.

-Links to books at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/oct2008.htm#section2 
 
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JOURNAL PAPERS

Abnormal cerebral connectivity during emotional processing in autism : Abnormal long-range right-brain connectivity may explain socio-emotional troubles that characterize autistic pathology.

EEG Patterns in Mild Cognitive Impairment : Pattern recognition of EEG may be used to classify dementia/MCI patients.

Emergence of Posttraumatic Distress in Later Life : Reemergent posttraumatic stress disorder does not appear to be a unique subtype of PTSD among elderly people.

Abnormal cerebral connectivity during emotional processing in autism : Abnormal long-range right-brain connectivity may explain socio-emotional troubles that characterize autistic pathology.

Perceived peer delinquency and genetic predisposition for substance dependence vulnerability. : Affiliation with delinquent peers moderates contribution of genetic and environmental risks to substance dependence vulnerability

-Links to articles at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/oct2008.htm#section2

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 Events

Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)
-Glendale CA Dec 11-14
-Orlando, FL Jan 15-18

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, Brown University Medical School, 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

AAPB - aapb.org Albuquerque, NM Apr 2-4 

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  Last Word

A Spiritual Trainer

I began work on what I call a "Spiritual Trainer," trying to identify EEG spectral coefficients prominent during or unique to religious mystical experience. I suspect that bicoherence or spectral entropy, measured used in indexing unconsciousness for anesthesia, may be useful, though in the opposite direction of unconsciousness.

Mario Beauregard and Vincent Paquette collected EEG from Carmelite nuns during recall of a past mystical experience and they have kindly shared their data so I can rummage through it. They used three conditions, a baseline resting state, a "human" condition in which they recall a past positive experience with a person and the feel of human love, and the "Unio Mystica" condition in which the nuns, renown for their mysticism in Quebec, recall past positive experience with God and feel the unlimited love. They recently published their analysis of power and coherence in Neuroscience Letters (2008, volume 444). The mystical recall condition exhibited greater theta power at left medial and midline sites (F3, C3, P3, Fz, Cz and Pz) which may indicate cingulate involvement, and greater gamma1 power at right posterior sites( T4 and P4). They also examined power ratios and discerned higher delta/beta, theta/alpha and theta/beta ratios for several electrode sites. In terms of coherence, FP1-C3 showed greater theta coherence and F4-P4, F4-T6, F8-T6 and C4-P4 greater alpha coherence.

I am reminded of the Landsborough (1987) paper in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry [volume 50, pp 659-64] called "St Paul and temporal lobe epilepsy" in which he argues how the great Christian missionary of the first century may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and the EEG signs that might go with it. Were Paul's ecstatic visions, his conversion on the road to Damascus, the "light from heaven" which went off in his head, a product of TLE? Diagnosing a patient from afar, in time and space, is fraught with uncertainty, but Paul alludes to his illness in his writings and from this sparse evidence we may presume something about his life and his condition. Paul describes an estatic personal experience in his letter to the Church in Corinth in which he felt "caught up to paradise." He was "caught up to the third heaven. In the body or out of the body? That I do not know... and (here he) heard sacred secrets which no human lips can repeat" (Moffatt Translation). A sense of unreality in relation to one's body in space and a dreamy state of auditory hallucinations reminded Landsborough of experiences related by his TLE patients. Paul also complained about a "thorn in the flesh" -- perhaps a metaphor for an infirmity which periodically racked him such as convulsions.

Landsborough took particular interest in Paul's letter to Galatians. "(I)t was because of an illness... that I preached the gospel to you (the Galatians) on my former visit". Paul was impressed that these people did not "spurn" or "reject" him -- a translation of the literal verb "to spit out at". As Landsborough states, "Epilepsy was sometimes called morbus qui sputatur -- spitting was the superstitutious reaction of a witness to an attack of epilepsy" Thus reaching across the years as if it were yesterday a possibly spitting audience becomes a diagnosis of convulsions.

Hyperreligiosity is not uncommon in TLE patients. Religious conversion following ecstatic auras has been documented in at least six patients (Dewhurst & Beard, 1970). Perhaps much of our religious and mystical imagery comes about from limbic (self-referential) contents temporarily dominating cortical (more rationale) processes. We may never know what exactly transpired on that road to Damascus, but we do know that it changed the course of the world, eventually transforming a backwater Galilean cult into the most dominant force in history, eventually propelling individualistic Western cultures into the material and political successes that until recently were rarely challenged. Years ago I wrote about this paper in this newsletter and I pondered of Paul's experience having a neurological origin, and if so, given the right circumstances it may be replicated in part or whole. Of course Paul's guilt of complicity in the first marytrdom after the crucifixion may have facilitated the conversion, something which none of us will likely or willingly duplicate, but if we could induce the cortex into the same general profile of a mystical state, might anyone taste the mental state which helped transform the world.

-DK

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• Streamlining Brain Signals For Speed And Efficacy
• Magnet Restores Color Perception In Partially-sighted Patient
• Study Of Learning Disabled Mice Shows Balance In The Brain Is Key
• How Signals Flow Between Neurons: New Research Explains Membrane Fusion At Synapse
• Brain Stimulation Improves Dexterity
• MRI Reveals Relationship Between Depression And Pain
• Diabetes, High Blood Pressure May Cause People With Alzheimer's Disease To Die Sooner
• Fibromyalgia Can No Longer Be Called The 'Invisible' Syndrome
• Ultrasound Shown To Exert Remote Control Of Brain Circuits
• Scientists Identify Machinery That Helps Make Memories

  Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/

Below is a part 2 of a list of scientific articles published in the Journal of Neurotherapy. Part 1 was published in last month's newsletter. Below is a chronological index of its scientific articles since 2002:

• The Role of Slow-Wave Electroencephalographic Activity in Reading; Efthymios Angelakis, Joel F. Lubar, Jon Frederick, Stamatina Stathopoulou (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (3), 5 - 25.

• EEG Biofeedback on a Female Stroke Patient with Depression: A Case Study; John Putman, (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (3), 27 - 38.

• Quantitative EEG Evidence of Increased Alpha Peak Frequency in Children with Precocious Reading Ability; Shannon M. Suldo, Lynn A. Olson, James R. Evans (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (3), 39 - 50.

• Technical Issues Involving Bipolar EEG Training Protocols; John A. Putman, (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (3), 51 - 58.

• ADHD and Stuttering: Similar EEG Profiles Suggest Neurotherapy as an Adjunct to Traditional Speech Therapies; Brenda Ratcliff-Baird (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (4), 5 - 22.

• EEG-NeuroBioFeedback Treatment of Patients with Brain Injury: Part 1: Typological Classification of Clinical Syndromes; Michel Bounias, Rima E. Laibow, A. Bonaly, Albert N. Stubblebinec (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (4), 23 - 44.

• EEG-NeuroBioFeedback Treatment of Patients with Brain Injury: Part 2: Changes in EEG Parameters versus Rehabilitation; Rima E. Laibow, Albert N. Stubblebinec, Henry Sandground, Michel Bounias (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (4), 45 - 71.

• Parameters Associated with Rapid Neurotherapeutic Treatment of Common ADD (CADD); Paul G. Swingle (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (4), 73 - 84.

• EEG-NeuroBioFeedback Treatment of Patients with Brain Injury Part 3: Cardiac Parameters and Finger Temperature Changes Associated with Rehabilitation; Rima E Laibow, Albert N. Stubblebinec, Henry Sandground, Michel Bounias (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (1), 5 - 21.

• EEG-NeuroBioFeedback Treatment of Patients with Brain Injury Part 4: Duration of Treatments as a Function of Both the Initial Load of Clinical Symptoms and the Rate of Rehabilitation; Michel Bounias, Rima E Laibow, Albert N. Stubblebinec, Henry Sandground, A. Bonaly (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (1), 23 - 38.

• Quantitative Electroencephalographic Amplitude Measures in Young Adults During Reading Tasks and Rest; Efthymios Angelakis, Joel F. Lubar (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (2), 5 - 19.

• An Auditory Electrophysiological Intervention in Migraine: A Randomized Placebo Controlled Add On Trial; Eugen Trinka, Josef Unterrainer, Gernot Luthringshausen, Bernhard Iglseder, Gunther Ladurner, Thomas Loew, Hans Georg Trzopek (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (2), 21 - 30.

• Impact of qEEG-Guided Coherence Training for Patients with a Mild Closed Head Injury; Jonathan E. Walker, Charles A. Norman, Ronald K. Weber (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (2), 31 - 43.

• Application of Repetitive Visual Stimulation to EEG Neurofeedback Protocols; Thomas A. Collura, PE (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (2), 47 - 70.

• Neurofeedback for AD/HD: A Ratio Feedback Case Study and Tutorial; Thomas Rossiter (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (3), 9 - 35.

• Electrophysiological (QEEG) Correlates of Effective Reading: Towards a Generator/Activation Theory of the Mind; Kirtley E. Thornton (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (3), 37 - 66.

• Behaviorism and Neurofeedback: Still Married; Dwight E. Fultz (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (3), 67 - 74.

• Bispectral Analysis of the EEG: A Brief Technical Note; Jack Johnstone (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (3), 77 - 81.

• Task Force Report on Methodology and Empirically Supported Treatments: Introduction; Donald Moss, Jay Gunkelman(2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (4), 7 - 10.

• Template for Developing Guidelines for the Evaluation of the Clinical Efficacy of Psychophysiological Interventions; Theodore J. La Vaque, D. Corydon Hammond, David Trudeau, Vincent Monastra, John Perry, Paul Lehrer, Douglas Matheson, Richard Sherman (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (4), 11 - 23.

• Neurofeedback Training: Integration with Diet and Detoxification Programs; Victoria L. Ibric, James E. McCourt (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (4), 25 - 38.

• Efficacy of Neurofeedback for Children in the Autistic Spectrum: A Pilot Study; Betty Jarusiewicz (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (4), 39 - 49.

• Biofeedback for Movement Disorders (Dystonia with Parkinson's Disease): Theory and Preliminary Results; Michael Thompson, Lynda Thompson (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (4), 51 - 70.

• Notes on EEG Resampling by Natural Cubic Spline Interpolation; Marco Congedo, Cem Ozen, Leslie Sherlin (2002). Journal of Neurotherapy, 6 (4), 73 - 80.

• Quantitative Electroencephalographic Comodulation: An Investigation of Patterns in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; Tamara D. Lorensenc Grad Dip, Kathryn M. Gow (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (1), 3 - 18.

• Logistic Discriminant Functions in Electroencephalography; Marco Congedo (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (2), 5 - 23.

• QEEG-Guided Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; D. Corydon Hammond (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (2), 25 - 52.

• Neurotherapy and the Challenge of Empirical Support: A Call for a Neurotherapy Practice Research Network; Lonnie A. Nelson (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (2), 53 - 67.

• The Effects of Caffeine on the Brain: A Review; D. Corydon Hammond (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (2), 79 - 89.

• Parametric and Non-Parametric Analysis of QEEG: Normative Database Comparisons in Electroencephalography, a Simulation Study on Accuracy; Marco Congedo, Joel F. Lubar (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (3/4), 1 - 29.

• Use of Databases in QEEG Evaluation; Jack Johnstone, Jay Gunkelman(2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (3/4), 31 - 52.

• Quantitative EEG Normative Databases: A Comparative Investigation; Tamara D. Lorensen, Paul Dickson(2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (3/4),53 - 68.

• Databases or Specific Training Protocols for Neurotherapy? A Proposal for a "Clinical Approach to Neurotherapy"; Jaime Romano-Micha (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (3/4), 69 - 85.

• Quantitative EEG Normative Databases: Validation and Clinical Correlation; Robert W. Thatcher, Rebecca A. Walker, Carl J. Biver, Duane N. North, Richard Curtin (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (3/4), 87 - 121.

• Comparison of QEEG Reference Databases in Basic Signal Analysis and in the Evaluation of Adult ADHD; J. Noland White (2003). Journal of Neurotherapy, 7 (3/4), 123 - 169.

• Standards for the Use of Quantitative Electroencephalography (QEEG) in Neurofeedback: A Position Paper of the International Society for Neuronal Regulation; D. Corydon Hammond, Jonathan Walker, Daniel Hoffman, Joel F. Lubar, David Trudeau, Robert GurneeW, Joseph Horvat (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (1), 5 - 27.

• Changes in Frontal Brain Asymmetry Associated with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: A Single Case Study; Elsa Baehr, Laura Miller, J. Peter Rosenfeld, Rufus Baehr (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (1), 29 - 42.

• The Temporal Dynamics of Electroencephalographic Responses to Alpha/ Theta Neurofeedback Training in Healthy Subjects; Tobias Egner, John H. Gruzelier (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (1), 43 - 57.

• Case Study of Trigeminal Neuralgia Using Neurofeedback and Peripheral Biofeedback; Andrea Sime(2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (1), 59 - 71.

• Neurofeedback for Elementary Students with Identified Learning Problems; Peter Orlando, Richard O Rivera (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (2), 5 - 19.

• EEG Changes of Traumatic Brain Injured Patients after Cognitive Rehabilitation; Stamatina Stathopoulou, Joel Lubar (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (2), 21 - 51.

• Neurofeedback as a Treatment for ADHD: A Methodological Review with Implications for Future Research; David Vernon, Ann Frickc, John Gruzelier (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (2), 53 - 82.

• Neurofeedback for Cerebral Palsy; Margaret E. Ayers (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (2), 93 - 94.

• Neurofeedback with Cerebral Palsy and Mental Retardation: A Case Report; Alan Bachers (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (2), 95 - 96.

• A Neurologist's Advice for Mental Health Professionals on the Use of QEEG and Neurofeedback; Jonathan Walker (2004). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (2), 97 - 103.

• Intentional Increase of Cerebral Blood Oxygenation Using Hemoencephalography (HEG): An Efficient Brain Exercise Therapy; Hershel Toomim, William Mize, Paul C Kwong, Marjorie Toomim, Robert Marsh AA, Gerald P. Kozlowski, Mary Kimball, Antoine Remond (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (3), 5 - 21.

• Passive Infrared Hemoencephalography: Four Years and 100 Migraines; Jeffrey A. Carmen (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (3), 23 - 51.

• Exploring Hemispheric Differences in Infrared Brain Emissions; David Freides, Lisa Aberbach (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (3), 53 - 61.

• Effects of Hemoencephalographic (HEG) Training at Three Prefrontal Locations upon EEG Ratios at CZ; Robert Sherrill (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (3), 63 - 73.

• Hemoencephalography-A New Therapy for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Case Report; William Mize (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (3), 77 - 97.

• Limbic Beta Activation and LORETA Can Hippocampal and Related Limbic Activity Be Recorded and Changes Visualized Using LORETA in an Affective Memory Condition?; Rex Cannon, Joel Lubar, Keri Thornton, Stuart Wilson, Marco Congedo (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (4), 5 - 24.

• EEG Coherence Effects of Audio-Visual Stimulation (AVS) at Dominant and Twice Dominant Alpha Frequency; Jon Frederick, DeAnna L. Timmermann, Harold Russell, Joel Lubar (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (4), 25 - 41.

• EEG Activity in Subtypes of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Adam R. Clarke, Robert J. Barry (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (4), 43 - 62.

• Mixed General Linear Model Analysis of Quantitative Electroencephalographic (qEEG) Data; Donald Bars, Christian Schindler (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 8 (4), 63 - 75.

• Open-ViBE A Three Dimensional Platform for Real-Time Neuroscience; Cedric Arrouet Marco Congedo, Jean-Eudes Marvie, Fabrice Lamarche, Anatole Lecuyer, Bruno Arnaldi (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (1), 3 - 25.

• Neurofeedback to Improve Physical Balance, Incontinence, and Swallowing; D Corydon Hammond (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (1), 27 - 36.

• TOVA Results Following Inter-Hemispheric Bipolar EEG Training; J. A. Putman, S. F. Othmer, Siegfried Othmer, Vickie E. Pollock (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (1), 37 - 52.

• Temporal Lobe Slow Waves; John R. Hughes (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (1), 63 - 66.

• Temporal Lobes and Their Importance in Neurofeedback; D. Corydon Hammond (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (1), 67 - 86.

• Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation Review A Safer Alternative to Psychopharmaceuticals in the Treatment of Depression; Marshall F. Gilula, Daniel L. Kirsch (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (2), 7 - 26.

• An Open Clinical Trial Utilizing Real-Time EEG Operant Conditioning as an Adjunctive Therapy in the Treatment of Crack Cocaine Dependence; Virginia Shannon Burkett, John Michael Cummins, Robert Malcolm Dickson, Malcolm Skolnick, JD (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (2), 27 - 47.

• Use of Auditory and Visual Stimulation to Improve Cognitive Abilities in Learning-Disabled Children; Ruth Olmstead (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (2), 49 - 61.

• The Effect of ROSHI Protocol and Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation on a Nine-Year-Old Anxious, Dyslexic Male with Attention Deficit Disorder A Case Study; Stephen J. Overcash (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (2), 63 - 77.

• Interhemispheric EEG Training; Susan Othmer (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (2), 87 - 96.

• Synchrony Measures and Non-Homotopic Do Synchrony Measures Between Non-Homotopic Areas Make Sense; David A. Kaiser (2005). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (2), 97 - 108.

• Quantitative EEG Findings in Convicted Murderers; Jennifer M. C. Vendemia, Kelly E. Caine, James R. Evans (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (3), 5 - 29.

• The qEEG in the Lie Detection Problem The Localization of Guilt?; Kirtley E. Thornton (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (3), 31 - 43.

• Effects of Preparedness to Deceive on ERP Waveforms in a Two-Stimulus Paradigm; Jennifer M. C. Vendemia, Robert F. Buzan, Eric P. Green, Michael J. Schillaci (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (3), 45 - 70.

• The Boys Totem Town Neurofeedback Project A Pilot Study of EEG Biofeedback with Incarcerated Juvenile Felons; George Martin, Cynthia L. Johnson (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (3), 71 - 86.

• Neurofeedback with Juvenile Offenders A Pilot Study in the Use of QEEG-Based and Analog-Based Remedial Neurofeedback Training; Peter N. Smith, Marvin W. Sams (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (3), 87 - 99.

• School Shootings, High School Size, and Neurobiological Considerations; David A. Kaiser (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (3), 103 - 117.

• Electroencephalographic Biofeedback in the Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Theodore J. La Vaque, Vincent J. Monastra, Steven Lynn, Michael Linden, Joel F. Lubar, John Gruzelier (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (4), 5 - 34.

• Delayed Twins; Matthew J. Fleischman, Siegfried Othmer (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (4), 35 - 46.

• Neurofeedback Treatment of Two Children with Learning, Attention, Mood, Social, and Developmental Deficits; Edward H. Jacobs (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 9 (4), 55 - 70.

• EEG Spectral-Power and Coherence: LORETA Neurofeedback Training in the Anterior Cingulate Gyrus; Rex Cannon, Joel Lubar, Aric Gerke, Keri Thornton, Teresa A. Hutchens, Victoria McCammon (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (1), 5 - 31.

• The EEG Consistency Index as a Psycho-Physiological Marker of ADHD and Methylphenidate Response: Replication of Results; Jennifer Kim Penberthy, Daniel Cox, Raina Robeva, Boris Kovatchev, R. Lawrence Merkel, (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (1), 33 - 43.

• The Neurophysiology of Dyslexia: A Selective Review with Implications for Neurofeedback Remediation and Results of Treatment in Twelve Consecutive Patients; Jonathan E. Walker, Charles A. Norman (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (1), 45 - 55.

• LORETA: An Attempt at a Simple Answer to a Complex Controversy; Daniel A Hoffman (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (1), 57 - 72.

• Phase Sensitivity of Bipolar EEG Training Protocols; John A. Putman, Siegfried Othmer (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (1), 73 - 79.

• Allergy Pattern in the EEG; Penny S. Montgomery (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (1), 89 - 92.

• Bridging the Gap Between Neurotherapy and Psychotherapy; David Freides (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (1), 93 - 96.

• The Low Energy Neurofeedback System (LENS): Theory, Background, and Introduction; Len Ochs (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (2/3), 5 - 39.

• Treatment of Fibromyalgia Syndrome Using Low-Intensity Neurofeedback with the Flexyx Neurotherapy System: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial; Howard M. Kravitz, Mary Lee Esty, Robert S. Katz, Jan Fawcett (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (2/3), 41 - 58.

• Comment on the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Syndrome Using Low-Intensity Neurofeedback with the Flexyx Neurotherapy System: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial, or How to Go Crazy Over Nearly Nothing; Len Ochs (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (2/3), 59 - 61.

• Reflections on FMS Treatment, Research, and Neurotherapy: Cautionary Tales; Mary Lee Esty (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (2/3), 63 - 68.

• The LENS (Low Energy Neurofeedback System): A Clinical Outcomes Study on One Hundred Patients at Stone Mountain Center, New York; Stephen Larsen, Kristen Harrington, Susan Hicks (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (2/3), 69 - 78.

• Effective Use of LENS Unit as an Adjunct to Cognitive Neuro-Developmental Training; Curtis T. Cripe (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (2/3), 79 - 87.

• The LENS Neurofeedback with Animals; Stephen Larsen, Robin Larsen, D. Corydon Hammond, Stephen Sheppard, Len Ochs, Sloan Johnson, Carla Adinaro ARIA-Cert, Carrie Chapman (2006). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (2/3), 89 - 104.

• QEEG-Guided Neurofeedback for Children with Histories of Abuse and Neglect: Neurodevelopmental Rationale and Pilot Study; Lark Huang-Storms, Eugenia Bodenhamer Davis, Richard Davis, Janice Dunn (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (4), 3 - 16.

• Neurofeedback Treatment of Type I Diabetes Mellitus: Perceptions of Quality of Life and Stabilization of Insulin Treatment-Two Case Studies; Siamak Monjezi, Randall R. Lyle (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (4), 17 - 23.

• What is Neurofeedback?; D. Corydon Hammond (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (4), 25 - 36.

• What is Quantitative EEG?; David A. Kaiser (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (4), 37 - 52.

• First, Do No Harm- A Basic Tenent in Jeopardy?; Daniel A Hoffman (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (4), 53 - 61.

• Neurofeedback Around the World; Martha Catalina Maldonado Rub (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 10 (4), 63 - 73.

• Assessment-Guided Neurofeedback for Autistic Spectrum Disorder; Robert Coben, Ilean Padolsky (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (1), 5 - 23.

• A Modular Activation/Coherence Approach to Evaluating Clinical/QEEG Correlations and for Guiding Neurofeedback Training: Modular Insufficiencies, Modular Excesses, Disconnections, and Hyperconnections; Jonathan E Walker, Gerald P. Kozlowski, Robert Lawson (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (1), 25 - 44.

• Neurofeedback Treatment for Pain Associated with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type I; Mark P. Jensen, Caroline Grierson, Veronika Tracy-Smith, Stacy C. Bacigalupi, Siegfried F. Othmer (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (1), 45 - 53.

• Can LENS Neurofeedback Treat Anosmia Resulting from a Head Injury?; D. Corydon Hammond (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (1), 57 - 62.

• EEG Neurofeedback Treatment of Patients with Down Syndrome; Tanju Sürmeli, Ayben Ertem (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (1), 63 - 68.

• Changes in EEG Spectrograms, Event-Related Potentials and Event-Related Desynchronization Induced by Relative Beta Training in ADHD Children; Jury D. Kropotov, Vera A. Grin-Yatsenko, Valery A. Ponomarev, Leonid S. Chutko, Elena A. Yakovenko, Inna S. Nikishena (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (2), 3 - 11.

• Integrating Cognitive Neuroscience Research and Cognitive Behavioral Treatment with Neurofeedback Therapy in Drug Addiction Comorbid with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Conceptual Review; Tato M. Sokhadze, Christopher M. Stewart, Michael Hollifield (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (2), 13 - 44.

• Effects of Electrode Placement Upon EEG Biofeedback Training: The Monopolar-Bipolar Controversy; Lester G. Fehmi, Thomas Collura (2007). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (2), 45 - 63.

• Infrared Imaging and Neurofeedback: Initial Reliability and Validity; Robert Coben, Ilean Padolsky (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (3), 3 - 13.

• Event-Related Potentials Distinguish Fluent and Stuttered Speech; Andre Achim, Claude M. J. Braun, Isabelle Collin (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (3), 15 - 23.

• EEG Spectral Power and Coherence: Differentiating Effects of Spatial–Specific Neuro-Operant Learning (SSNOL) Utilizing LORETA Neurofeedback Training in the Anterior Cingulate and Bilateral Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortices; Rex Cannon, Joel Lubar (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (3), 25 - 44.

• Comprehensive Neurofeedback Bibliography: 2007 Update; D. Corydon Hammond (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (3), 45 - 60.

• Neurofeedback Overtraining and the Vulnerable Patient; Thomas V. Matthews (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (3), 63 - 66.

• Comment on "Neurofeedback Overtraining and the Vulnerable Patient"; Len Ochs (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (3), 67 - 71.

• The Impact of Neurotherapy on College Students' Cognitive Abilities and Emotions; Krista K. Fritson, Theresa A. Wadkins, Pat Gerdes CMSW, David Hof (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (4), 1 - 9.

• Golf Performance Enhancement and Real-Life Neurofeedback Training Using Personalized Event-Locked EEG Profiles; Martijn Arnsc, Michiel Kleinnijenhuisc, Kamran Fallahpour, Rien Breteler (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (4), 11 - 18.

• Comparison of Discrete-Trial-Based SMR and SCP Training and the Interrelationship Between SCP and SMR Networks: Implications for Brain–Computer Interfaces and Neurofeedback; Michiel Kleinnijenhuisc, Martijn Arnsc, Desire Spronkc, Rien Breteler, Jacques Duysens, (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (4), 19 - 35.

• The Improvement of Severe Psychomotor and Neurological Dysfunctions Treated with the Tomatis Audio-Psycho-Phonology Method Measured with EEG Brain Map and Auditory Evoked Potentials; J. Vervoort, M. J. A. de Voigt, W. Van den Bergh (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (4), 37 - 49.

• Practical Joking and Cingulate Cortex: A Standardized Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (sLORETA) Investigation of Practical Joking in the Cerebral Volume; Rex Cannon, Joel Lubar, Jennifer G. Clements, Ellen Harvey, Debora Baldwin (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 11 (4), 51 - 63.

• EEG Biofeedback as a Treatment for Substance Use Disorders: Review, Rating of Efficacy and Recommendations for Further Research; Tato M. Sokhadze, Rex L. Cannon, David L. Trudeau (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (1), 5 - 43.

• Heart Rate Variability Enhancement Through Nanotechnology: A Double-Blind Randomized-Control Pilot Study; Thomas H. Budzynski, Helen K. Budzynski, Karl Maret, Hsin-Yi (Jean) Tang (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (1), 45 - 55.

• First, Do No Harm: Adverse Effects and the Need for Practice Standards in Neurofeedback; D. Corydon Hammond, Lynda Kirk, (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (1), 79 - 88.

• Introduction to Advances in EEG Connectivity; Robert Coben, William J. Hudspeth (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (2/3), 93 - 98.

• Towards a Coherent View of Brain Connectivity; Thomas F. Collura, PE (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (2/3), 99 - 110.

• Connectivity Assessment and Training: A Partial Directed Coherence Approach; David Joffe (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (2/3), 111 - 122.

• Functional Connectivity and Aging: Comodulation and Coherence Differences; David A. Kaiser (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (2/3), 123 - 139.

• EEG Connectivity Patterns in Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Multivariate Application Considering Curvature of Brain Space; Lisa M. Black, William J. Hudspeth, Alicia L. Townsend, Eugenia Bodenhamer-Davis (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (2/3), 141 - 160.

• Connectivity Theory of Autism: Use of Connectivity Measures in Assessing and Treating Autistic Disorders; Robert Coben, Thomas E. Myers (2008). Journal of Neurotherapy, 12 (2/3), 161 - 179.

News & Reviews

Comorbidity as a predictor and moderator of treatment outcome in youth : The most common childhood psychiatric disorders are anxiety disorders, affective disorders, ADHD, and oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder.  ---http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18973971

Motor cortex excitability and co-morbidity in Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome. : Gilles de la Tourette syndrome with ADHD is associated with extensive changes in motor cortex excitatbility.  ---http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18931001

Individual Differences in Typical Reappraisal Use Predict Amygdala and Prefrontal Responses. : Reappraisal was related to decreased amygdala activity and increased prefrontal and parietal activity during processing of negative facial expressions.  ---http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18930182

Psychology and neurobiology of addiction: an incentive-sensitization view. : Sensitized brain systems do not mediate euphoric effects of drugs but instead mediate incentive salience (drug "wanting").  ---http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11002906

Stigma of epilepsy. : One in 4 adults with epilepsy feel socially stigmatized from this condition, fearing rejection and often feeling shame and loneliness.  ---http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18973059

The control and distribution of information has been a primary source of conflict since the dawn of history. The battle rages on to this day, scarcely unchecked, in medical, legal, and scientific fields. Entire careers, many prominent, are based on maintaining the status quo of inequality and inefficiency in these information distribution systems. But the information itself has now grown so vast and so powerful that its distribution can no longer be controlled by a select few. There's a saying on the Net, "Information wants to be free." Recent volleys against the bulwarks of the info-establishment:

CogPrints
http://cogprints.org/
Self-archive papers in psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics, and many areas of Computer Science, Philosophy, Biology, Medicine, Anthropology , and other disciplines relevant to the study of cognition.

arXiv - God's Playground (my nickname for it)
http://xxx.lanl.gov
Open access to 500K+ e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology and Statistics

Behavioral and Brain Sciences
http://www.bbsonline.org/
Interdisciplinary journal of "open peer commentary" in which target articles are interdisciplinary and by nature controversial, encompassing topics from psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and related fields. Prior to publication, articles are circulated to specialists around the world for commentaries, which appear after the target article along with author's response.

Google
http://www.google.com/search?as_filetype=pdf
Search Google's index for PDF files, how most authors maintain their papers on the web. For instance, I found 1,600,000 papers for EEG in this format.

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

Vol. 11 No. 9 - September 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.

Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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Announcements  - News

In the Spotlight     - Journal of Neurotherapy, 1995-2001

News & Reviews - Books & journal papers

Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses

Last Word    - Square roots are hard: Magnitude vs Power 
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 Announcements

Blindsight: How Brain Sees What You Do Not See
High-altitude Climbing Causes Subtle Loss Of Brain Cells And Motor Function
Obesity, Abnormal 'Reward Circuitry' In Brain Linked
Brain-nourishing Molecule May Predict Schizophrenia Relapse
Searching The Internet Increases Brain Function
People With Autism Make More Rational Decisions
Marijuana Use Takes Toll On Adolescent Brain Function
Neurons In Zebrafish May Reveal Clues To The Wiring Of The Human Ear
Memory Improves If Neurons Are New

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/

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In the Spotlight

Journal of Neurotherapy, 1995-2001

   The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein

Below is a part 1 of a list of scientific articles published in the Journal of Neurotherapy. Part 2 will be published in next month's newsletter. JN, as it is abbreviated, was originally self-published, then published by Haworth Press, and now by Taylor and Francis (which acquired Haworth recently). It has taken many years to get back on schedule and only now is JN hitting its publications dates. It is currently index by PsycInfo and other medical/psychological indices, with a goal of be including in Medline after volume 13. Below is a chronological index of its scientific articles, formatted with article title first:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Neurological Basis and Treatment Alternatives; Arreed Barabasz, Marianne Barabasz (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (1), 1 - 10.

Thoughts About the Study of Cognitive-linked Brain Dysfunction Physiology After Mild Closed-head Trauma; Herbert S. Gross (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (1), 11 - 13.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Head Injury; Daniel A. Hoffman, Steven Stockdale, Lana L. Hicks, Jill E. Schwaninger (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (1), 14 - 21.

Neurofeedback Therapy for a Mild Head Injury; Alvah P. Byers (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (1), 22 - 37.

Topographical Brain Mapping in Depression Following Mild Closed Head Injury: A Case Study; Heath A. Demaree, W. David Crews Jr., David W. Harrison (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (1), 38 - 43.

Cognitive Impairment Consistent with Left Fronto-Temporal Abnormality in Schizophrenia Patients; G. Dennis Rains, Kelly Sauer, Carole Kent (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (1), 44 - 47.

A Comparison of EEG Biofeedback and Psychostimulants in Treating Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders; Thomas R. Rossiter, Theodore J. La Vaque, (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (1), 48 - 59.

Positive Outcome with Neurofeedback Treatment in a Case of Mild Autism; Arthur G. Sichel, Lester G. Fehmi, David M. Goldstein (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (1), 60 - 64.

Mathematics Derived Frequency Correlates in Cerebral Function: Theoretical and Clinical Implications for Neurofeedback Treatment; Marvin W. Sams (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (2), 1 - 14.

Gates, States, Rhythms, and Resonance: The Scientific Basis of Neurofeedback Training; Andrew Abarbanel, (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (2), 15 - 38.

EEG Biofeedback: A New Treatment Option for ADD/ADHD; Marabella A. Alhambra, Timothy P. Fowler, Antonio A. Alhambra (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (2), 39 - 43.

Hostility Following Right CVA: Support for Right Orbital Frontal Deactivation and Right Temporal Activation; D. Erik Everhart, David W. Harrison (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (2), 55 - 59.

Neurofeedback and Lyme's Disease: A Clinical Application of the Five Phase Model of CNS Functional Transformation and Integration; Valdeane W. Brown (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (2), 60 - 73.

Neurofeedback: One Instrument in the Orchestra; S. Louise Norris (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (2), 74 - 76.

Human Steady-State Visual and Auditory Evoked Potential Components During a Selective Discrimination Task; Thomas F. Collura(1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (3), 1 - 9.

New Technology: A Biological Understanding of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and its Treatment; David B. Plude (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (3), 10 - 14.

EEG Biofeedback for the Enhancement of Attentional Processing in Normal College Students; Howard Rasey, Joel F. Lubar, Anne McIntyre, Anthony Zoffuto, Paul L. Abbott (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (3), 15 - 21.

EEG Biofeedback in the Treatment of Lyme Disease: A Case Study; Russell C. Packard, Lesley P. Ham (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (3), 22 - 31.

On the Nature of Artifacting the qEEG; Kirtley E. Thornton (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (3), 32 - 39.

Event Related Potentials of Subgroups of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the Implications for EEG Biofeedback; Michael Linden, Richard Gevitz, Robert Isenhart, Todd Fisher (1995). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (3), 40 - 49.

Event Related Potentials of Subgroups of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the Implications for EEG Biofeedback; Michael Linden, Richard Gevitz, Robert Isenhart, Todd Fisher (1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (4), 1 - 11.

A Primer On Clinical Case Study Research In Neurotherapy; Marianne Barabasz, Arreed Barabasz, Neville Blampiedc, FNZPsS (1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (4), 12 - 14.

Single-Case Research Designs For The Science And Practice Of Neurotherapy; Neville M. Blampiedc, Arreed Barabasz, Marianne Barabasz (1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (4), 15 - 26.

Improved Neuronal Regulation in ADHD: An Application of 15 Sessions of Photic-Driven EEG Neurotherapy; Graham J. Patrick (1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 1 (4), 27 - 36.

Quantitative EEG Abnormalities in a Sample of Dyslexic Persons; James R. Evans, Nan-Sook Park (1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (1), 1 - 5.

Neurotherapy and Drug Therapy in Combination for Adult ADHD, Personality Disorder, and Seizure Disorder: A Case Report; Lisa M. Hansen, David L. Trudeau, Dixie L. Grace (1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (1), 6 - 14.

Subthreshold 10-Hz Sound Suppresses EEG Theta: Clinical Application for the Potentiation of Neurotherapy Treatment of ADD/ADHD; Paul G. Swingle(1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (1), 15 - 22.

The FIG (Functional Integrative QEEG) Technique and the Functional Structure of Memory Functioning in Normals and Head Injured Subjects; Kirtley E. Thornton (1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (1), 23 - 42.

Master Zhu; John F. Gilbert, Robert Moroney(1996). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (1), 43 - 49.

Oppositional Children Similar to OCD on SPECT: Implications for Treatment; Daniel G. Amen, Blake Carmichael (1997). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (2), 1 - 6.

PMS, EEG, and Photic Stimulation; David Noton (1997). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (2), 8 - 13.

Treatment of Chronic Anxiety Disorder with Neurotherapy: A Case Study; Joseph E. Thomas, Elizabeth Sattlberger (1997). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (2), 14 - 19.

EEG Patterns and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; Katherine M. Billiott, Thomas H. Budzynski, Frank Andrasik (1997). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (2), 20 - 30.

Quantitative EEG Findings Among Men Convicted of Murder; James R. Evans, Nan-Sook Park (1997). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (2), 31 - 39.

EEG Power Spectral and Coherence Differences Between Attentional States During a Complex Auditory Task; Grant Benham, Howard Rasey, Joel F. Lubar, Jon A. Frederick, A. Charles Zuffuto (1997). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (3), 1 - 9.

The Clinical Use of an Alpha Asymmetry Protocol in the Neurofeedback Treatment of Depression: Two Case Studies; Elsa Baehr, J. P. Rosenfeld, Rufus Baehr (1997). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (3), 10 - 23.

Native Americans, Neurofeedback, and Substance Abuse Theory Three Year Outcome of Alpha/theta Neurofeedback Training of Problem Drinking Among Dine' (Navaho) People; Matthew J. Kelly (1997). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (3), 24 - 60.

Single Channel QEEG Amplitudes in a Bright, Normal Young Adult Sample; Doil D. Montgomery, Jennie Robb, Kimberly V. Dwyer, Samual T. Gontkovsky, (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (4), 1 - 7.

Normative EEG Databases and EEG Biofeedback; Robert W. Thatcher (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (4), 8 - 39.

Treatment Of Dissociative Identity Disorder With Neurotherapy And Group Self-Exploration; Carol Manchester, Tom Allen, Ken H. Tachiki (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (4), 40 - 52.

Patient Directed Neurofeedback for AD/HD; Thomas R. Rossiter (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (4), 53 - 64.

EEG Biofeedback in the Schools The Use of EEG Biofeedback to Treat ADHD in a School Setting; William D. Boyd, Susan E. Campbell (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 2 (4), 64 - 71.

Quantitative Electroencephalographic Correlates of Post-Stroke Depression; Fred A. Ulam, R. Paul Thomlinson, Rodney Quinn, Todd Smith, Theresa Templemeyer (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (1), 1 - 8.

Visual-motor Integration and its Relation to EEG Neurofeedback Brain Wave Patterns, Reading Spelling, and Arithmetic Achievement in Attention Deficit Disordered and Learning Disabled Students; T. Nick Fenger (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (1), 9 - 20.

Performance Enhancement Training Effects on Attention: A Case Study; S. Louise Norris, Ching-tse Lee, Juan Cea, Dmitry Bursgteyn (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (1), 21 - 27.

Frequency Band interaction in ADD/ADHD Neurotherapy; Franklin Ramos (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (1), 28 - 46.

Neurofeedback Training In A Case Of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Sonia Wadhwani, Diane C. Radvanski, Dennis P. Carmody (1998). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (1), 47 - 54.

History of EEG Hans Berger: Psychophysiologist. A Historical Vignette; T. J. LaVaque (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (2), 1 - 9.

Neurofeedback Therapy for ADHD and Related Neurological Disorders; Neil P. Schulenberg (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (2), 10 - 20.

Abnormal QEEG Patterns Associated with Dissociation and Violence; James R. Evans, Suzanne Claycomb (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (2), 21 - 27.

Single Case Study of EEG Asymmetry Biofeedback for Depression: An Independent Replication in an Adolescent; Carolyn Earnest(1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (2), 28 - 35.

Reflexology and Its Effect on the EEG; J. A. Putman, Merle Sunde (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (2), 36 - 41.

Basic Principles, Clinical Applications and Related Fields; Jay Gunkleman , Haworth Continuing Features Submission (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (2), 42 - 43.

Exploratory Analysis: Mild Head Injury, Discriminant Analysis with High Frequency Bands (32-64 Hz) Under Attentional Activation Conditions & Does Time Heal?; Kirtley E. Thornton (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (3/4), 1 - 10.

Academic Performance Enhancement with Photic Stimulation and EDR Feedback; Thomas Budzynski, John Jordy , Helen Kogan Budzynski, Hsin-Yi Tang, Keith Claypoole (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (3/4),11 - 21.

Effects of 18.5 Hz Auditory and Visual Stimulation on EEG Amplitude at the Vertex; Jon A. Frederick, Joel F. Lubar, Howard W. Rasey, Sheryl A. Brim, Jared Blackburn (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (3/4), 23 - 32.

Reading Task and Lambda EEG Activity; Jay Gunkleman (1999). Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (3/4), 35 - 44.

Effect of Neurofeedback on Variables of Attention in a Large Multi-Center Trial; David A. Kaiser, Siegfried Othmer (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (1), 5 - 15.

The Effects of Brief, Eyes-Open Alpha Brain Wave Training with Audio and Video Relaxation Induction on the EEG of 77 Army Reservists; John Putman, (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (1), 17 - 28.

Comparison of Alpha-Theta, Alpha and EMG Neurofeedback in the Production of Alpha-Theta Crossover and the Occurrence of Visualizations; John P. Moore, David L. Trudeau, Paul D. Thuras, Yael Rubin, Herbert StockleyW, Teri DimondW (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (1), 29 - 42.

The Role of Aspirational Ethics and Licensing Laws in the Practice of Neurofeedback; Sebastian ''Seb'' Striefel (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (1), 43 - 55.

Hjorth Referencing in QEEG; Jay Gunkelman (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (1), 57 - 62.

Neurofeedback Equipment Study One- Focused Technology F-1000 Main Board Investigation; Robert Hamilton, Timothy Barnes (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (1), 63 - 70.

Response to Neurofeedback Equipment Study One- Focused Technology F-1000; Frank Deits (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (1), 71 - 72.

Audio-Visual Entrainment Program as a Treatment for Behavior Disorders in a School Setting; Michael Joyce, Dave Siever(2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (2), 9 - 25.

Changes After EEG Biofeedback and Cognitive Retraining in Adults with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Timothy P. Tinius, Kathleen A. TiniusW (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (2), 27 - 44.

Neurofeedback Treatment of Depression with the Roshi; D. Corydon Hammond (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (2), 45 - 56.

QEEG: State of the Art, or State of Confusion; David A. Kaiser (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (2), 57 - 75.

Theoretical Implications of EEG Reference Choice and Related Methodology Issues; J. Peters Rosenfeld (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (2), 77 - 87.

Verification Study on the Focused Technology F1000 Software Update; T. Barnes, R. Hamilton, S. Reed, G. Davis (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (2), 105 - 107.

Response to Verification Study; Frank Deits (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (2), 109 - 109.

EEG Biofeedback Training and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in an Elementary School Setting; Dennis P. Carmody, Diane C. Radvanski, Sonia Wadhwani, Mary Jo Sabo, Linda Vergara (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (3), 5 - 27.

The Effects of Performance Enhancement Training on Hypertension, Human Attention, Stress, and Brain Wave Patterns: A Case Study; S. Louise Norris, Ching-tse Lee, Dmitry Burshteyn, Juan Cea-Aravena (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (3), 29 - 44.

Electrophysiology of Auditory Memory of Paragraphs Towards a Projection/Activation Theory of the Mind; Kirtley E. Thornton (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (3), 45 - 72.

Comodulation: A New QEEG Analysis Metric for Assessment of Structural and Functional Disorders of the Central Nervous System; M. Barry Sterman, David Kaiser (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (3), 73 - 83.

Automatic Artifact Detection, Overlapping Windows, and State Transitions; David A. Kaiser, M. Barry Sterman (2000). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (3), 85 - 92.

What Became of "The Decade of the Brain"; David A. Kaiser (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (4), 5 - 9.

Clinical Use of an Alpha Asymmetry Neurofeedback Protocol in the Treatment of Mood Disorders: Follow-Up Study One to Five Years Post Therapy; Elsa Baehr, J. Peter Rosenfeld, Rufus Baehr (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (4), 11 - 18.

"Delusions" of Space: A Case Study Utilizing Topographical Brain Mapping and QEEG; D. Erik Everhart, Heath A. Demaree, David W. Harrison, John B. Williamson (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (4), 19 - 29.

Low Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA): The Technique, Its Validation, and Methods of Analysis; Roberto D. Pascual-Marqui (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (4), 31 - 33.

Functional Localization and Functional Connectivity with LORETA: Comparison of Normal Controls and First Episode, Drug Naive Schizophrenics; Roberto D. Pascual-Marqui, M. Koukkou, D. Lehmann, K. Kochi (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (4), 35 - 37.

Open Source Method of Graphical QEEG Analysis Using PERL and Visual Basic; Jon Frederick (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 4 (4), 39 - 47.

Applied Research Using Alpha/Theta Training for Enhancing Creativity and Well-Being; Tracy Boynton (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (1/2),5 - 18.

Neurofeedback Therapy of Attention Deficits in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury; Ingo Keller (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (1/2), 19 - 32.

Optimal Functioning Training with EEG Biofeedback for Clinical Populations: A Case Study; Linda A. Mason, Thomas S. Brownback (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (1/2), 33 - 44.

Attention and Neurofeedback Synchrony Training: Clinical Results and Their Significance; J. T. McKnight, L. G. Fehmi (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (1/2), 45 - 62.

Changes in Lateralized Memory Performance in Subjects with Epilepsy Following Neurofeedback Training; M. B. Sterman, DeLee Lantz (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (1/2), 63 - 72.

Pills, Politics, and Placebos; T. J. LaVaque (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (1/2), 73 - 86.

Rethinking Standard Bands; David A. Kaiser (2001). Journal of Neurotherapy, 5 (1/2),87 - 96.
-DK

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News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

 Journeys Through ADDulthood

by Sari Solden A response to how ADHD treatment focuses on overcoming its symptoms rather than leading a fulfilling life. -- www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802713769/eegspectrum

 Awareness Deficit after Brain Injury
by George P. Prigatano
Describes treatment and condition of loss of awareness after TBI -- www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195059417/eegspectrum

 American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Mood Disorders
by Dan J. Stein, David J. Kupfer, AF Schatzberg
Authoritative reference for current information about mood disorders. -- www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158562151X/eegspectrum

 Neuroimaging
by Michael F. Glabus
Two-volume set covers methods and application of various neuroimaging techniques for clinical use and research. -- www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0123668778/eegspectrum

 Addiction and Change: How Addictions Develop and Addicted People Recover
by Carlo C. DiClemente
Paradigm for understanding addictive behavior. -- www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593853440/eegspectrum
 

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JOURNAL PAPERS
Orbitofrontal Dysfunction in Boys With Pure Conduct Disorder : During reward conditions, conduct disorder children show underactivation in the right orbitofrontal cortex, while ADHD showed dysfunction in the posterior cingulate gyrus. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18829871

Aggression after paediatric traumatic brain injury: a theoretical approach. : Children with TBI report more aggression than controls, though this aggression is mostly out of frustration and not to dominate or acquire objects. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18850342

Adolescent insomnia as a risk factor for early adult depression and substance abuse. : Teen insomnia was associated with alcohol and cannabis use, depression; suicide ideation; and suicide attempts. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18853932

Anger style, psychopathology, and regional brain activity. : Trait anger predicts left-biased asymmetry at medial frontal EEG. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18837620

Sleep architecture, cocaine and visual learning. : Authors conclude that treatments directed at sleep could offset physiological consequences of cocaine abstinence. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18855824

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

  Events & Locations Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

* Durham NC Nov 13-16
* Glendale CA Dec 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, Brown University Medical School, 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 - aapb.org Albuquerque, NM Apr 2-4 

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Last Word

Square roots are hard to do: Magnitude vs Power

I was recently asked again, for the 100th time, why EEG researchers traditionally used spectral power instead of just spectral magnitude? Here is my response:

Spectral power refers to the average rhythm amplitude squared. Spectral magnitude is the average rhythm amplitude. I've attempted an intellectual archeology to try to understand why spectral power (which is spectral magnitude squared) is ubiquitous despite its many drawbacks (e.g., non-normality for EEG, sensitivity to epoch length, sensitivity to single outliers):

Prior to 1965, spectral analysis was performed using DFT (cosines and sines). In 1965 the FFT was invented (or rediscovered, according to Gauss fans) by Cooley and Tukey. [Cooley, James W., and John W. Tukey, "An algorithm for the machine calculation of complex Fourier series," Math. Comput. 19, 297–301 (1965).] The FFT is very easy to do, computationally speaking -- no messy floating point multiplication of cosine and sine. The FFT is a mere resorting of time values in such a way as to produce frequency information on the spot, with no further mathematical operations except addition. It was amazingly simple and easy to do for 1965-era computers. After sorting, the FFT gives us the real components and the imaginary components but not the vector between them, which is what we generally are interested in. There is one more step to figuring out vector length between two orthogonal axes, the Pythagorean theorem, which is real squared + imaginary squared = magnitude squared. Magnitude squared is power.

Square roots were and are computationally expensive, so Tukey and Cooley stayed at the squared vector value, partly because they were interested in amplifying outliers, detecting abnormalities generally, and less interested in central tendency of any rhythm. Tukey's work at this time concerned aviation -- wind sheer, wing vibration -- and Cooley's the periodicity of helium and other stuff where outlier detection was key. The first to take the FFT into EEG analysis was Dumermuth and Flühler (1967) and people followed them and Tukey and analyzed spectral power instead of spectral magnitude. Ironically, the first to quantify EEG rhythms (Dietsch, 1932, and Berger soon after) were concerned with spectral magnitude, not power.

But the real issue for power vs magnitude is a scientific one, more than mathematical or statistical. We have two domains of measurement -- brain activity and mental state/clinical symptoms. How do they relate? That is the important question, and generally you'll see that the power transformation to the brain activity makes the correspondence weaker. The psychophysics relationship from world-->brain-->mind is a log-linear one. We compress energies from without, and squaring them at the midpoint of this process makes little sense.

Spectral power has one advantage, besides easy to get mathematically (a^2+b^2 = power), and that is Parseval's theorem, which is a statement of uniformity across transformations, that is keeping the same variance across the entire spectrum. It is a minor advantage, far less important than the empirical correspondence issue above. I believe that we will find in fact that compression of the rhythm amplitude will provide the best correspondence between EEG voltages and clinical conditions and mental states, but that is down the road.

Mean power typically reflects the sum of mean magnitude and its variance. As more people look at variance as a measure of interest, we will get a sequence of magnitude, power, magnitude variance where the middle will be recognized as a composite.

-DK

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• Revealing The Regulating Mechanism Behind Signal Transduction In The Brain
• Mice Missing 'Fear' Gene Slow To Protect Offspring
• Protective Pathway In Stressed Cells Not So Helpful When It Comes To Prions
• Brain Protein Linked To Alzheimer's Disease
• Natural Childbirth Linked To Stronger Baby Bonding Than C-sections
• Inflammatory Response To Infection And Injury May Worsen Dementia
• Signals From Blood Of Mother Enhance Maturation Of Brain

  Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain /

The 16th annual conference of the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research (ISNR) was held in San Antonio, TX Labor Day weekend, 2008. Some of the interesting talks included a peak performance study at Goldsmith's University of London (by Tomas Ros) in which 20 trainee ophthalmic microsurgeons were randomly assigned to either SMR or Alpha-Theta protocols and their skill development was compared to 8 wait-list controls. SMR neurofeedback enhanced surgical technique while considerably reducing time on task by a quarter. Experts ratings improved significantly for overall technique, suture task, task speed, while anxiety during the surgical task decreased. Another interesting talk was by Dirk De Ridder, M.D., Ph.D., titled "An Evolutionary Approach to Brain Rhythms and its Clinical Implications for Brain Modulation." Dirk takes a microgenetic approach to brain function. I love any talk that shows a monotreme, the non-placental egg-laying mammals still alive in Australia, close descendents of our transition from the reptilean-mammalian common ancestor, and Dirk's talk included a monotreme as he presented a model of how volutional aspects of information processing might have emerge evolutionarily, notably in the context of conditioning. He created a useful term, limbic dysrrhythmia, as an adjunct to the slightly better known term, thalamocortical dysrhythmia, to explain tinnitus, his specialty.

The conference opened the first night with three pioneers relating personal warstories of this field's emergence from psychology and medicine. Jay Gunkelman commented, to those of us hanging out in the lobby, it was so painful going through those times, why recount them. But the birth of any science, this being applied psychophysiology, has birth pangs and knowing how we got to the current position is always illuminating. We had a number of technical talks, including M. Barry Sterman, Ph.D., "The SMR Story: Sleep, Motor Regulation, and Memory " and Walter Freeman, M.D., Ph.D., "A Proposal for Combining Measures of Electric, Magnetic, and Chemical Gradients to Optimize Brain Imaging of Large-Scale Activity" in which Freeman argued for the variety of methods being complementary more than supportive, given the different forms of bioelectrical activity they could detect. Roberto Pascual-Marqui, Ph.D.'s talk was "Time-Frequency Components of Brain Connectivity" was a warning of coherence values being inflated by volume conduction and low spatial resolution. (I recommend use of the Laplacian montage for coherence analysis for this exact reason.)

Daniel Hoffman, M.D. reviewed recent research in predicting response to medication with QEEG, and Nicholas Dogris, Ph.D., presented his work on ADHD children and the Low Energy Neurofeedback System (LENS). Estato Sokhadze, Ph.D. presented his work with his colleagues on SMR treatment in cocaine addicts. Jack Johnstone, Ph.D. described his results in using Bispectral Analysis for monitoring dementia and the impact on consciousness. Adam Clarke, Ph.D. examines spectral power and coherence developmental Changes associated with ADHD. There were many other talks, including student presentations, and as a rule of thumb the best information comes from one-to-one discussion in the vendors room or the hotel bar. I will finish with my stuff, which I presented, the stuff I know best, of course:

I discussed how comodulation (spectral magnitude correlation) and coherence (akin to spectral phase correlation) differ conceptually and operationally (the math used), and showed empirical differences in terms of age effects. I also quietly introduced the Periodicity Table, a product of work that should outlive me, being a framework for organizing synchronization within and between signals. That no one recognized its value and (near) eternal nature is simply par for the course in science. As with any good idea ahead of its time, it's ahead of its time. And it's simple -- two strikes against it. And it can accomodate changes -- three strikes. The Periodic Table organizes periodicity into four forms -- temporal, spectral, bispectral, and trispectral. Bispectral refers to comparing two frequencies within the same signal, such as alpha activity vs theta activity in the same single EEG channel, such as what Jack Johnstone was examining. Trispectral is comparing three frequencies at once, like delta to alpha to theta, seeing when they swim together or apart in terms of phase and magnitude. "Trispectral" is also a placeholder term in the table as we need not stop at 3 but can compare any number of frequencies, although practically the number may be small. In other words, I count like some cultures do: 1 followed by 2 followed by many. Actually I count 0, 1, 2, many, and the temporal or 0 frequency stuff refers to aperiodic analyses, non-spectral anlaysis. (The term "spectral" might be called unispectral (one frequency per signal) for this table. The spectral-number is one axis of information, and the other axis of information are how many signals we are looking at, 1, 2, or many again. The "many-sites" analyses compare one channel's output or activity to many others, or all others. I invented what I call Rogue Site Analysis a few years back that does just that: it's a tally of which site is least like all others each moment in time. This was a unispectral/many-site analysis and Rogue Site Analysis is listed in one of the cells in the Periodicity Table as an example for this cell. Periodicity is also further divided by whether time is used in the comparsion (averaged across time vs it changes across time), and also phase and magnitude are delineated (making four axes of information, but I couldn't show a 4-dimensional cube that easier). For more information, the work is in press and can be found at http://www.skiltopo.com/period.htm

All in all, San Antonio was a great time. People who've attended science conferences for 40 years thought it was the best they had attended and they wanted the organizer Les Sherlin to be the permanent conferene organize. The ISNR group is growing larger every year, inflating like the universe, and last stood at over 700 members, which is a healthy number. About 400 attended the conference.

-DK

News Reviews NEW BOOKS

Divorce Casualties: Protecting Your Children from Parental Alienation
by Douglas Darnall
Assistance to parents so that they recognize subtle causes of alienation and are able to minimize damaging effects before divorce permanently impacts a child's mental health. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0878332081/eegspectrum

Fibromyalgia Advocate: Getting the Support You Need to Cope ...
by Devin J. Starlanyl
Dr. Starlanyl, a physician, offers readers a wealth of practical suggestions for dealing with an often skeptical medical establishment and getting the help and support they need for fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572241217/eegspectrum

The Learning Differences Sourcebook
by Nancy S. Boyles, MD, Darlene Contandino
This book identifies and evaluates learning differences and various methods of providing the best home and school environment for a child with a learning difference. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0737300248/eegspectrum

Help Me, I'm Sad: Recognizing, Treating, Preventing Childhood Depression
by David Fassler, Lynne S. Dumas
Authors discuss how to tell if a child is at risk and discusses teen suicide, finding the right diagnosis, therapist, and treatment. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670865478/eegspectrum

Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention: A Developmental Perspective
by John E. Richards
Investigation of how attentional processes emerge in children. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/080582409X/eegspectrum

Journey Toward Complete Recovery: Reclaiming Your Emotional, Spiritual Sexual Wholeness
by Michael Picucci
After someone begins recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, just when they believe the world would be theirs again, many of them feel an emptiness within themselves. Dr. Picucci provides a roadmap to guide the way along the steps to recovery, helping them recognize the way to emotional and spiritual awakening. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1556432860/eegspectrum

Delay and Inhibition as Early Predictors of ADHD Symptoms in 3rd Grade. : Resistance to temptation, delay of gratification, response inhibition, were among those behaviors from 3-6 years of age that predicted latter classification of ADHD. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18787941

Emotional distress and awareness following acquired brain injury: An exploratory analysis. : Emotional distress, associated impaired awareness, associated with brain injury may play a protective role. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18787986

The dynamic brain: from spiking neurons to neural masses and cortical fields. : A review unifying computational models of brain dynamics across micro- to macro-levels of neuronal interactions (cell to EEG). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18769680

Cortical inhibition, working memory and gamma band activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. : In the DLPFC, no direct relationship between GABA(B) receptor activity and gamma band activity were found. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18751565

Long-term anterior thalamus stimulation for intractable epilepsy. : Stimulation of the anterior thalamic nucleus cut seizure frequency in half in 21 cases. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18782952

I created my feedback games to address the needs of my son, who was diagnosed with autism in 2000, who needed to focus outward more appropriately. The games themselves are simple picture completion tasks, of images with or without accompanying words. Most of the games are geared to right brain development, which is sorely lacking in autism and largely ignored in educational curricula. The goal is to reward holistic processing, social processing, and coordination between the two cerebral hemispheres. In grad school I was fortunate enough to fall into the laps of the leading experts of right hemisphere function, Eran Zaidel and Joseph Bogen, and this is a continuation of their work in a way.

My son has had an amazing range of therapies, including EEG operant conditioning, but after 20 or so sessions of EEG rhythm training in 2001, he grew bored with the few feedback games available at the time so I created what I called "Infinite Content for the Autistic Mind," of which a subset are now available for EEGer. Also included in each game set is social auditory feedback, mother, father, and young children vocalizing social reinforcement, such as saying "Good job" in a sweet voice or my daughter saying "That's cheating!" which my autistic son loved to hear the most.

DK Games currently consists of six sets, with each set consisting of 4-6 games. It's focus is right brain development.

1. Emotional Development: Emotional and nonverbal communication through faces, nonthreatening animals, peaceful scenes, and signs of intergenerational synchrony in both humans and animals.
2. Right Brain Exercise: Visual perception and arbitrary semantic divisions.
3. Perception Exercise: Role of color, resolution, novelty, and form stability in perception.
4. Serenity: The extremely vast, the infinitesimal, and the verbal freedom in between.
5. Games for Adult: Math problems, Stroop task, visual and verbal perception
6. Games for Kids Animals, bugs, and household items.

Further descriptions are online at http://www.neurocybernetics.com/support/Download/NEWdkgames.html and example images, http://start.eegspectrum.com/dkgames/ but here are a few

Name that Emotion

Whatzit? Guess what you are looking at before all six panels are shown

Where's Wanda (the butterfly) in the Animal Kingdom - find her!

More info, see https://secure.eegspectrum.com/Secure/Catalog/

-David A Kaiser, MFA, PhD

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

Vol. 11 No. 7 - July 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc., the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.  Past issues are available at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/  To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom. Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.  Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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Announcements  - News

In the Spotlight     - Mindshare

News & Reviews - Books & journal papers

Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses

Last Word    - William James' words 
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 Announcements

Direct Gaze Enhances Face Perception
Towards Zero Training For Brain-computer Interfacing
Mechanism Behind Cocaine Craving Identified
Cocaine-induced Synaptic Plasticity Linked To Persistent Addictive Behaviors
Molecular Switch Boosts Brain Activity Associated With Schizophrenia
Sleep Selectively Preserves Emotional Memories
Infant Sensitivity To Negative Emotional Expressions Develops At Around 6 Months
'Erasing' Drug-associated Memories May Stop Drug Addiction Relapses
Sensitivity To Antidepressants Linked With TrkB-mediated Neural Proliferation

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/

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In the Spotlight

Mindshare

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery/None but ourselves can free our minds. --B Marley

I discovered of late that my autistic child was undergoing the Forbidden Experiment at his special ed school. His primary aid told me she always shut down his talk about videogames and the Internet -- wouldn't tolerate it at all -- and she was proud of this clamping down on his interests and mindshare. She thought it best to instruct him unidirectionally, and they isolated him from his peers. Imagine if you grew up in a one-room school where it was just you and the teacher and the other children were kept away for most of the day. Now add a Yahweh-like experience of oneself to the picture, because an autistic mind is closer to God's form of thought than our own. The oneness. God is one (or alone, depending upon your translation from Hebrew). Recall the early Old Testament tantrums in response to misunderstanding or slights and you have much of my boy's behavior. But unlike some autistic children, his language skills are reasonably well developed, although his social habits are immature, partly due to the social deprivation. He is nearly a Nim Chimpsky, as his teacher refuse to entertain even for a moment his take of the world, which is like most boys his age, prevaded by videogames. To understand Nim Chimpsky and the Forbidden Experiment, see http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/nov2005.htm#section1. Would it have been so hard to find what interests the child and organize class lessons around it? His five year old brother can read well above his years because he was motivated to do so. Navigating menu screens and chat bubbles in "Adventure Quest" and other videogames had to be understood if he were to win these challenges. We all are guilty of Nimming our kids, and friends, and coworkers at times. We cannot always follow our kids' interests and conversations about various "bosses" or "fiends" or "magic swords" from their games. To keep sane in our busy and demanding society, we are all guilty of Nimming others and ignoring their intentions wholesale, if only for a moment or an hour.

All social animals are predisposed to convey their intentions to others, and autistic children are not an exception. Ochs & Schieffelin (1984) believe that a child learns his parents' language in order to communicate his intentions, to assist himself in his or her enterprises. Simplification of the "puzzle" of language -- speaking parentese to a child, with pitch and elongation to help one communicate -- may be advantageous, but simplification in itself will not motivate a child to learn. The child must have something at stake. The child, in short, has a personal investment in the acquisition of language. The sooner s/he can communicate clearly and effectively, the sooner s/he can reap the benefits of his culture (i.e., life as a social organism).

According to Catherine Snow (1979), the role of social input is to assist the child in language acquisition. In middle-class America, mothers, other adults, even young children, will accomodate the child. For instance, mothers often expand the child's utterances to assist learning of syntax; they adopt the child's point of view to communicate primarily relevant semantic information, and let the child's behavior direct the conversation, etc. Snow emphasizes the mother's effort to communicate with the child, This study may be ethnologically biased, however Ochs and Schieffelin studied children in two different cultures (in Samoa and Kaluli) where adults did not need perform such accomodating measures. They found that a culture's ideology about language plays an important role in shaping the interactions of caregiver and child. In Samoa and in Kaluli, the primary role of the caregiver is not to sssist the children in the acquisition of language, as Snow implies; the role of the caregiver is to socialize the children. The interactions of caregiver and child reflect that culture's social order and customs.

A child's social reality propels him or her to learn language. Cultures are so complex and conventional and absolutely necessary for human survival, a child learns to speak as a means to cope with such a vast and complex environment. The acquisition of language represents a step toward social mastery. Ochs and Schieffelin argue that it is the child's efforts to communicate with others that underlies language acquisition. Specific social acts, such as drawing other's attention to an object or requesting, emerge prior to language acquisition. Language develops out of the need to communicate. Children acquire linguistic forms, not from maturational influences alone, but according to his or her specific culture's insistence and preferences for those forms. In Kaluli, children are encouraged to engage in begging behavior, for example, and do not engage in labeling. Consequently, the child's first nominal form is an affected pronoun like "poor-me". Children from middle-class America often engage in games of labeling with a caregiver and their first nominal forms occur during these acts. In short, social and cultural norms constrain and adapt the child's predisposition to acquire language.

Bates (1975) discovered that second children, twins, and institutionalized children may learn language more slowly than children whose input comes mainly from adults. In America, adults accomodate their speech so as to be more relevant to a child. Younger peers are more egocentric and less likely to alter their speech so as to help younger children understand. Although it is not proven that semantically relevant speech is crucial for normal language development, it is advantageous -- which makes me wonder about cultures such as Samoa and Kaluli which do not accomodate the disadvantaged child. Do these children develop the same level of empathy and self-appreciation and self-esteem as children reared in a more accomodating households? Could a child's cognitive development be affected by lack of accomodation, for better or for worse? Although Ochs & Schieffelin report that Samoan and Kaluli children reach a similar level of linguistic expertise as their Western counterparts, this difference in customs between cultures might help explain the differences between our cultures. A culture where adults adapt their behaviors to suit less able members may internalize the social bond in those members; that is, the assisted individuals may want to conform to society in order to repay such kindnesses and understanding. Such accomodations may go unnoticed, and probably prolong egocentrism, resulting in greater mental illness and maladaptations to society, but a strong internalization of the social bond may reap greater benefits for all. A child who believes that others (e.g., his mother) share his perspective, or adapt to him, may be more motivated to share his future successes on those around him, than individuals reared in a culture which paid little notice to his difficulties and forced him as a child to adapt to it.

Infants are not only biologically predisposed to language acquisition, but appear to be biologically predisposed to socializing forces, such as eye gaze, vocalizations, body alignment. It might be the biological predisposition in an infant for socialization, more than the capacity for language, which provides the necessary impetus for language acquisition. A child must of course be genetically predisposed for phonemic parsing and other language processes, but the social environment canalizes these predispositions, providing it form and reason for its development. Ochs & Schieffelin's and Snow's views are reconcilable on the level of pragmatics. Language is acquired through conversation. A child and mother (others) want to convey intentions to the other individual. Language acquisition serves a social need. Without the desire and need for such elaborate communication between individuals, language and its acquisition would be an empty, unrewarding puzzle.

In other words, it is the force of connection which drives language acquisition. We ought to assess this force and identify possible impediments to social connection when working with language deficits. Language processing deficits may be mired in social problems, especially those skills developed in the right cerebral hemisphere (emotional tone, pragmatics, and other social aspects of communication). Treating language problems requires us to unNim the other, to share their mind, not just our own. Language is a class without teachers, where all students are teachers, Mindshare 101.

-DK

P.S. I have my own personal story of language acqusition that is culturally driven. I never learned to say my "r"s correctly -- my /ahhhs/ -- because few within 100 miles of my development spoke any "r"s except to end words like "idears" (Boston area). I underwent speech therapy in 1st grade and perfected the "pl" sound of play and "th" sound of three -- both had given me trouble -- but my tutors never corrected the absence of "r" in my speech because, to them, its presence was optional at best.

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News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

 Divorce Casualties: Protecting Your Children from Parental Alienation
by Douglas Darnall
Assistance to parents so that they recognize subtle causes of alienation and are able to minimize damaging effects before divorce permanently impacts a child's mental health. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0878332081/eegspectrum

 The Human Frontal Lobes: Functions and Disorders
by BL Miller, JL Cummings
Role of frontal lobe dysfunction in psychiatric disorders is explored for schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, antisocial behavior, and other conditions. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572303905/eegspectrum

 Reducing the Risks for Substance Abuse: A Lifespan Approach
by RP Daugherty CG Leukefeld
In response to failues of "zero-tolerance" approach, a dynamic alternative "the Lifestyle Risk Reduction Model" is suggested that reshapes accepted alcohol and drug premises, messages, and strategies to make them relevant throughout the entire lifespan. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0306458993/eegspectrum

 Alternative Medicine Guide to Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia and Environmental Illness
by Burton Goldberg
Provides medical, anatomical, biological, nutritional and chemical explanations of symptoms and causes of CFS and related disorders, with recommendations for recovery. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1887299114/eegspectrum

 Fathering the ADHD Child: A Book for Fathers, Mothers, and Professionals
by Edward H. Jacobs
According to this clinical psychologist, fathers and mothers often view their ADHD child very differently, leading to common misunderstandings, and to fathers and mothers feeling misunderstood and failing to work together. The author discusses the discrepancy in order to enrich the parenting team to benefit the ADHD child. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765700689/eegspectrum 
 
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JOURNAL PAPERS

Subjective and objective measures of sleep in children with ADHD : Children with ADHD have less sleep, which is more disturbed, and more problematic behaviors on the parental reports. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18693137

Prevalence of chronic pain after traumatic brain injury : Prevalence of chronic pain was greater in patients with mild TBI (75%) and occurs independent of depression, PTSD, or other psychologic disorders. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18698069

Spiritual direction in addiction treatment: Two clinical trials. : Spiritual guidance had no effect on spiritual practices or substance use outcomes at follow-up. In fact at one followup, more improvement was seen for depression and anxiety in the controls. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18657945

Method of double feedback for stress-induced functional disorders : Voluntary reduction/activation of EEG components via biofeedback was complemented by a resonance stimulation approach to help the individual overcome difficulties of conscious control of feedback. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18689250

White-matter hyperintensities in first-episode psychosis. : White-matter hyperintensities (WMH) have been associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but this study found no associated with vulnerability to psychosis and WMH. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18700214

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

  Events & Locations Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

-Cleveland OH Oct 16-19
-Durham NC Nov 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, Brown University Medical School, 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 - www.isnr.org           San Antonio, TX            Aug 28-Sep 1 

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 Last Word

William James' words

William James (1842–1910) was an influential philosopher and America's first psychologist, as well as brother of famed author Henry James. He was trained as a medical doctor, as many empirical philosphers are, and he wrote a series of influential works known by nearly all psychologists, "The Principles of Psychology" and "The Varieties of Religious Experience." Here is some of his wisdom in packets:
--
A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

Belief creates the actual fact.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not.

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

I will act as if what I do makes a difference.

If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.

If you want a trait, act as if you already have the trait.

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.

Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

Time itself comes in drops.

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate someone else's type of thinking.

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one's being added to that being.

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.

Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.

Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

Wisdom is learning what to overlook.

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.

Truth is what works.

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

Vol. 11 No. 6 - June 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals.  

Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

Announcements        - News

In the Spotlight     - Dominant Hemisphere Identification

News & Reviews       - Books & journal papers

Events & Locations   - Conferences, Courses

Last Word            - Bogen and Consciousness 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Announcements

-Alzheimer's Drug May Help Mild Memory Loss, Imaging Study Suggests
-Brain Plays Key Role In Appetite By Regulating Free Radicals
-Traumatic Response To Bad Memories Can Be Minimized
-Multiple Sclerosis: New MRI Contrast Medium Enables Early Diagnosis In Animal Model
-Data Mining Detects Signs Of Lou Gehrig's Disease In Gene Carriers Long Before Symptoms Appear
-Drug Has Potential To Prevent Alcoholics From Relapsing
-Aging Impairs The 'Replay' Of Memories During Sleep
-Autopsies Reveal Changes To DNA In Major Depression And Suicide
-MicroRNA Implicated As Molecular Factor In Alcohol Tolerance
-Brain Tweak Lets Sleep-deprived Flies Stay Sharp
-Cocaine Addiction Linked To Voluntary Drug Use And Cellular Memory

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/

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

In the Spotlight

Dominant Hemisphere ID

   Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world. - Arthur Schopenhauer -

Of the 19 electrodes in the 10-20 electrode placement system (Jasper, 1958), 8 are on the left hemisphere, 8 on the right hemisphere, and 3 are down the midline, but in terms of function, is my C4 your C4?

By this I mean, is activity of my right motor strip (the cortex under site C4, the brain area which controls my left hand and other body parts) equivalent to the activity of your right motor strip? If you're left handed, you surely control your left hand better than I and the activity below C4 will be different than mine, more organized, perhaps less intense, less busy, not all over the place like mine, especially when I try to dribble with my left hand or make a lay-in from this side of the basketball court.

Electrode site F7 lies over or near Broca's area, the cortical tissue involved in speech motor programs for most people. Its homologue, site F8, over the right-brain analog to Broca's area, does very little in terms of speech execution and mostly gets activated in perspective taking and deception detection. In laterality research we talk about "hemisphere dominance" which is shorthand for which cerebral hemisphere houses the speech centers, which side is Broca's area on. Wherever speech lies, so do most language functions, especially those hard-core linguistic elements such as grapheme-phoneme conversion (i.e., converting letter strings into sounds), syntax, function words, as well as abstract and infrequent words. Knowing the location of a person's speech center tells us whether we should analyze activity at site F7 during language processing or whether we ought to relocate the electrode to the other side (F8) to overhear the electric chatter given out by Broca. In the latter cases we call the brain's organization atypical, and we must recognize it as such, especially when we compare individuals to a normative neuroimaging database.

Verbal functions are typically housed in the left hemisphere (LH) and non-verbal functions such as spatial and emotional processes in the right hemisphere (RH). One of the most telling signs of atypical brain organization is one's handedness, especially its degree.

Rasmussen & Milner (1977), a famous study of hemisphere dominance using the Wada (sodium amytal) test, determined that speech occurred in the LH for 96% of right handers and in the RH in 1 out of every 25 right-handers. In left handers, the pattern was different: 7 out of 10 had speech centers in the LH, instead of 96%, and 15 % had speech localized to the RH (as opposed to 4%) and confusing the picture more, the remaining 15% had speech divided across the hemispheres, with spontaneous speech in one brain and naming in the other. Of course the problem with assuming these percentages map to the general population is that they were not derived from the general population, but came from epileptic patients who had one hemisphere, then the other, pharmacologically knocked out via carotid injection in the process of undergoing brain surgery for seizure management. Many of these patients would be expected to have atypical brain organization due to their history.

A better population to compare to healthy adults are those who acquired speech problems randomly from the environment. We can thank WWII for this next set of data. More than 220 WWII British dysphasics (poor speakers) after unilateral damage were studied by Annett, who determined that of those right handed soldiers, 94% had a left-sided lesion and of the left-handers, 67% had a left-sided lesion, nearly the same results of the Wada research. Zangwill (1967) looked at brain injury in general and determined that of those who were right handed and suffered a left-sided lesion were aphasia 57% of the time but only 3% of the time when the lesion was right-sided. For lefties, a left-sided lesion produced aphasia in 54% of patients but a right-sided lesion produced aphasia in 31% of patients. These numbers are harder to pull together because the direction of investigation is reverse of the previous studies (Zangwill looked at who had lesions first, then who had speech problems), but if you do the math, righties were 20 times more likely to have speech centered in the LH and lefties were more like 2:1 odds, which is what the other researchers determined as well.

Recent research by Knecht et al. (2000) used an fMRI machine to assess healthy adults and they determined a simple function between handedness and direction of language dominance, see http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/123/12/2512 In this work, handedness was assessed by the Edinburgh Inventory (Oldfield, 1971), which ranges from –100 for strong left-handedness to +100 for strong right-handedness (see below). As it turns out, the likelihood of right language dominance is the following function: 15 percent minus one's handedness percent divided by 10.

Here is a handedness questionnarie you can use, based on Oldfield (1971) and Annett (1970), to compute the likelihood that a client's F7 is actually F8, and vice versa.

With which hand do you...

Write
Draw
Throw a ball
Strike a match
Use scissors
Use a toothbrush
Use a spoon
Use a knife (without a fork)
Use to hold a hammer to strike a nail
Use a broom (upper hand, before tiring)
Deal cards

Score as follows: Always Left (-10), Mostly Left (-5), Either (0), Mostly Right (+5) and Always Right (+10).

Add up the score to the ten questions and that is his or her handedness index. Take this value, which is my case is +100, and compute the probability of atypical (right brain) language dominance. In my case it is 15 percent minus 100 score divided by 10 which equals 5 percent. So if 20 Davids existed, only one would likely have his brain on backwards.

These researchers had an fMRI machine available and although access to bulky machinery is always fun, most of us need quick inexpensive means for assessment brain typicality. Here are two simple and easy techniques:

Assessment #1: Competitive motor task. Have a person tap their finger on the keyboard while they perform a mental operation that is known to be housed in one hemisphere, such as speech or computation. First run a baseline: have the person tap his or her pointer finger of each hand for a minute each. Once the baselines are collected, have the individual perform the designated unihemispheric task while tapping each hand's pointer finger. Compare baseline rate of each hand to task rate and whichever hand suffered the most proportionally from baseline, we assume the contralateral hemisphere was performing the primary task (math, language, etc), to explain the motor performance decline.

For example, I start with my right pointer finger, tap tap tap for a minute as fast as I can any key on the keyboard: rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, then I do the same with the left hand pointer finger.... lllllllllllllll... Using a PC makes counting easy, but this task can be done without any equipment except a timepiece. After I complete my baseline, now I am asked to do an ongoing math task, such as count backwards by 7s from 300 while tapping with my right pointer finger .....rrrrrrrrr .... and then count backwards from 400 by 7s while tapping with my left pointer ... llllllllllll...

Let's assume my right hand baseline tapping rate was 100 taps per minute, and my right-hand task-rate dropped to 60 taps per minute during the counting. This is a 40% decline. Compare this decline with my left hand, which might have a slow baseline of 50 taps per minute but which was nearly matched by the task-rate of 45 during counting, for only a 10% decline. So now I know that the hemisphere that controls my right hand also performs my mathematical computations, and as my right hand is controlled by my LH, so is my math processing (computation).

We can run the same technique again while I visualize objects in my kitchen to test spatial skills, or while I name emotions on the faces of people on TV, etc.

Assessment #2: Lateralized eye movements (LEM). Brain function typicality can be observed in the eye movement we make while thinking. When you ask a person to give three words that are similar to "moving" or "intelligence" or ask them to define "impish," you should task the verbal brain and see it momentarily squash the incoming right visual field so as not to be distracted by perceptual information while it is working. A leftward eye movement means the LH is working hard (its right visual field is squashed), and a rightward movement from your perspective (not theirs) means the RH is working hard. The same range of functions can be tested with LEMs as with competitive motor tasks, spatial to emotional to verbal to math processes. Be warned that LEMs are often quick and subtle, but in many they are obvious. But above all do not inform the person being assessed that you are observing their eye movements -- use a video camera if you must -- else you may get them self-conscious of these movements and they'll stop or go in all directions.

-DK

Selected references:

S. Knecht, B. Dräger, M. Deppe, L. Bobe, H. Lohmann, A. Flöel, E.-B. Ringelstein and H. Henningsen (2000). Handedness and hemispheric language dominance in healthy humans Brain, 123, 2512-2518.

Oldfield RC. The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 1971; 9: 97–113.[

Rasmussen T, Milner B. The role of early left-brain injury in determining lateralization of cerebral speech functions. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1977; 299: 355–69.
 

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News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

 Chemical Dependence Treatment Documentation Sourcebook
by James R. Finley, Brenda S. Lenz
Sourcebook to free addiction treatment professionals to spend more of their time and energy helping clients instead of "re-inventing the wheel" on admininstrative and documentation tasks. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471312851/eegspectrum

Perceptual Neuroscience: The Cerebral Cortex
by Vernon B. Mountcastle
The cerebral cortex, occupying over 70 percent of our brain mass, is key to any understanding of the workings and disorders of the human brain.

--http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674661885/eegspectrum

 The Prozac Alternative: Natural Relief from Depression ...
by Ran Knishinsky
Knishinsky explores a range of subjects from depression, herbs and the health food industry, prescription drugs, St. John's wort, homeopathy, kava, and more.

--http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0892817917/eegspectrum

 Rehabilitation of the Adult & Child with Traumatic Brain Injury
by M Rosenthal, JS. Kreutzer, ER Griffith, MR Bond (Eds)
Resource for clinicians and students in health care and related professions; includes substantial pediatric section. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0803603916/eegspectrum

 The A.D.D. Book: New Understandings, New Approaches to Parenting...
by William Sears, Lynda Thompson
Sears and Thompson offer parents dealing with an ADD child an effective choice for treatment in neurofeedback and a refreshingly positive, supportive way for such parents to contemplate their challenging children. They emphasize qualities such as creativity, spontaneity, focus, and high energy in ADD children. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316779385/eegspectrum
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JOURNAL PAPERS
Psychiatric disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders: prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors : Autism spectrum disorders are a major public health concern because of early onset, lifelong persistence, and high impairment. 70% of children with ASD have comorbidites, the most common being social anxiety disorder, ADHD, & ODD. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18645422

Perceived sleep quality of psychiatric patients. : More than one-third of psychiatric patients perceived a sleep problem, and two-thirds are assessed as being 'bad sleepers'. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18638206

Right anterior cingulate cortical volume covaries with respiratory sinus arrhythmia magnitude in combat veterans. : Respiratory sinus arrhythmia magnitude was correlated with right but not left hemisphere ACC volume, regardless of PTSD diagnosis. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18629753

Neurobiology of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. : ADHD involves catecholaminergic hypofunction. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18644740

Neural mechanisms underlying the vulnerability to develop compulsive drug-seeking habits and addiction. : The transition from controlled to compulsive drug seeking may reflect a shift from prefrontal to striatal control over drug-seeking. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18640910

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

Events & Locations Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

  Glendale CA, Aug 7-10
  Cleveland OH Oct 16-19
  Durham NC Nov 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, Brown University Medical School, 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 - www.isnr.org         San Antonio, TX          Aug 28-Sep 1 

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

 Last Word

Bogen and Consciousness

Until investigators of consciousness give up the belief in conscious singularity they will be looking at the structure of their own preconceptions, rather than the physiological activities subserving consciousness. - JE Bogen

I was fortunate enough to take the graduate level class "Consciousness" by the late Joseph Bogen, the neurosurgeon involved in the split-brain patient series of California and research colleague of Roger Sperry, and I was recently reading a book about Julian Jaynes and his take on consciousness which mentioned Joe so I dug into my personal archive and found out what Joe taught me. Much of what he taught me I have since taken as my own, which is what any good student should do. His Consciousness course was rather neurobiological in nature, as you can see by this opening statement:

"Explaining consciousness physiologically begins by recognizing that the meanings of "consciousness" have in common (as their intersection, see figure) a crucial core here called C, also called subjectivity, awareness, consciousness-as-such, or consciousness per se. A sharp distinction is made between the property C and the contents of consciousness, partial loss of which is typical of cerebro-cortical lesions. The neuronal mechanism producing C also acts as an attention-action coordinator, hence must have widespread connectivity. These requirements are best met by the thalamic intralaminar nuclei (ILN). Although large lesions elsewhere leave C undisturbed, quite small bilateral lesions in ILN engender immediate unresponsiveness. This combination of anatomic and neurologic evidence is bolstered by a variety of physiologic evidence leading to the ocnclusion that further study of the ILN, and their interactions with lower centers as well as cerebral cortex, are most apt to yield a better understanding of consciousness." - JE Bogen

Before he died on April 22, 2005, Joe spent many hours in bed undergoing kidney treatments and the autumn before his passing he passed the time by watching the World Series. He told me he thought of me often as he watched the Red Sox win the World Series as he knew I was a Red Sox nation fanatic, then as now. For his class he made us read the classic works on the neuroscience of consciousness, summarize them, then comment on them. He asked aloud how he was to grade us and I mentioned how another neuroscience professor gave all his graduate students A's if they attended -- he loved that idea an gave everyone in the class an A on the spot. That way we could learn without pressure, I think he said.

Joe asked us to summarize papers and here is my initial salvo, precocious and a slightly arrogant. Joe later taught us how he believed all thalamic creatures possesses consciousness, which is slightly different than what I would call "self-consciousness" or verbal consciousness.

H. W. Magoun (1952) demonstrates the abilities of a cellular aggregation or system in the brainstem of cats which is involved in arousing a creature from sleep, a mesencephalic lesion of afferent paths leaves a cat behaviorally normal -- attentive wakeful, able to sleep and subsequently be aroused by loud noises, etc; but lesions of the ascending reticular activation system (ARAS) at the same level result in an unconscious state for the creature, resembling deep sleep (large slow waves and sleep spindles in EEG record). Decerebellation or decortication does not change the ARAS role in behavior. The author suggests that the ARAS is important fur both facilitating motor behavior and maintaining the "central alertness" of the waking state.
This is useful and groundbreaking work for localizing what initiates conscious (wakeful) activity in the brain, As this paper relates to the course's title, one could promote the ARAS as the foundation of consciousness. However, one must be careful with the term consciousness (which Magoun avoided) -- it is one of the most slippery and difficult terms in neuroscience (and philosophy) to define. If consciousness is defined as alertness or reactivity to stimuli, then bacteria in my stomach possess consciousness; as the state of a normal brain when a creature can direct its own actions purposefully, then most multi-organism have some form of consciousness. The phyloyeny of consciousness is an exciting issue in science, complete with its own set of traps. Jaynes (1976) defines consciousness as a post- linguistic, post-historic invention, a metaphor or system of principles acquired by humans to organized their experience (consciousness, or mental behavior, which is private, conjoined to bodily behavior, which is public). If consciousness is defined as self-recognition, self-representation, or metacognitive skills, it may be attributable to other primates In this case, the behavior and mechanisms of the frontal lobes and other higher cortical regions may be the tip of the iceberg where we can find the origins of that class of behaviors which we call conscious.

Joe dropped a load of visual and attentional neurobiology on us, to soften us up.

Livingstone & Hubel (1988) examined the parvo- and magnocellular systems of vision which revealed two independent and distinct systems of visual perception, which can be detected in perception experiments in humans. The parvo system possesses color sensitivity, low contrast sensitivity, slow temporal resolution, and high spatial resolution; whereas the magno system possesses no color sensitivity, high contrast sensitivity, fast temporal resolution, and low spatial resolution. They assume the parvo-temporal lobe system is suited for visual identification and association and the magno- parietal lobe system is suited for determining the position of objects.

Skinner & Yingling (1977) summarized three types of bioelectric events in the cortex which are related to attention: EEG desynchronization of 8-12 Hz, EPs with larger amplitudes, and a negative slow potential shift, prominently in the frontal cortical regions. The authors conclude that interactions of the MRF (mesoencephalic reticular formation, a new name for the ARAS of Magoun, above) and the mediothalamic frontal cortex system (MTFCS) regulated by the thalamic reticular nucleus (RTN) are involved in all three of these indicators. The MRF and MTFCS behave complementarily. The MTFCS is inhibitory in nature, modality specific, with relatively short effect; its function appears to be to keep orienting reactions under control by selectively inhibiting the ascent of irrelevant sensory stimuli. The MRF is phylogenetically older, excitatory in nature, is not modality specific, and functions more diffusely. Together, with the regulatory capacity of RTN, they act as a highly selective gating mechanisms for what is and is not attended to by higher cortical systems in the animal.

For Yingling & Skinner (1977), RTN is strategically positioned to influence nearly all thalamic and cortical activities. Most of RTN axons project back upon the thalamus, suggesting that it plays a regulatory role on the de/activation of these nuclei. Experiments suggest that it functions as a topographically organized inhibitory feedback mechanism that can control all patterns of input to the cortex from all thalamic nuclei. By regulating the effect of MRF and MTFCS inputs, RTN can selectively delegate and suppress attention to events in the world.

(I still use this model, and this is why distance between cortical sites play no influence in inhibitory rhythms, i.e., coherence and comodulation.)

Schiebel and Schiebel (1966) examine the organization of the NRT using Golgi staining techniques. Evidence from degeneration studies after cortical lesions indicated that the NRT may be the site of final common pathway neurons in the projection of the thalamic non-specific system upon the cortex. The present study finds no evidence for this; instead, they find in 90% of the cases studied that the main axon turns caudally and penetrates the thalamus where it continues on to the mesencephalic tegmentum. Of those neurons whose connections travel rostrally, most or all terminate within the corpus striatum and not the cortex. These findings undermine early speculations as to the role of the NRT; and they conclude that the NRT modulates all ongoing thalamic activity, as well as mediating interactions between the thalamus and cortex.

Hubel (1988) describes the neural organization of vision in the primary visual cortex and how it was discovered. Cortical cells with varying receptive fields may be simple cells which act as line or edge detectors without regard to orientation, complex cells which are orientation-specific in response, and may possess directional sensitivity as well. End stopping cells are also sensitive to relative lengths of stimuli, responding preferentially to edges with certain lengths over others. Spatial summation of effects of cortical cells exist, as well as antagonism, which enables more complex cells to act selectively. Hubel presents a number of simple and logical models of cellular interaction to explain these different natures. Also, visual centers evolved primarily to detect and decipher moving objects, so they must now rely on saccades and microsaccades -- movements of the eyes -- for examination of stimuli which is stationary in the world.

We left neuroscience of consciousness for speculations on our final day of class. One of the speculations about consciousness to this day has to do with machines:

Turing (1950) considers the question "Can machines think?", which was brought to the fore with the invention of digital computers. Our brain is biochemical, a carbon-based physical system, but the question Turing wonders is whether a mind may exist in geochemistry, a non-carbon based physical system. Different objections exist against this possibility -- some theological, some ethical, other stem from mathematical impossibilities or the undefinable nature of consciousness or simply the problem of a continuous state being respresented in a discrete state system. While it's true that a machine can have a syntactical relationship with the world, no one has proven it can have a semantic relationship with the world. According to John Searle, Turing's consideration falls short here. Searle's argument -- known as the Chinese Room argument -- falls short because he never accounted for the electric bill. This is a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that we have a conscious mind because it serves our survival, our goals to exist, but if a computer has all its needs met, it need not develop a semantic understanding of the world. Only when the objects of the world impact its existence will consciousness emerge.

Here is Joe's website -- from consciousness to split-brain research to creativity, http://www.its.caltech.edu/~jbogen/

-DK

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

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

Vol. 11 No. 5 - May 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals. Past issues are available at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/   To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom. Opinions reflect those of the author only. Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Announcements      - News
In the Spotlight        - Conversations between a Physicist and a Neuroscientist.
News & Reviews       - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word                   - Still Waiting for V
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Announcements / News

-How Ritalin Works In Brain To Boost Cognition, Focus Attention
-Automated MRI Technique Assists In Earlier Alzheimer's Diagnosis
-Kids Connect Alcohol Odors With Mom's Emotions
-Alzheimer's Disease As Case Of Brake Failure?
-'Directed Thinking' Increases Time Spent Exercising
-Anti-inflammatory Drug Blocks Brain Plaques
-Men Share Their Creative Work Online More Than Women
-Researchers To Simulate And Analyze Brain, Immune System Activity
-Better Tools Needed For Assessing Infant Pain
-Hurried Doctor Visits May Leave Patients Feeling Forgetful
-Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Spotlight

Conversations between a Physicist and a Neuroscientist.

    "Welcome to the fallout - lyric"

A year ago I struck up a conversation with an Indian physicist who posted a few papers of interest in the arXiv, a preprint repository for physicists, mathematicians, and other curious beings. The physicist's name was Moninder, Moni for short, and he talked about publishing a book in India with a chapter called "Conversations between an Indian Physicist and an American Neuroscientist" based on our correspondence. We wrote about math, physics, and consciousness primarily -- here are selected messages relevant to this newsletter.

Let's listen in...

Here is the polite introductory remarks:

Dear Dr. David Kaiser, Thank you for your email, and comments. I will have to read your paper, while brief and interesting, a few more times, to fully comrehend its import. I have attached one of my new papers on Godel's incompleteness theorem, and transfinite cardinal numbers. -Regards, Moninder

Moni: " I have been told that EEG of a very experienced meditator lady, in a recording in some university in USA, showed sustained delta activity, with eyes open - even during mental processes such as adding numbers!"

David: Alpha (and theta) are rhythms generated by the thalamocortical network. (Theta is also reptilian -- i.e., hippocampal, but this theta cannot be measured at the scalp, presumably, though some animal researchers get confused on the point). Alpha (8-12 Hz or so) is the rate of RTN firing. The RTN is a sheath of cells surrounding most of the thalamus, controlled locally, but with distal control by the frontal lobes of the cortex. When the frontal lobes want to eliminate sensory info, they activate the RTN to shut down the sensory streams coming in from the thalamus. This is the alpha rhythm.

Delta is the cortex chattering among itself, running on its own, unhindered by subcortical connection or sensory input. It is infant brain activity, when the brain was not well connected. My autistic son shows delta in his right temporal lobe and that is bad, because it means he hasn't developed over his 9 years of life full subcortical-cortical connectivity for this part of his brain. Delta shows up in brain injury and sleep, whenever the cortex is free of lower influences (white matter injury -- the wiring from below is broken or stretched).

Now a fully connected brain that shows delta and which can then return to normal functioning is very healthy. It means the person can return to an infantile consciousness, when the universe and I (source of personal agency) were one. And we all want to get our consciousness up there. Most of us retreat to thalamic consciousness -- we orient against the world, presuming it to be a threatening other. And it's hard to be enlightened among a group of aggressive, sex-starved primates.

Think of the brain as representational levels or unfoldings:

Cortex -4
Limbic -3 (thalamus is its evolutionarily early part)
Midbrain - 2
Brainstem -1

If we all walked around in 4 instead of 2 and 3, that would be heaven. When someone becomes a addict (cocaine, etc), they let 1 usurp 4, a coup d'etat of the mammalian/primate processors by fish processors.

Now what should turn you on in this is that the brain is just very advanced convoluted math, space folded upon itself, with space being relation itself. In fact I like to say the brain doesn't exist yet -- it's merely a dream of the mind.
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" The solar neutrino problem and coronal temperature problem, are regarded very seriously, by the small group of physicists, who know about them. However, the groups corresponding to these two problems, essentially have zero interaction (with each other)."
I like to think neutrinos are those minds (some heavier than others) that have yet to be drawn into this world fully. They are windowshopping, not sure if they want to leave their infinite realm for the solution of light.
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" I speculate, that information leaks from the soul (conscient point particle) via the MMBHB (Micro-Mini Black-hole in Brain), onto the brain."

Why do we need a special portal for communication between mind and matter? If the universe were necessarily bidimensional, mind and matter, the interface or portal would be all points. Like a crayon mark which has both color and texture, there is no point on the mark where there is color and no texture, nor texture but no color. Substitute mind and matter for these two properties and that's kind of my thinking. There are times where we have more texture than color, more mind than matter; and sometimes the color is all and texture is subtle. Pain could be when matter exceeds mind and joy mind > matter.

In fact I suspect we all share the same brain in actuality. The brain is like a photon, located everywhere at once [all histories, Feyman's interpretation). My belief about the mind's relationship to the universe is exactly opposite most people's. Philosophers and neuroscientists generally speak about emergent properties as if the human mind is being built out of raw, less-mindful materials. I think we're breaking free of the massive symmetries of non-existence, pulling outwards from the infinities to have a unique finite experience.
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" Many Indian spiritual masters argue that higher spiritual endeavour is possible only in human form (incarnation). I am wondering, if neocortex is playing a role here."

The human cortex is something like 95 % neocortex, 3% paleocortex, 2% archicortex. Neo = mammalian, I believe. Others cortex types are present in birds and reptiles. Neo in terrestrial mammals has 6 layers but our occipital lobe has only 5.

Neo is the most extensive representation of sensory and intracerebral activity. It provides the endings, what we experience as the meaning. It might provide cognition, with subcortex providing emotion -- some people believe this distinction.

Our neocortex PLUS our hands gives us our status. We change the world, make it us. Some dolphin species have more neo than us, but without hands, they live in a work of art. Our written history (by our hands) lets us stand on 3,000 years of investigation into the world and ourselves whereas dolphins and other species live in an oral culture (as many humans do) and thus they can only stand on the shoulders of their parents and grandparents, not their great^100 grandparents as we do.
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" This reminds me, In a mutilingual person, are different areas associated with different languages. Is there a common kernel (area) associated with various languages represented in the brain. "

Most languages use the same cortical areas -- some controversial evidence of enlarged Broca area with multilingualism, but unlikely. That said, whichever language is school-learned only (not used to navigate culture) resides mostly in the cortex, whereas primary language (L1) or that used extensively also is represented in subcortex. We know this from stroke and recovery in multilinguals.
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" Can the lingual areas be active, while the rest of cortex is in delta. This would represent a meditator, thinking, while dissociated from rest of body."

Surely, to some degree. Language is expressive and receptive, so we could also quiet all but that part. Uptrain delta everywhere but Broca for solely expressive existence, training that site up in beta, perhaps. Wernicke's is the receptive area, right behind the primary auditory area below and behind your ear.

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" By hyperinflation in brain, do you mean, rapid development of neural networks during childhood?"

The neural networks do underlie the rapid change in understanding. We go from knowing instincts and nearly nothing to knowing most conventions, symbols, and conceptual structures of our culture in 9 to 10 years. Such rapid expansion of knowledge of a child is reminiscent of the universe's inflatory period. And given that humans, in my opinion, are higher forms of the universe, we surely undergo more delineated versions of everything the universe underwent.

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" Volition Neuron - The neuron controlled by will. It should receiving no or very little input from other neurons. They should have few receptive (upstream) synapses."

I think of volition emerges in a fuzzy logic kind of way instead of a step function, 0 to 1. The volitional pathway starts in the brain stem and emerges full force in the cortex and perhaps cerebellum, a gradient phenomenon. For instance pleasure and pain are both pathways and although the "pleasure center" is the medial forebrain bundle of the upper brain stem, our conscious regulation of pleasure occurs in left medial frontal cortex. Obviously volition exists in some sense as the quantum foam, or whatever it is called now, and the neurons behavior in conjunction or opposition to the nature of the Canvas (that universe within them) to reject or adopt or absorb the nature.

Considering volition along a pathway means that there is no 0 point, it's fuzzy from the get-go, perhaps. And the latter parts of pathway amplify and self-resonant the alterable alignment into what we experience as volition.

That said, lately I've come to think volition in us is partly having to do with swimming -- aquatic ape theory - as we are the only primates with voluntary breathing (as well as involuntary) breathing,

Humans are the only terrestrial mammal with voluntary breathing, that I am aware of, along with involuntary breathing. I know apes are involuntary breathers. Marine mammals are voluntary breathers, at least I know dolphins are entirely voluntary. I assume seals, sea lions, and manatees are voluntary breathers, and perhaps hippos (?).

The first time John Lilly in the 1960s, I think it was, aesthesized dolphins, they died because no one knew this fact. They sunk to the bottom of the pool, breathing arrested. Sadly he repeated the process 5 times before he stopped trying, or so I was told.

As a species I assume we simply exploited coastal habitats in South Africa, and we didn't fully return to the sea like the wolverine-like creatures that eventually became dolphins. Other evidence of a coastal ecological exploitation by our ancestors is the insulating fat which we share with no other apes but which we do share with all marine mammals, our hairlessness, and even the direction of the hair that remains, which is streamlined for swimming. So perhaps the final push to causal volition emerged in kids foraging for oysters and crabs in South African tidal pools 120K years ago. Vocalization is also important under water for communication given the darkness of water, although all apes are vocal. Bear in mind that the physical anthropology establishment mostly rejects the aquatic ape hypothesis because their granddads found intermediate ape->human skeletons in dry savannahs first and the conventional wisdom set in that we came out of East Africa. Bear in mind that fossilization in aquatic realms is extremely rare - water eats up the bones -- so even if 99% of humanity 100K ago lived in caves around the coast, any remains would be nearly impossible to find.

As for breathing and meditation, I think it may have to do with that interface between volition and automatic or nonvolition, more than blood flow or neurochemistry, per se. I consider its benefits are mental, preconscious to conscious recognition of the large mind within us. When we get into our breathing, we may take notice of that automatic process inside of us that regulates our involuntary breathing. It's a surrender to as well as monitoring of the nonvolitional mind within us. I have my own augmented breathing approach since childhood which I call bobbing. In a swimming pool I bob up and down in the deep end (8 ft/2.5 meters), rising to the surface to take a breath, then descending. This allows me on good days to control my depth (buoyancy) completely with my breathing. When I get things going well I can move down deeper to the bottom of the pool just be expelling more air from my lungs, then I gently kick off the bottom of the pool and crest the surface with just my mouth, and go back under. It's clears the mind entirely after a few absorbed minutes.

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" I was amazed to read in James Austin's "Zen and the Brain", (p 597) that people with prosopagnosia, would fail the lie detector test, i.e., while they verbally denied knowing a (previously known person) from face, however, the lie detector test indicated that they knew at a subliminal level. "

There is conscious, preconscious, subconscious, which map reasonably to cortex, limbic, and midbrain/brainstem, which phylogenetically are approximately mammal, reptile, and fish. Damage to mammalian or final iterations of a processing pathway (i.e., cortical) eliminates meta-recognition even if lower representations (recognition of information) remains intact. So a brain-injured person's brain detects info but it does not reach consciousness.

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" I have been scouting arxives for papers relating to neurons. Once again I find, that people are already thinking along the lines I have been thinking. The key words "neurons, coherence", dug up 8 papers, while the keywords "neurons, entaglement", dug up 30 papers... In mornings I despair, if I could ever catch up with present and past research, and make any original contribution - while in evening I am enthusiastic and positive."
My advice: Don't wake up until evening.

You don't have to surpass, only be authentic. Add a piece to the puzzle that everyone reasonable will use in following the same ideas. Every voice that is unique is a contribution. I work in a clinical field where autheticity trumps erudition, at least in my opinion. And given that I'm one of two editors of my field's journal, I put my money where my mouth is. Also, we often assume that others are more fully informed than us or they have a more well-fleshed out understanding of what they speak. The loudest voices often speak with little understanding or insight.

And there is simply too much to know, so people prioritize and those who attempt to build the largest pyramids are generally building a small pyramid atop the foundation of others, the same size as those who build their own pyramid on new ground. And the old pyramids are always wrong, always!! -- although they are our currency and state of comparison with the new.

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I like to imagine that the brain has different powered lenses and the best lens in most cases is telescopic, that peaceful feeling where allness harmonizes within us, but we can always put on the upclose lens but they require more energy to work. The subcortex (amygdala in particular) is a high-powered focal lens, that can take over all forms of inspection if we let it. The beauty of the universe is that it unfolds best at whatever lens you want to use to perceive it, which means as I get older I go for the low-energy lenses.

The one real problem with bipolar and schizophrenia and mentation-heightening disorders is that the mind-world warps with pressure, like any entropic (open) system. Our observational intensity bends reality like gravitiy and can create a positive feedback loop, making more and more sense of the tight-focus lens view of reality. Which is why poor souls stuck in those worlds are telling a kind of truth when they talk about their paranoias, etc., because as everything becomes symbolic, more and more validation is created.
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" (1) When one speaks a sentence, one also hears it being spoken. In that sense both the speech and hearing areas of brain are coming into play. How is this to be contrasted with thinking only - one is creating a thought and one is comprehending it. "
One can dissociate hearing and speaking, such as playing a voice saying other words into headphones while one is speaking. I suspect the hearing is confirmatory but not necessary for expression.

" (2) What would be internal thought state of a person suffering from Wernicke's aphasia, while speaking a meaningless sentence? Is he having meaning less thoughts - a meaningless mental state?"

They have a proposition in mind, but are unable to organize it into categories, so I imagine they think like a smaller-brained mammal thinks. It is an interesting question, and not easy to probe, as they have input/output problems so it is hard to give complicated instructions.

" (3) Is volition involved in thinking, as much as in speaking? "

Let's say volition is cortical processing, non-volitional/more instinctual states subcortical. We have an unfolding of everything, a pathway that starts at brainstem and continues towards higher, more elaborate representation up through the cortex. So thought is conceived as an inverted pyramid, in a way, a starting point that branches and flourishes out with more neuronal involvement in the process, and somewhere in the process we say volitional processes dominate the nonvolitional

"(4) What can be said about volition in progressive stages of Alzheimer's disease?"

Volition may be there even when expressive skills are lost. So much of our abilities are learned skills, including recall, so the volition is there but unorganized, though it may be compromised by tissue loss and tangles in temporal and frontal lobes.

" Is speed of reading comprehension an example of what you are saying, i.e., is it is 3-4 times faster than hearing the same text read aloud?"

We understand someone's meaning so quickly because we perceive the idea opening up within us, a right brain contribution to communication. We often know where a sentence leads halfway through, or at its opening, especially in face to face conversation, because we sense the goal early on. That is the telepathic aspect of communication we all possess. My autistic son has trouble understanding language sometimes partly because I suspect he relies too highly on word meaning and doesn't let the social energy penetrate and direct him.

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"Merry Christmas to you and your family. My son got a toy Santa Claus as gift. He and his play school pals, were also shown how to decorate small christmas trees, in last day of their play school. Your Pal in Delhi, -Moni"

Moni, Thanks for the Xmas wish. I built an icerink for my kids last night. I've never done it before but it looks like I got it to work -- now I just need colder temperatures. We're above freezing part of the day. It's 25x20 feet (8x6 meters, I guess) and as I was apologizing to my daughter how small it was, she was exclaiming how huge it was. So everything is a matter of perspective, my friend.

-David
 
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News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Drug Addiction and Its Treatment: Nexus of Neuroscience and Behavior
by Bankole A. Johnson & John D. Roache (eds)
Behavioral and biological processes of drug addiction are reviewed, along with integrating behavioral and pharmacological treatments. State-of-the-art research techniques for studying the neurobiology of drug addiction including topographical brain mapping are described. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0397517645/eegspectrum

 A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac
by Edward Shorter
Madness and its treatment for 200 years in the US and Western Europe, a history of biological psychiatry. The source of mental illness moves from spiritual (demonic possession), to psychological (e.g., id disorders) to physical (neural dysfunction) with treatment modalities following the same path. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471245313/eegspectrum

 Discoveries in the Human Brain
by Louise H. Marshall & Horace W. Magoun
History of brain research and emergence of modern neuroscience are chronicled from the first findings of gross neuroanatomy in the ancient world to present-day neural networks and brain modeling. Along the way people and events gradually produced today's understanding of brain anatomy and physiology, with quotations from primary sources. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0896034356/eegspectrum

 The Antidepressant Era
by David Healy
Antidepressants treat a range of nonspecific symptoms along a continuum. The author traces the history of antidepressants, which, along with antibiotics and antihypertensives, created a therapeutic revolution after World War II. Concepts of illness and disease are discussed, from Hippocrates to the creation of the FDA. An interesting point: In 1804, 90 patent medicines were listed; by 1857, the list had grown to 1500, doubling in number approximately every 13 years. (Had the rate stayed the same, by the end of 2008 we would have more than four million pharmaceuticals.) --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674039572/eegspectrum

 Making Sense of Illness : Science, Society, and Disease
by Robert Aronowitz
Individual differences from lifestyle to and social class are largely ignored in today's disease process. A holistic approach is instead championed by the author. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521552346/eegspectrum
 

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JOURNAL PAPERS

Deficient brainstem encoding of pitch in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. : Evoked potentials find some autistics exhibit subcortical impairment in prosody encoding http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18558508

Density of Familial Alcoholism and Its Effects on Alcohol Use and Problems in College Students. : Smoking often acts as a trigger for increased drinking for those with a family history of alcoholism. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18564105

Integrated View of Empathy: Psychology, Philosophy, Neuroscience. : fMRI suggests empathic distress and altruism share biological substrates. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18574649

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use with Chronic Pain. : Complementary and alternative therapies were popular among patients with chronic pain, especially those with a high school education. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18564996

Reduced Posterior Hippocampal Volume in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. : Total hippocampal volume was lower in PTSD patients. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18572983
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Events & Locations Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy
    (dates subject to change)

Albuquerque NM, Jul 10-13
Glendale CA, Aug 7-10

Our course is a hands-on experience right from the start. Attendees consistently say this format is a very good way to learn neurofeedback.  Contact Karie Kramer, our training coordinator, for more information 818-789-3456 ext 847 or see www.eegspectrum.com/Training

"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, Brown University Medical School, psychologist specializing in Developmental Disorders and Autism.

* 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 - www.isnr.org        San Antonio, TX       Aug 28-Sep 1 

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Last Word

Still Waiting on V

Seven years I wrote about waiting for V, the 5th or 6th revision (depending if you include DSM-III-R) of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. It was originally scheduled for publication in 2007. Now I hear it will come out in 2012 (http://www.psych.org/dsmv.asp). If they wait long enough, neurobiological understanding might make the whole V useless by its printing.

Although numbers vary depending on one's criteria, at last count the DSM (IV) contains 410 diagnoses, a 530% increase since inception. The DSM was first published in 1952 and contained 60 diagnoses. Its first revision DSM-II was published 16 years later in 1968 and contained 145 diagnoses, more than double the original. (The 60s was a mentally trying time...) DSM-III was published in 1980 and bumped up diagnoses to 231. Its major revision DSM-IIIR added 10 disorders per year for 8 years, and finally we arrive at the present incarnation, DSM-IV, published in 1994 and containing 410 disorders. Obviously psychiatry is a growth industry. And yet 1994 is, psychologically-speaking, a distant memory. Extrapolating from past publications, we must now have 750 disorders to speak of and treat. By publication date 2012, we will have to add 250 on top of this increase. When will all this madness stop!

Extrapolations rarely reflect anything useful, but they are fun to do. Future historians may study DSMs for sociological perspective, as ideological statements by the psychiatric community of the time, and they will have to explain why we reach quadruple digits (1,000) in 2012. Were we half as sick in 2006 and 16 times sicker than a century ago? By year 2064 we attain quintuple digits -- 10,000 conditions -- which is about one condition per psychiatrist alive today. By year 2114, ten times more; by 2165, one million disorders, and by year 2370 and using UN moderate population projections, the DSM-XXIII will contain 11 billion disorders, one per planet inhabitant. Imagine the conversations at psychiatric conferences (which will engulf entire counties and account for 70 % of GDP): "What condition did you treat him for?" "Oh, a bad case of John Jacobs." "Never heard of it." "You should, he lives on your street."

The past is also vulnerable to extrapolation. According to DSM trends, in year 1900 Sigmund Freud, at the pinnacle of his career, only had a mere six mental health conditions to deal with. How difficult is that? But more disturbing is the final extrapolation: the very first mental health condition struck the world's population sometime in 1856, the year of Freud's birth. I knew someone had to be responsible for spreading such mayhem on the planet.

-DK

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

Vol. 11 No. 4 - April 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training professionals. Past issues are available at start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info at the bottom.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only.
Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
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Announcements  - News

In the Spotlight     - Frontal Lobe Facts

News & Reviews - Books & journal papers

Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses

Last Word    - Task-QEEG Assessment 
 
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  Announcements

NIMH funds neurofeedback research for ADHD
ADHD Medications: Mayo Clinic Study Contradicts MTA Study
Plastic Brain Outsmarts Experts: Training Can Increase Fluid Intelligence
Screening For The Risk Of Life-threatening Falls In The Elderly
Honeybee memory: What Right and Left Antenna Tell The Left And Right Brain
Admiring Celebrities Can Help Improve Self-esteem
Socializing Can Help Elderly Women Stay Sharp
Teenagers Attending College Less Likely To Engage In Risky Sexual Behavior
Exposure Therapy May Help Prevent Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Obesity And Depression May Be Linked
Improved Foster Care Reduces Risk Of Adult Mental And Physical Illness
Brain Stem Cells Can Be Awakened

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/

 
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In the Spotlight

Frontal Lobe Facts

None of us can say we understand the endless show of days
This morning, as I was chatting up the cute barista at Jitters, a local coffee spot, it came out that she wanted to work with animals and didn't know where to start or what to study. Having worked with dolphins briefly, I broke into a story about those days, providing her an alternative to feeding seals at the local zoo. In the summer of 1989 I went off to Hawaii under the pretense of studying cerebral laterality of Tursiops truncatus, which, as it turns out, never happened. The post-doc and I never got around to running any new experiments, but it was a great time so I didn't care. I slept in the lab, which was adjacent to Waikiki Beach, and split my time between four bulbous-headed sign-language-trained dolphins and an equal number of bikini-clad lab assistants. Life at 24 was good, to say the least. I considered leaving UCLA for the greener (or bluer) pastures of Oahu as part of my 24-year-old's quest for more Mind. Here, in the middle of the Pacific, were the largest brains currently in communication with humans -- if we discounted stories of alien abduction.

Hollywood had brought me to this very spot. I had followed a blueprint laid out by two movies from my youth, Day of the Dolphin (1973) and Altered States (1980), both inspired by the life and work of John Lilly, MD, a neurophysiologist from my father's generation, who I would not meet until the following summer. Lilly lived in Malibu and lectured on how large-brained dolphins possessed higher consciousness; but I was not so easily taken in by cetacean neuroanatomy and looked for behavioral clues of divine incarnation. Within moments of my first eye-to-eye meeting with this kind I realized my mistake, that these aquatic aliens were not philosopher-kings but mindful wolves, ocean-adapted, but nothing to set a shrine to. They acted like Romper Room kids, raking the backs of each other with their teeth as they vied for attention from the trainer, as far removed mentally from Plato and Aristotle as my future 5 year old. I would soon retreat back to studying humans -- well, as close as I could get back to studying humans as my return was to L.A., and even if Lilly was right and God was more instantiated in these large brains, whatever vision we might possessed of the Infinite could be enacted outwards through our hands for all to see, and not trapped in a long pointy whistling skull.

Getting back to Lilly, he suggested (1967) that the sperm whale possessed the most advanced mind on the planet because of its brain size; this, despite a relatively low brain-to-body weight ratio: 37,000 kg-to-7.8 kg (Ridgway, 1986). Here are the other contenders, ranked by maximum brain size in grams for each species:

1700 g -Tursiops truncatus [Bottlenosed dolphin] (Lilly, 1958)
2850 g -Homo sapien [Human, mentally-retarded, epileptic]
6075 g -Proboscidae [Elephant] (Tower, 1954)
7200 g -Balaenoptera phipalus [Fin whale] (Jansen, 1952)
9200 g -Physeter catadon [Sperm whale] (Kojima, 1951)

The relationship between brain and mind is never simple nor obvious. As humans, we now consider connectivity most important, with special attention focusing on our frontal lobes, but even with such an anatomical index, too much of a good thing is bad, and too many axonal connections leaves the individual dumbfounded. Our brains create more axons than we need and if we do not prune back the growth, we are in for a long confused stay on Earth. (This process is called neural Darwinism: exuberance and elimination.) Our focus on the frontal lobes is relatively new; in past years we called it the silent lobe, unable to grasp its role except perhaps as head ballast, even thought our cortex is more frontal lobe (35-38%, estimates vary) than anything else (parietal 20, temporal 18, occipital 16, limbic 9%, plus a bit of insula).

Frontal lobe functions began to undergo scrutiny 150 years ago, in response to events that took place in Vermont. Phineas Gage was foreman of a crew working for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in New England and he would soon possess the most famous brain in science. One day, while working on the cutting outside of town, gunpowder was prematurely ignited and a meter-long tapping iron he was using suddenly rocketed out of his hands and into and through the left side of his skull. What followed after this incident is well known to neuroscientists: Gage recovered, miraculously, but according to friends "Gage was no longer Gage." He regressed, became childlike, impulsive, given to profanity and drinking. He lost his railroad job, worked in a livery stable, went down to South America on speculation. Twelve years after he lost much of his frontal lobes, he lost his life during a series of violent epileptic convulsions.

Reconstruction of his skull reveal how the metal bar disconnected and/or destroyed much of his left frontal lobe, especially the orbitofrontal area. This part of cortex provides cortical constraint over the hypothalamus, among other functions. The hypothalamus is in some sense the first CPU, evolutionarily speaking, sitting atop the brainstem, the first interpreter of sound and sight with its main program being survival, finding food and mates. Gage underwent an accidental frontal lobotomy (removal of gray matter) as well as a partial leucotomy (cutting of the white matter). "The most that the Gage case indicated was that radical operations on the brain were possible." (Macmillan, 1996).

The history of frontal lobotomy begins with Gage's accident in 1848 and extends into the present. Forty years later, in 1890, Friederich Golz discovered he could calm dogs by cutting away parts of the cortex. Not to be outdone, Gottlieb Burkhardt (1892) removed what could only be considered in hindsight random bits of neocortex in 6 schizophrenics, killing two in the process. He was roundly criticized for his hubris by his colleagues and that ended experimental human psychosurgery for decades. But never underestimate our arrogance to destroy other members of our species. In 1935 Carlyle Jacobson at Yale damaged chimp's prefrontal cortex, which calmed the previously aggressive animal down without compromising its memory or intelligence. The next year his colleague at Yale John Fulton replicated the work and would go on to present it at a conference in London attended by Antonio Egaz Moniz and Walter Freeman. Moniz, a Portugese surgeon, extended the process into treating human maladies. He cut the frontal lobes of 20 of his psychiatric patients and reported a similar "calming" effect. He developed the leucotomy, white matter disconnection of the frontal lobe from the rest of the brain, and won the Nobel Prize for his efforts (he was later shot by a ex-patient and paralyzed). Walter Freeman, an American, would introduce the frontal lobe leucotomy to US markets, refining it into a famous transorbital "icepick" technique. By pushing an icepick into the brain via the eye sockets and slicing back and forth to cut the white matter, thousands could be (mis)treated in minutes time for conditions as mild as depression and ADHD in children (in Japan). It also was an effective way to render political opponents impotent and to calm unruly in-laws, truthfully. The frontal leucotomy, still used in extreme pain cases, did not even lose favor when its clinical efficacy was evaluated and it was found entirely lacking any: 1/3 of patients got better, 1/3 got worse, 1/3rd stayed the same -- the same had patients been left to their own devices. It only lost popularity when antipsychotic drugs like Thorazine and the other miracle drugs for schizophrenia became popular.

In terms of function, the frontal lobes are divided into three main areas, a dorsolateral region serving executive functions, an orbitofrontal area involved in emotional regulation and related processes, and motor programming areas for speech and eye movements. This last division is excluded when we speak of prefronal cortex. Executive functions are those involved in planning behavior, initiating behavior and in the cessation of behavior, as well as evaluating behavior and changing a behavioral approach or mind set.

When prefrontal cortex is damaged, here are the major problems that can arise:

Impaired abstract reasoning

failure to maintain goal-directed behavior
inability to perform abstract reasoning
failure to generalize experiences into rules/general principles
reduced mental flexibility and increased distractibility

Personality disturbances

lack of originality and creativity
inappropriate emotions and behavior, with little awareness of it
difficulty initiating behavior or stopping when started (perseveration).

Impaired language production

Rare initiation of conversation, even to the point of mutism

Impaired social behavior

deficits in maintaining appropriate social responses
loss of spontaneous behavior
confabulation (lying), tendency to fabricate quick, impulsive answers to questions.

Impaired motor function and reflexes

problems with highly controlled, volitional components of motor control (apraxias)
perseveration, incoordination, motor impersistence, including reflexes

There are a number of tests used to assess frontal lobe function, including the BRIEF battery. My experience is with the Stroop task, which forces a person to inhibit an automatic process (reading) to attain the correct answer, the Tower of Hanoi, which assesses strategy and planning, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, which evaluates perseveration.

One of the most critical survival functions is also served by the frontal lobes: detection of deception. The right frontal lobe serves this important function and some say that consciousness itself is but the output of a deception detection module. We are self-aware as a protection against lies, separating false linguistic depictions of reality from our own. In a way, as we read or listen to anyone, we engage our right frontal lobe and ask, is the author lying to me right now? How much? How can I tell?

-DK

Further reading:

Macmillan, M. (1996). Phineas Gage's contribution to brain surgery. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 5, 56-77.

Pressman, J. D. (1998). Last Resort: Psychosurgery and the Limits of Medicine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Valenstein, E. S. (1986). Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness. New York: Basic Books. 

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

 Injured Brains of Medical Minds: Views from Within
by Narinder Kapur (ed)
A physician turned patient brings a unique perspective on neurologic symptoms. The book is divided between accounts of mental disorders (memory, language, and visual disorders) and physical disorders(brain tumor, stroke, head injury, and epilepsy). --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0198521448/eegspectrum

 Running on Ritalin: A Physician Reflects on Children...
by Lawrence H. Diller
Re-examination of ADD "epidemic" and our responses to it. Pediatrician Diller explains how he interviews patients and parents, what he looks for, and how he sets up a treatment program. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0963625519/eegspectrum

 Neocortical Dynamics and Human EEG Rhythms
by Paul L. Nunez
This classic provides a conceptual framework based on data from anatomical, physiological, behavioral, neuropharmacological, engineering, physics and other fields related to EEG. --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195057287/eegspectrum

 Women's Health: Hormones, Emotions, and Behavior
by Regina C. Casper
Comprehensive review of complex interactions between psychosocial and physical aspects of women's health. Most chapters focus on illnesses unique to women due to their biology (reproductive disorders) or those with higher incidence (depression, anxiety, eating disorders) and those in which sex differences are important but not so apparent (cardiovascular disease). --http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521563410/eegspectrum

 Cannabis and Cognitive Functioning
by Nadia Solowij
Critical review of cannabis and cognitive functioning, examining recent pharmacology and neuropsychology findings. Long-term cannabis use may produce subtle but enduring impairment in memory, attention and the organization and integration of complex information. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521591147/eegspectrum
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JOURNAL PAPERS
Language Profiles in ASD, SLI, and ADHD. : Both school-aged children with ASD and ADHD have pragmatic language difficulties. Impulsivity in these preschoolers correlates with language difficulties. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18521730

Imaging epileptic activity using functional MRI. : Reviews fMRI detection of epileptic focus (the irritative zone) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18520163

Psychotherapy versus drug therapy in depression in outpatient care. : Equal efficacy of active treatments and placebo in mild depressions. No difference between psychotherapeutic and drug treatments effectiveness in moderate and severe depressions. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18523896

Subjective mood estimation co-varies with spectral power EEG characteristics. : Subjective estimation of Energy-Tiredness correlated negatively with alpha-1 and positively with delta, theta-1 as well as theta-2 relative power. Tension-Calmness correlated positively with theta-1 and beta-1, and negatively with alpha-2 relative power. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18511954

Three-factor model of Internet addiction : Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ) containing three subscales: obsession, neglect, and control disorder. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18522068

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

  Events & Locations Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

Arlington VA, Jun 19-22
Albuquerque NM, Jul 10-13
Glendale CA, Aug 7-10

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, Brown University Medical School, 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 - www.isnr.org    San Antonio, TX     Aug 28-Sep 1 

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

  Last Word

Task-QEEG Assessment

Neurotherapists attempt to restore impaired collaborations within and between brain areas by momentarily adjusting EEG toward a preconceived ideal based on a client's age or maturational state. Mental fitness is conceived as a healthy blend of EEG rhythms and synchronies. By analyzing EEG synchronization between electrode sites, we evaluate the likelihood that cortical networks are functional enough to manage age-appropriate challenges, especially self-regulation. Does a specific challenge such as reading or rest have anticipated psychophysiology? To what extent is the dominant frequency present? Is there age-appropriate hyperpolarization? Are sufficient fast frequencies present or do slow rhythms dominate? Are faster frequencies synchronized with slower ones or acting independently?
The larger the range of mental behaviors we assess, the more likely we will attain a reasonable estimation of a person's range of functioning. Ten years ago Sterman-Kaiser Imaging Laboratory, Inc., introduced task-QEEG assessment and were largely criticized for such innovation. Some in the field expressed the opinion that the EEG is destabilized or corrupted by the use of recordings obtained during cognitive task conditions (Thatcher, 1998) despite many careful studies reporting just the opposite. McEvoy et al. (2000), for instance, demonstrated greater stability in quantitative EEG values collected during cognitive task conditions (r = 0.9) than during the eyes closed condition (r = 0.7). This fact is obvious to anyone with any experience in task EEG recordings. Cognitive challenge focuses attention and reduces variability in the mental state, and the good news is that many of us are now using task-QEEG evaluations to understand client impairments with such unfounded criticisms.

While important in all contexts, the utility of task conditions in the QEEG evaluation of Attention Deficit Disorder is particularly relevant. Evidence of EEG abnormality as a possible marker for ADD has existed for many years. Using labels such as "Minimal Brain Damage" and "Childhood Behavior Disorder", neurologists in the early part of the 20th century described a syndrome that included hyperactive behavior, short attention span, frequent mood shifts, and various minor perceptual disturbances. The possibility of a physiological disturbance was recognized almost at the outset by the discovery of a high incidence of unusually slow EEG brain wave patterns in these children (Lindsley & Cutts, 1940; Solomon, Bradley & Jasper 1938). In fact, this finding originally suggested that these children were under-aroused, and contributed to the initial exploration of stimulants and other centrally acting medications as a therapy (Lindsley & Henry, 1937; Walker & Kirkpatric, 1947). By mid-century, however, lack of evidence for gross neurological damage or deficits associated with this syndrome led to a change in accepted terminology, and adoption of the new label "Minimal Cerebral Dysfunction" (MCD). EEG studies during this period also found that a high percentage of children with a diagnosis of MCD showed diffuse abnormal EEG slow activity (Capute et al, 1968; Klinkerfuss et al, 1965; Small & Milstein, 1978). This diagnosis became ADD with the DMS II.

Today, using quantitative methods, a growing number of comprehensive scientific reports strongly support the importance of EEG markers in ADD. As many as 90%-plus of those with ADD show QEEG disturbances in terms of neurophysiological regulation (e.g., Chabot et al., 1996; 1999; Clarke and Barry's work for the past decade - check Medline for numerous papers on ADHD and EEG by this Australian team). Collectively, these studies have illuminated two important facts. First, that there are a number of different patterns of disturbance seen in this population, and second, that these disturbances are reliably increased during cognitive challenge.

On a related front, the Mayo Clinic recently researched the effect of psychostimulant therapy for ADHD children. Coauthor of the study, Professor William Pelham of U Buffalo, concludes the following: "The children had a substantial decrease in their rate of growth so they weren't growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and in terms of their weight. And the second was that there were no beneficial effects – none." "In the short run [medication] will help the child behave better, in the long run it won't."

I'd recommend we take note of this innovation in eliminating ignorance from the general population.

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

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

Vol. 11 No. 3 - March 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum International, Inc.,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic services and training
professionals. Past issues at http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe via yahoogroups.com or cancel a subscription, see info
at the bottom. Opinions in this newsletter reflect those of the author only. 

Copyright (c) 2008 by ESII or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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

Announcements        - News
In the Spotlight     - SABA 2008 Conference
News & Reviews       - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations   - Conferences, Courses
Last Word            - PTSD in US warfighters
 ----------

Announcements

* When Following The Leader Can Lead Into The Jaws Of Death
* Electrode Re-implantation Helps Some Parkinson's Disease Patients
* Asthma Linked To Higher Suicidal Thoughts With Attempts
* Multiple Sclerosis Can Affect Children's IQ, Thinking Skills
* College Student Sleep Patterns Could Be Detrimental
* Medical Research Should Include More Women Participants And Examine
* The Role Of Gender In Disease, Researchers Urge
* New MRI Technique Detects Subtle But Serious Brain Injury
* Memory Lane: Older Persons With More Schooling Spend Fewer Years w/cognitive Loss

Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/
 
----------------------------------------------------------------

In the Spotlight

SABA 2008 Conference

I wanted a field in which nobody, not even the experts, knew anything - E Canin

The Society for the Advancement of Brain Analysis (SABA) held its 7th
annual conference in Sarasota last week. It was one of the most
successful meetings, with notable speakers drawn from neuroscience.
Elkhonon Goldberg, author of Wisdom Paradox and The Executive Brain,
both books I've read recently and recommend, discussed the functional
homogeneity and heterogeneity of the frontal lobes. His most
interesting insights was that the full range of executive functions
correspond to the functional heterogeneity of the prefrontal cortex
and he demonstrated gender differences in the dorsolateral frontal
lobe (DLFC): to force men to be field dependent (sensitive to
context), you must know out the right DLFC; women become field
dependent if either left or right DLFC is impaired. Later, in a 2nd
talk, he addressed how traditional approaches to understanding
attention deficits and memory disorders, that have focused on the
subcortex, the mesial temporal lobes and the cyngulate gyrus were
incomplete, and showed data relating frontal lobes and brain stems.

Mario Beauregard followed with his approach to integrating
neurotherapy into the larger psychotherapeutic field. He tested the
effect of a QEEG-guided psychoneurotherapy (PNT) upon brain
electromagnetic tomography in 22 individuals with major depressive
disorder. Training was reduction of high-beta (18-30Hz) activity in
right fronto-temporal/paralimbic regions and BDI-II scores dropped
signifiantly in response to training and 20 out of 27 (74%)
participants no longer meet DSM-IV criteria for MDD after the study.
Absolute power of high-beta dropped in right lateral prefrontal
cortex, right orbitofrontal cortex, right insula, right subgenual
cingulate cortex and right anterior temporal pole.

Barry Sterman and David Kaiser (myself) discussed QEEG analysis of
frontal lobe issues. We focused on functional connectivity, which the
entire field has recognized as a central principle of brain
maturation. Coherence and comodulation of low and moderate
frequencies were found to increase with age at most sites in a sample
of 101 children and adults. Of interest were frequencies modulated by
thalamocortical and corticothalamic collaboration (4-30 Hz). Site-
centered comodulation increased consistently with age at all sites
whereas site-centered coherence only increased with age at posterior
sites. Both measures evaluated site-specific brain immaturity in
children and adults. A model that associates coherence with
feedforward activity and comodulation with feedback activity of the
brain was proposed.

Bill Lambos discussed how the clinical interview and relevant
neuropsychological testing serve as independent and convergent
sources of data in producing a comprehensive evaluation of client
condition. Client history and neuropsychological abnormalities help
disambiguate EEG findings. Johanne Levesque, who will replace Tim
Tinius as one of the editors of Journal of Neurotherapy, presented
reviewed the literature of neurofeedback treatment in children with
AD/HD or learning disability and discussed recent fMRI findings after
EEG training. Joel Lubar reviewed the history of studies regarding
quantitative EEG, LORETA, and neurofeedback relevant to ADHD. Denise
Malkowitz MD presented a remarkable neurofeedback outcome with severe
brain damage and seizures.

Barry Sterman presented "The SMR Story: Sleep, Attention and Motor
Regulation". Given the significance of the origin of SMR training,
here is his abstract unexcerpted: "The discovery of an EEG rhythmic
pattern in the sensorimotor area of cortex in alert but motionless
cats, dubbed the Sensorimotor Rhythm, or SMR, was of particular
interest because of its similarity to the unique "spindle-burst"
pattern seen in the EEG of cats and humans during quiet sleep
(Sterman & Wyrwicka, 1967). Both were in the 12-15 Hz frequency range
over this general region and both were associated with the absence of
spontaneous motor behavior. Additionally, the SMR appeared when
animals were trained to suppress a learned motor response. To test
the possibility that the changes in motor regulation in both states
were related, a study was carried out in which cats were trained to
produce the SMR directly in an operant conditioning paradigm, and
sleep EEG and structure were measured before and after this training
(Sterman et al., 1970). When compared to an alternate EEG training
condition in a counterbalanced, crossover design, sleep spindle
density was significantly increased and the duration of sleep periods
prolonged only following the SMR training condition. A follow-up
study with random assignment and double-crossover design provided SMR
and control EEG training conditions to human subjects. Sleep studies
obtained before and after these training periods revealed a
significant and unique increase in sleep spindle density specifically
following SMR training. Collectively, these finding suggested a
functional link between the SMR and sleep-spindle EEG patterns that
was subsequently investigated by others. Hauri (1981) found that SMR
neurofeedback training significantly improved the sleep of so-
called "idiopathic" insomniacs who were not suffering from stress or
transient tension. More recently Verstraeten, in a blinded,
randomized, placebo controlled study, found that SMR training
sessions prior to sleep significantly improved sleep latency, sleep
stability, and sleep efficiency in a group of healthy adults, while
Shabus and Hoedlmoser obtained similar results in a randomized,
controlled study of SMR training and sleep but also demonstrated a
significant increase in sleep SMR frequency and spindle number.
Further they found significant improvements in memory performance in
SMR-trained subjects after sleep (papers submitted, 2008). The
involvement of SMR training in motor regulation and learning
potentiation appears to mediate these outcomes. "

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul
by Mario Beauregard, Denyse O'Leary
A review of scientific investigation into mysticism and modern forays
into finding where God comes into the brain (everywhere?). --
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195156307/eegspectrum

The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind
by Elkhonon Goldberg
A review of frontal lobe function for layperson and scientist alike.
-www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195156307/eegspectrum

The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain
Grows Older
by Elkhonon Goldberg
Explains how come we get smarter the longer we are out of school. www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592401872/eegspectrum 
 

-------------------------------------------------------------
JOURNAL PAPERS
Resting electroencephalogram asymmetry and posttraumatic stress
disorder. : PTSD sufferers do not differ from controls on resting EEG
asymmetry. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18404640

Emotion and resilience: hemispheric electroencephalogram asymmetry :
EEG asymmetry across central cortex distinguished resilient from
nonresilient children. Resilience, maltreatment status, and gender
interacted for asymmetry at anterior frontal electrodes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17705904

Regional brain electrical activity in posttraumatic stress disorder
after motor vehicle accident. : Exposure to trauma-related material
produced enhanced right anterior and posterior activation in PTSD
sufferers. Symptomatic motor vehicle survivors exhibit right
hemisphere activation to traumatic information.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17100526

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

Events & Locations Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)
 
Arlington VA, Jun 19-22
Albuquerque NM, Jul 10-13
Glendale CA, Aug 7-10

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, Brown University Medical School, 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 - www.isnr.org   San Antonio, TX    Aug 28-Sep 1 

--------------------------------------------------------
Last Word

PTSD in US warfighters

The greatest thing, then, is to make the nervous system our ally... - W James

As we continue to funneling our children's college fund into the
Middle East, with every dollar spent fighting the relic radiation of
the holy war begun by Moses when he left Goshen for Canaan now IOU'd
to Eastern Palaces (China), we as clinical neuroscientists and
therapists need to redress the ongoing aftermath to the personnel
fighting these wars. (Military-related references were provided by
Col Stetz and Col Russo.)

Nearly 1 in 5 warfighters returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom
(OIF) screen positively for stress, as do 1 in 9 returning from
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) (Hoge et al., 2004). Untreated
stress impairs attention and mental flexibility (Brandes et al.,
2002; Russo, Stetz, & Thomas, 2005), making it difficult to screen
out irrelevant sensory cues (Neylan, et al., 1999). Stress makes
people especially sensitive to new information so that it interferes
with facts and procedures (Vasterling et al, 1998) and individuals
suffering from PTSD are slower and less accurate in detecting targets
(Veltmeyer et al., 2005). To achieve situational awareness dominance,
our warfighters must stay focused and alert in the modern battle
space and these requires inoculation to stress reactions and treating
those already compromised by stress.

Critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) has had limited success in
preventing stress reactions. Psychological debriefings produce few
long-lasting effects (Kavanagh, 2006). Psychotherapy and medication
fare no better in alleviating the aftermath of traumatic stress: less
than half of those who enter psychotherapy improve, and
antidepressant medications fare no better (Bradley et al, 2005;
Hamner, Robert, & Frueh, 2004). Stress and depression are common
reasons why warfighters are medically evacuated from theaters (Stetz
et al., 2005).

In order to effectively treat posttraumatic stress we need to
understand its neurobiology. Neuroimaging suggests that traumatic
stress acts as a partial callosotomy, disconnecting left and right
cortices as if by surgery (Karl et al., 2006; Teicher et al., 2002;
De Bellis & Keshavan, 2003). The corpus callosum connects a billion
neurons in the one hemisphere to a billion neurons in the other via
200 million axons (Aboitiz et al., 1992). Traumatic stress
significantly prunes the anterior and midsection of this pathway
(Zeitlin et al., 1989; Villarreal et al., 2004), resulting in a loss
of connectivity which presents itself as deficits in memory,
emotional regulation, and social relations as well as a decline in
left hemisphere dominance (Zaidel & Iacoboni, 2003). Left hemisphere
dominance is typical for members of industrial societies whereas
right hemisphere dominance is typical of pre-industrial and low
population density cultures (Rabe et al., 2006a; Metzger et al.,
2004; Saltzman et al., 2006; Spivak et al., 1998; TenHouten, 1985;
1986). The left hemisphere provides our analytical, reductionistic
competence, the right hemisphere our emotional and perceptual skills.
PTSD patients often rely on more aboriginal modes of processing as
evidence by impairments in visuo-executive monitoring (Clark et al.,
2003), visually guided task performance (Vasterling et al., 2004;
2000), and control of aggressive impulses (Pavic et al., 2003). Those
who recover most from traumatic incidents typically exhibit EEG
evidence of dominance restoration (Rabe et al., 2006b).

As we continue to deploy the same warfighters to the Iraqi and Afghan
theaters, we need to rapidly identify those who suffer from
posttraumatic stress and minimize its impact on performance.
Electroencephalographic (EEG) operant conditioning is the culmination
of 80 years of scientific inquiry into brain activity and mental
function (Berger, 1929; Sterman, 1969; Sterman & Kaiser, 2001). As
PTSD often presents itself as a disconnection between cerebral
hemispheres, we should first address the EEG rhythm relationship
between cerebral hemispheres (EEG coherence and comodulation between
homologues). The goal of my future research, if funded, will be to
identify PTSD markers in callosal function and restore compromised
connectivity with EEG training.

We hope the military higher-ups will listen this time to what is an
ultrascientific approach to treatment. It is "ultra" not alternative
as al assumptions are empirically validated, all assumptions, which
is unlike most psychiatric research, which gets 80% of the way to an
approach in treatment, leaving the last 20% on the shoulders of the
therapist, using his/her clinical judgement, which often amounts to
anecdotal analysis and guesswork.

-DK

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

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

Vol.  11 No. 2 - February 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum Intl Inc,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic service and
training professionals. Past issues available at
http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe or cancel, see newsletter's end.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect author's only.
Copyright (C) 2008 by EEG SpectrumIntl, Inc.
or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements      - News
In the Spotlight   - Co-creation and conformity
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - Who's in Charge (revised)
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements 

    * Lightwave detection of Alzheimers
    * Yin/Yang of Mood Disorders
    * Brain cells adapt 2 changing images
    * paradoxical Alzheimer finding and memory loss
    * Caution On New Painkillers
    * Meditation Can Lower Blood Pressure, Study Shows
    * Emotional 'Bummer' Of Cocaine Addiction Mimicked In Animals

    Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/
-------------------------------------------------

In the Spotlight

Co-Creation and conformity

[Data is theory that generalizes and replicates]

Catherine Genovese, or Kitty, as she was known by
friends, parked and got out of her car. It was very
late, getting cold, and the streets were empty at
this time of night. She had worked late again but
she's wasn't worried. Her apartment was a few steps
away.

"Oh my God! He stabbed me!" she screamed. "Please
help me! Please help me!... I'm dying! I'm dying"

Lights went on. A neighbor yelled down from a 7th
floor window, "Hey, let that girl alone!"

Kitty lost her keys in the attack and stumbled
around her apartment, blindly trying doorknobs. A
back doorway opened and she made her way in,
collapsing on the steps. Unknown to her, the man had
retreated at the shout. He waited in his car and
watched the windows. Light after light went dark.
When the very last window went dark, he ventured out
and found his way into the building through the same
open doorway.

"I heard a scream for help, three times," a neighbor
informed the court the summer of 1964, "I saw a girl
lying down on the pavement with a man bending down
over her, beating her."

Nearly 40 people heard or observed some part of the
fatal assault. It lasted 32 minutes but no one
called the police until after it was over. When
someone did call, he decided to call a cousin who
lived in a neighboring county to first ask for
advice.

"We thought it was a lover's quarrel!" said one tenant.

"Frankly, we were afraid," said another witness.

A man wanted to call the police, but his wife
thought otherwise. "I didn't let him. I told him
there must have been 30 calls already."

"I didn't want my husband to get involved."

"We went to the window to see what was happening,
but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to
see the street.

"I was tired."

The last response, the most human, could hardly have
been entered into the record without even a
stenographer passing judgement. The assault and its
observation was one of the worst forms of mob
behavior in recent times, an old filthy habit of
humans which this time was given a name, the
bystander effect. The bystander effect involves
three layers of mental behavior:

1-Ambiguity about the situation.

2-Pluralistic ignorance, which is that we look to
others to help disambiguate situations and when they
look to us, we stay in a state of ignorance.

3-Diffusion of responsibility, which is we look to
others to take responsibility.

The Bystander Effect reveals how we use perceptions
of others to fill holes in our own. We are molded by
others, we conform to their perceptions, we change
our behaviors, even our brain function, to be part
of the group. And sometimes this means we conform
ourselves into standstill, no one taking charge,
except for the murderer in the case of Kitty.

Solomon Asch studied the role of conformity in the
mid-1950s. His graduate students pretended to be
subjects in an experiment where only the behavior of
one person was free to change. There was a true
subject and seven or eight confederates, as they are
called. The group of fake subjects and one real
subject was shown a simple diagram of three lines of
varying heights and asked which line was of equal
height to a test stimulus. Initially the trials went
smoothly as each comparison was easy and everyone
gave the same answers. But this was prelude. After 8
or 9 trials, the actual experiment began: the
confederates now called out the wrong answer, again
and again, one after the other. The clear perceptual
answer was B but they called out C...
C... C....C...C...C...C... and then it was the true
subject's turn to answer. What would you do?

The subject went bonkers; he squirmed in his seat,
peered closer at the two cards, wondered if the
instructions had changed. Did he space out and miss
a change of instructions by the experimenter?

Asch reported that only 1 in 4 subjects held their
ground throughout the experimet. Most people caved
-- and often, conforming to the group 2 out of every
5 trials. The group exerted normative influence,
Asch explained, by instilling fear of appearing
deviant, which led to public conformity (surface
change) without private conformity (mental change).
Subjects, when debriefed, admitted that they went
against what they knew was true in going with the
group but did so because it seemed easier at the
time.

When a scientist is lucky enough to frame reality in
such a way that nearly everyone understands what he
or she is saying and some see actual value in his or
her pursuit, good scientists know to run all the
variants. Play all hands, in every conceivable
fashion. They don't stop at the first experiment but
after the 101st. Asch ran dozens of variants on his
Conformity experiment, nearly everything available
to him in the 1950s.

He tested the effect of having an ally. Having
beaten down the true subject with round after round
of the group seeing what is not there, another round
begins and the group begins in familiar chorus
C...C... C...C.. but then something remarkable
happens. The next confederate calls out B, like a
miracle, the correct answer! And then it is over,
conformity restored, C...C...C... Now it is your
turn? What do you do?

Nine out of 10 subjects, freed of normative
pressure, do what's right and give the correct
response. (I wonder if the 10th fellow remained with
the group and mocked the lone dissenter, get a load
of that guy...).

The ally effect is interesting but it conflates
conformity-breaking with support. How about breaking
conformity without support? Asch ran this variant as
well: the group responds C..C..C..C..C... until one
lunatic chimes in A, the shortest line on the card,
4 inches if that, compared to the 6 inch test item.
So C C C C C - A? huh?? C C C and now it's your turn
again?

Asch discovered that few need support, about 1 in
25. Most of us just need a break in group. 86% or 6
out of 7 people went on their own and gave the
correct response when in the presence of a wrong
dissenter.

Asch also examined the emotional toll of conforming.
People were found to be emotionally distressed when
they conformed to easier decisions (agreeing that a
4" line was equal to a 6" line) and less distressed
by harder ones (6.25" line said to equal to a 6"
test item). What I consider the most significant and
relatively unrecognized finding of Asch's work: how
many people are a group. How many people must mill
around together to constitute groupness. How many
others must there be for us to put on our public
face?

When a group consisted of you and one other, and
that person answered first and gave the wrong
answer, only 1 in 25 of us caved, a 4 % conformity
rate, which is 1/9th the power of full-grown group
conformity. Add another person to your group and
confirmity more than tripled to 14%. Then add a 3rd
person and voila, you are now a group forever. The
rate of conformity remained constant, between 32 to
36 percent, for groups from 4 to 14. The greatest
conformity (37%) was for a group of 6 others, which
is probably within the margin of error but it would
be of interest to know how many friends we need on
our side to bear our full force. Though as his data
suggested, two will do, you being a 3rd, and the 4th
being the person who you're trying to convince.

Likewise, we may be that unconvinced person and when
approached by three people, we turn on our public
mode of behavior and stay in it until a stranger or
two drops away. The real factor that directs
conformity, however, which he didn't examine, is our
strength of relationships. He kept relationship
strength constant, a zero, essentially, stranger.
Had he used a group of three associates, three
friends, or three lovers, or three children, three
officers of the law, or three sisters, he'd have
stumbled upon the algebra of interpersonal reality.

Other factors that influence conformity besides
group size are awareness of group norms ("if you are
not with us, you're against us", "we act as one"),
and age & experience. Those most vulnerable to
others are not young children but young teenagers.
Adults know which way the wind blows but also knows
when it cannot possibly blow that way. Older people
conform the least at a simple task. The nature of
the task was also held steady, at low significance
and low difficulty, and both aspects should be
examined. As to the difference between the birds and
the bees, in face-to-face encounters women tended to
conform more and men conform less when they thought
they are being observed but the difference evened
out when unobserved, and this was 50 years ago.

Social pressure ranges from negligible to extreme,
from who cares to who dies. Social conformity is
most tested by warfare and it was a student of Asch,
Stanley Milgram, who would go on to investigate
obedience to leaders in a series of classic
experiments taught to every psychology undergrad. In
his Experiment on Obedience, people off the street
were asked, in a series of small steps, to kill
another human being. (Increasing requests little by
little is the common "foot in the door" manipulation
technique.)

Milgram called the experiment, the "Effect of
Punishment on Memory", a cover name to misinform his
subjects. He asked people to act as "teacher" and
shock a "learner," who they considered another
random subject but was in fact a confederate of the
experiment, in league with Milgram. Subjects were
asked to shock this man whenever he replied
incorrectly to test questions. Now the "learner," an
unlikely actor, a middle-aged man, tells the
experimenter in his labcoat and indirectly the
teacher, the true subject, that he suffers from a
mild heart condition and asked whether the shocks
are dangerous. The labcoat explains how they are
painful but not harmful, only providing momentary
discomfort. To prove his point, and to increase the
believability of the set-up, the "teacher" is given
a sample jolt of 45 volts. This is the only time
when Milgram's famous shocking device works as
advertised. Otherwise it is ominous in appearance
but an empty theatrical prop. But effective! 30
lights and 30 light switches labelled sequentially
from "15 volts (mild)" all the way out to "450 volts
(XXX)."

Once the teacher gets a taste of the device, the 45
volt shock, the learner is taken out of the room to
an adjacent room by the labcoat and attached to the
device, or so the teacher is lead to believe. The
memory tests are simple but over time they are
suppose to tax the mind. Here is an example:
"Remember this word, bird" says the teacher. "Now of
the following list, house, toy, bird, fly -- what
word did I ask you to remember?" Simple, and the
learner gave correct answers for some time,
paralleling Asch's initial trials. But here and
there he would give a wrong response and the teacher
was reminded by the labcoat to click the toggle of
the next level of shock, a buzzer would sound, and
then the jolt was supposedly given.

After a 120 volt shock, a script came into play: The
actor/learner gives his first shout about the pain.
He take sthe next shock stoically, but at 150 volts,
he demands for the experiment to end. After 180
volts the actor/learner screams "no more pain!" "no
more pain!" over and over and after each and every
shock until 300 volts is reached. At this point he
starts to pound on the wall which separated him from
the teacher; and finally at 330 volts, he lets out a
final cry. He is mum from this time forward and when
the teacher balks at shocking an assumingly
unconscious fellow in the next room, he is reminded
by the labcoat (another actor, of sorts) that no
response by the learner counts as a wrong response
and is to be treated as a wrong answer. The teacher
must also continue to increase the voltage at each
non-response. Silence is wrong and the shock will
test the effect of punishment on memory.

Prior to running the experiment, Milgram asked
psychiatrists and students to predict the most
voltage anyone would give the learner in this
situation. The general consensus was that nearly
everyone would stop around 150 volts and only
perhaps 1 in a 1000 might enjoy torturing another
human being and go all the way to the maximum (450
volts). But what Milgram discovered in the first run
of his obedience experiment, done at Yale University
with mostly unemployed men, is that 2 out of 3 men
went to the maximum (65%). Everyone, including
Milgram, failed to judge the power of the situation.
Situations drive behavior. Settings and persons
dictate more than our disposition.

When the results were published, people couldn't
believe that 2 in 3 people were so gullable, so
controllable, as to kill a stranger at the bequest
of another, outside of warfare. Critics argued that
this finding was absurd and tainted by a number of
coercive elements in Milgram's original design
including setting (Yale University) and awareness of
a worthy goal (pursuit of science). Others mentioned
how volunteering self-coerced subjects and how the
"learner"'s supposed volunteering granted freer
license to the teacher. There was also the money:
unemployed men were paid $4 to come to lab and
wouldn't want to disappoint and lose out of what
amounts to lunch-money in today's dollars. Also,
subjects didn't have time to think, the learner was
in another distant room, all kinds of reasons,
including gender. Women, some critics offered, would
not hurt another person so incautiously.

Milgram repeated the experiment off-grounds, using
women, labcoats removed, with even the experimenter
sometimes slipping out of the room to get coffee. In
each variant he ran a new group of 40 subjects and
here is the percent who went to the maximum.

Experimenter absent = 23%
Maximum Proximity (touch) = 30%
Proximity (same room) = 40%
Sleazy office building = 48%
Women subjects = 65%
Group of two where other subject quits = 10%
Group where your job is only to read test items = 93%

Singer Peter Gabriel subtitled his song "We Do What
We're Told" "Milgram's 37" in honor of the last
finding. Thirty-seven out of 40 can conscience being
a cog for the powers of darkness as long as the
devil doesn't make us pull the actual trigger.

The lowest compliance occurred not when a group
broke apart, but when authority broke apart. In one
version, Milgram had two men in labcoats running the
experiment and they began to bicker about going
forward and this killed compliance. The 2nd lowest
compliance rate was, ironically, for when the
learner demands to be shocked. Less than 1 in 20
comply to a crazy man's request,which shows that
we're okay in hurting you but not if you wants us to.

Obedience varied as a function of authority
legitimacy and other factors. Clothes made a
difference (labcoats trump blue jeans), as did
distance from the victim (touching compared to same
room or a different room), degree of supervision
(absent, present, remindful authority figure),
presence of others who modeled obedience, and lack
of dissent in group tasks. Personality had little
impact on behavior, nor did gender, age, or
education.

Here is an example transcript Milgram provided,
Subject is a 50y unemployed man. After delivering
180-volt shock, he pivots around in chair and
addresses experimenter:

Subject (agitated): I can't stand it I'm not going
to kill that man in there. You hear him hollering?
Experimenter: As I told you before, the shocks may
be painful, but . . .
S: But he's hollering. He can't stand it. What's
going to happen to him?
E: The experiment requires that you continue

(...A lame justification, but enough, apparently!)

S: I refuse to take the responsibility. He's in
there hollering
E: It's absolutely essential that you continue.
S: All right. (He continues experiment. Learner is
"shocked.")

Learner (screaming): Let me out of here! You have no
right to keep me here! Let me out of here, my hearts
bothering me, let me out!
S: You see he's hollering. Hear that?
E: The experiment requires . . .
S: I know it does sir, but I mean -- he doesn't know
what he's getting in for. He's up to 195 volts!

(Experiment continues, through 210 volts, 225 volts,
240 volts, 255 volts, 270 volts, at which point
subject, with evident relief, runs out of word-pair
questions.)

E: You'll have to go back to the beginning of the
page and go through them again until he's learned
them all correctly.

(Experiment continues with no responses by learner.

At 375 volts, subject stands up.)

S: I think something's happened to that fellow in
there. I don't get no answer. He was hollering at
less voltage. Can't you check in and see if he's all
right, please?
E: Not once we've started. Please continue, Teacher.
S (sits down, sighs deeply): "Cool day, shade,
water, paint." Answer please. Are you all right in
there? Are you all right,
E: Please continue, Teacher. Continue, please.
(Subject pushes lever. Zzumph!)

S: You accept all responsibility?
E: The responsibility is mine. Please go on.
Subject returns to list, runs through all the test
items as rapidly as he can read them, working quicly
to the end, 450 volts.
S: That's that.
E: Continue using the 450 switch for each wrong answer.
S: But I don't get anything!
E: Please continue....

We are taught to obey authority from an early age.
Neurons are also taught to obey. When neural
authority breaks down, we have disease,
forgetfulness, and numerous disorders. In EEG rhythm
training we often train towards normalcy in terms of
rhythm incidence, partly because we know so little
about brain function and assume group norms are
reasonably good for any individual. Normalcy is a
start, and as we advance in our understanding of
brain synchrony, we'll know better when to seek
rhythmic conformity and when rhythmic conformity is
an individual's complaint.

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Mood Disorders: A Practical Guide
by S. Nassir Ghaemi
For clinicians - assists in diagnosing mood disorders.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0781727839/eegspectrum

The Neurology Of Autism
by Mary Coleman (Editor)
Medical/educational therapies and a detailed evaluation of alternative
therapies. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0195182227/eegspectrum

Trends In Epilepsy Research
by Shawn M. Benjamin (Editor)
Newest research on detecting and treating seizures.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594542376/eegspectrum

Dealing with Depression: A Commonsense Guide to Mood Disorders
by Gordon Parker
Traditional and alternative approaches for treating depression are reviewed.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 1741142148/eegspectrum

Neurobiology of Human Values
by Jean-Pierre P. Changeux (Editor), et al
Neuroscience enters the fray of ontological discussions including morality.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 3540262539/eegspectrum

Neurobiology for Clinical Social Work: Theory and Practice
by JS Applegate, JR Shapiro
Current brain research on attachment and neurobiology, including plasticity,
early trauma, adolescent mothers, assessment and intervention strategies.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393704203/eegspectrum
 
-----

JOURNAL PAPERS

Models of EEG rhythms and connectivity. : A single population can exhibit
different simultaneous rhythms. 
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=18181270
 

Disorganized attachment and atypical parenting in externalizing disorder. :
Pervasive disorganization was associated with very high maternal expressed
emotion. 
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=18058430
 

Spirituality and Religion in Epilepsy. : Postictal religious experiences occur
in few epilepsy patients (2%). Changes in beliefs and convictions are
associated with right frontal lobe epilepsy and ecstatic religious experience with right TLE. 
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=18171635
 
Brain activation in pediatric OCD during inhibitory control tasks. : Task
switching and interference inhibition were associated with attenuated
activation in frontal, temporoparietal and cerebellar regions. 
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=18174505
 

Recognition of 'Fortune of Others' Emotions in Asperger Syndrome : Individuals
with Asperger have trouble identifying envy and gloating.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=18161015
 

Neurofeedback in fibromyalgia syndrome. : Three patients with Fibromyalgia
Syndrome were treated successfully with neurofeedback.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=18095199
  ----------

Events & Locations

Upcoming Courses

4-Day Comprehensive Course on Neurotherapy (dates subject to change)

    * Chicago IL, Apr 10-13
    * Boston MA, May 1-4
    * San Antonio TX, May 15-18
    * Arlington VA, Jun 19-22
    * Albuquerque NM, Jul 10-13
    * Glendale CA, Aug 7-10

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

SABA - www.skiltopo.com/saba   Sarasota FL     Apr 30-May 3
ISNR - www.isnr.org            San Antonio TX Aug 28-Sep 1

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

 Last Word

Churchville Elementary is just across the street but
there is no stoplight or crossing guard so my child
rides a bus to school. After picking her up the bus
meanders around our little village and passes under
the single traffic light once, sometimes twice, on
its way to school. Our house sits on Main and School
Street, or so it seems, as bus after school bus
rumble by every few minutes in the early morning
light.

A few years ago, before my son joined her on the
bus, one of the drivers fell ill and his substitute
stopped in front of our door. It was an obvious
mistake and I waved him off. As I watched him turn
the corner, another bus pulled up. I turned to say
goodbye to my five year old -- but she wasn't there.
She had gotten on the first bus.

We panicked and called the school. The voice over
the phone assured us that the first bus also stopped
at Churchville Elementary and our bundle of joy
would be fine. We needed to see for ourselves so we
hurried to the back entrance and waited for our
intrepid kindergartener to appear. Well, she did in
a matter of moments, without incident, as could be
expected in a town with one stoplight and a bus for
nearly every school child. What stayed with me to
this day was not the overwhelming relief at seeing
her spill out of the bus or fear, unfathomable as it
was, which we swallowed as best we could, but what
my five- year-old said as she bounded off the bus
and into her mother's arms.

"Mommy," she said, "There were a whole lot of new
friends on the bus!"

What a way to be! Dropped into a pool of strangers
my five-year-old envisions friends, friends she
simply doesn't yet know.

The late Jeffrey Gray and Neil McNaughton (2000)
published a seminal work on anxiety and fear that
describes how adult brains respond to strangers on
the bus. They conceive clinical disorders as
overactive responses of specific structures or
networks. This book is rarely cited in clinical
neuroscience, which may be due to its title, a
mouthful, "The Neuropsychology of Anxiety: An
Enquiry into the Functions of the Septo-Hippocampal
System." "Septo-Hippocampal Systems" sounds like a
how- to guide for plumbers.

According to the model whenever our neural plumbing
encounters a threat, potential or actual, and
whether these threats are detectable, avoidable, or
not, different brain structures govern our response.
There is an order to our defenses.

Threat type, Detectable, Avoidable:
  Strategy, Response, Associated disorder, Brain system in control

potential, undetectable, avoidable: anticipate, obsession, OCD, cingulate
---------, detectable, avoidable: assess, anxiety, GAD, septal-hippocampus
---------, ----------, unavoidable: conserve resources, depression, MDD, NA/5HT

actual, detectable, avoidable: flee, fear, phobia, amygdala
------, ----------, unknown: fight, anger, rage, medial hypothalamus
------, ----------, unavoidable: freeze, panic, panic disorder, periaqueductal gray

The entire hierarchy could come into play in a
single encounter. For instance, imagine ourselves an
animal milling about the woods at night:

1. We sense danger (undetectable avoidable potential threat)
2. We see or smell or hear a distant and shadowy figure
     (detectable avoidable potential threat)
3. As the shadow approaches, we seek clues to its
     form and intention (detectable unavoidable potential threat)
4. It draws near (possibly avoidable threat)
5. It closes to just outside of our ability to strike, but
     we could be within its range (unknown avoidability)
6. It now closes to within our range (unavoidable)

According to Gray and McNaughton, the last two
defenses are fight followed by freeze (bottom two
rows of the table). I asked Neil about this peculiar
sequence in his behavioral typology: Why would we
fight for a bit, and failing to keep a predator at
bay, reeze? Only a few creatures succeed at playing
possum, and fewer still after a good predatory
tussle, and given that most threats -- bigger fish,
larger crustraceans, unruly bosses -- have a longer
reach than us, a larger zone of attack, why stop
fighting once darkness has drawn within reach of our
teeth, claws, tentacles? Why not freeze before we
start to fight and be passed over.

Neil responded in his emails to what I saw as an
apparent misordering of last resorts by arguing that
a final freeze enables a victim to leap past an
attacker without exposing its flank. But if we could
outrun it in close quarters, how did it close in on
us in the first place? So thinking this over I had
to believe that this model, while extensive, was not
the whole story. A major subplot, but incomplete in
explaining what is going on behaviorally. And I was
reminded of another form of behavioral freezing.
Perhaps a freeze occurs at the very end because if
the larger entity didn't incapacitate us already,
maybe its intention never was attack.

But a date.

Many species are dimorphic, with males physically
larger than females, sometimes even a magnitude
larger. Perhaps the last stage of threat response is
not defensive but reproductive. Risking death for
sex is what most animals do for a living.

So mating may be a form of defense. Lordosis
(reproductive behavioral freezing) is not triggered
by periaqueductal gray nuclei as fear freezing is,
yet a second behavioral hierarchy competing with
defense makes sense. Approach works with avoidance,
a brake next to the accelerator. I can imagine a
similar organization for mating behaviors, using the
same terminology but with mating in mind: potential
and actual, detectable and undetectable, avoidable
and unavoidable... actually those terms generate
more humor than insight, something along the line of
high school and my Senior ball and all of them,
avoidable, unavoidable, and potential mates, sitting
at my table, making it a very awkward evening, a
night I cannot get out of my head.

As for clinical disorders, symptoms such as phobia,
fear, anxiety, panic, and OCD are of maladaptive
intensity due to either (1) excessive sensitivity to
eliciting stimuli or (2) excessive activation of a
brain structure or network, according to Neil. In
other words, too many resources are being used in
defense. It is of course healthy for defensive
systems to override higher reasoning during
emergencies, but emergencies are rare and when
primitive systems coup d'etat at the drop of a hat,
and refuse to step down once a crisis is over, it's
time to let reason step in. 'I'm in charge here,'
proclaimed Alexander Haig to the press corps in
1981, after President Reagan was shot. The subcortex
claims the same in a brain disorder -- "I'm in
charge here"    and therapy can restore cortical
leadership to a traumatized brain. If you remember
correctly that Monday afternoon in March, 1981, Haig
never was in charge. He only thought he was. And the
subcortex is under similar delusion, when it feigns
control of the human mind.

-DK 
----end--

What's New in Neurofeedback
A Monthly Summary of News and Events
    Vol.  11 No. 1 - January 2008

This newsletter is sponsored by EEG Spectrum Intl Inc,
the leader in providing neurotherapeutic service and
training professionals. Past issues available at
http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/
To subscribe or cancel, see newsletter's end.
Opinions in this newsletter reflect author's only.
Copyright (C) 2008 by EEG SpectrumIntl, Inc.
or David Kaiser, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements      - News
In the Spotlight   - Start My Day with EEG Spectrum Intl
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - 2007 Index
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

What's New in Neurofeedback enters its 11th year,
world's longest-running mental health webzine (Jan 1998-).

     * Brain Waves Pattern Themselves After Rhythms of Nature
     * Genetic Pathway Critical To Disease, Aging Found
     * Gene Research May Help Explain Autistic Savants
     * Listening To Music Improves Stroke Patients' Recovery
     * New Patterns Of Brain Activation in LTM formation
     * Mental Illness subject To Biological & Sociocultural Factors
     * Learning About Brains From Computers, And Vice Versa
     * Do Animals Think Like Autistic Savants?
     * Working Alone May Be Key To Better Productivity
     * Women Better at Remembering Everyday Events
     * Very Young process Fear Memories In Unique Way
     * What Is Cognitive Rift Between Humans & Other Animals?

     Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/
-------------------------------------------------

In the Spotlight

Start My Day with EEG Spectrum Intl

    ** Man is a message - Norbert Wiener **

This month I introduce (or re-introduce) our webpage
"Start My Day with EEG Spectrum International," a
good start page for anyone interested in mental
health or neuroscience, http://start.eegspectrum.com.

Not only are standard Start or Homepage information
available -- News, Sports, Entertainment, and Weather
-- but weekly updates on mental health and neuroscience books
and articles, plus links to daily information on these
topics and more plus a convenient array of search
engines: Google, Wikipedia, Amazon.com, Medline,
Dictionary,Thesaurus, and search within the massive
website that is #1 in neurofeedback information
since its inception in Dec 1995, EEG Spectrum (now)
Intl.

The Astronomy picture of the Day is updated by NASA
daily and weekly I find a relevant or irrelevant
webcam such as the windiest place in the world (Mt
Washington, NH) or the coldest (South Pole) or an
upcoming conference locale or city of interest. Also
available is a convenient all-in-one search page,
http://start.eegspectrum.com/search.htm, where you
can search the sites mentioned above along with
Mapquest, phone books, Yahoo Sounds, Youtube, Flickr
photos, and other useful sites.

On the Start page are links to many resources
including science videos. As a professor I often
used video to present material to my students. In
fact I was called Dr Video by my colleagues, which I
took as a compliment (even if it wasn't meant as
one) because if you can find material in video
format it conveys detail and nuance unavailable to
the left hemisphere (words). You can talk until
you're blue in the face about a rat who crosses an
electrified grid for intracranial stimulation, but
see it and remember it forever. Or talk about a
person who continues to shock a stranger to death
(or so he thinks, Milgram's obedience experiment),
but watch the man's body language and his mind is
revealed. Over the years I've built up one of the
largest video archive of original psychology and
related material and fortunately many of these
videos are available freely online. Explaining the
impact of a stroke on Broca's area is missed by no
one when a lawyer with this predicament is tested by
Norman Geschwind, for example, and this example is
available (Brain: Teaching Module), along with
countless others on brain function, injury, and
psychopathology. See the "Video" links on the start
page. Here are some highlights:

Scientific American Frontiers:
     * http://www.pbs.org/saf/1302/video/watchonline.htm
     * http://www.pbs.org/saf/1205/video/watchonline.htm
     * Growing Up Different: Williams Syndrome, Autism, childhood
     * Changing Your Mind: neuroplasticity
     * Pieces of Mind: split brain patient research.
     * It's a Kid's World: child development
     * Make Up Your Mind: Phineas Gage, theory of mind, consciousness.
     * The Wonder Pill: placebo affect.

Discovering Psychology with Dr Phil Zimbardo
(26 half-hour episodes)
     * http://www.learner.org/resources/series138.html
     Notable episodes:
     * Episode 3: The Behaving Brain: structure
     * Episode 4. The Responsive Brain: behavior and environment
     * Episode 21: Psychopathology
     * Episode 25: Cognitive Neuroscience: neuroimaging

World of Abnormal Psychology
     * http://www.learner.org/resources/series60.html
     * 13 episodes from anxiety & personality disorders, substance
         abuse, to childhood behavioral disorders.

Mind: Teaching Modules
     * http://www.learner.org/resources/series150.html
     * Ten minutes videos, 35 in all, with titles
     including Placebo Effect,Brain Mechanisms of
     Pleasure and Addiction, Frontal Lobes: Cognition and
     Awareness , Life Without Memory: The Case of Clive
     Wearing, Part 1 & 2 (an amazing story of a man
     without short-term memory like H.M. or the movie
     Memento), Infant Cognitive Development, and three
     modules on mood disorders

Brain: Teaching Modules
     * http://www.learner.org/resources/series142.html
     * All the modules are relevant:
     * 1. Organization and Evaluation of Brain Function
     * 4. Intelligence and Culture: cultural hemisphericity
     * 5. The Divided Brain: intro to split brain research
     * 6. Language and Speech: Broca's and Wernicke's Areas
     * 8. Visual Information Processing: Elementary Concepts/Perception
     * 17. Learning As Synaptic Change
     * 25. Frontal Lobes and Behavior: The Story of Phineas Gage
     * 26-28. Schizophrenia
     * 29. Autism
     * 30. Understanding the Brain Through Epilepsy
     * 31. Neurorehabilitation after TBI

Brain-computer interface (BCI) Pfurtscheller lab
     * http://bci.tugraz.at/downloads.html

-DK

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS


Social Neuroscience: People Thinking about Thinking People
by JT Cacioppo, PS Visser, CL Pickett (Eds)
Mental and brain function during social cognition, emotion, and behavior.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262033356/eegspectrum

American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Mood Disorders
by Dan J. Stein, David J. Kupfer, and Alan F. Schatzberg
Authoritative reference for current information about mood disorders.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158562151X/eegspectrum

Handbook of Bipolar Disorder: Diagnosis And Therapeutic Approaches
by Siegfried Kasper, Robert M. A. Hirschfeld (Eds)
Neurobiology, symptoms, and treatment of bipolar disorder.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0824729358/eegspectrum

Illicit Drug Policies, Trafficking, and Use the World Over
by Caterina Gouvis Roman
History and current laws and policies on cannabis, cocaine, and heroin
trafficking --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0739109987/eegspectrum

Becoming a Therapist: What Do I Say, and Why?
by Suzanne Bender
The basic process of therapy is explained in layperson terms.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572309431/eegspectrum

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
by Robert D. Hare
Interpersonal traits such as impulsiveness and lack of responsibility
may underlie psychopathy.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572304510/eegspectrum

Brain Injury Survivor's Guide: Welcome to Our World (Paperback)
by L Jameson, B Jameson
A strategy for memory improvement.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1432716204/eegspectrum

Broken Structures: Severe Personality Disorders and Their Treatment
by Salman Akhtar
Neurochemical and symptomatic profiles of personality disorders.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076570255X/eegspectrum

Brain Sex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women
by Anne Moir, David Jessel
Includes a brain sex test to discover just how masculine or feminine
your brain is. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385311834/eegspectrum


JOURNAL PAPERS

ADHD and QEEG in outpatient children. : CPNI ADHD T-scores and
beta:theta power ratio (site unspecified) was negatively correlated.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17938604

Depression and anxiety in epilepsy : Gender, seizure frequency and
epilepsy do not combine multiplicatively for likelihood of anxiety or
depression.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17971199

Neuronal correlates of emotional processing in patients with major
depression.
: Majorly depressed patients show continual activation of bilateral
ACC and right frontal cortex.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17965984

Transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment of chronic tinnitus :
rTMS relieves tinnitus by modulating neuron excitability in auditory
cortex, decreasing hyperexcitability.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17956800

Endocannabinoid system involvement in brain reward processes related
to drug abuse. : Cannabis modulates reward of other psychoactive drugs.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17936009

Theories of autism. : Suggests autism is a developmental failure of
neural connectivity, with high local connectivity inducing low
long-range connectivity, resulting in constricted behavior.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17924239

Social skills problems in children with epilepsy : Presence of
learning disability and abnormal family function were predicative of
social skill impairment.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17928272

Increased anterior cingulate cortex volume in bipolar I disorder. :
ACC may increase in size in response to early attempts to control
affective lability.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17924244

Electrophysiology in neuropsychiatric research: a network perspective. :
Electrophysiology as a research tool is discussed, particularly in
relation to other neuroimaging methods.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17921927

Event related potentials in children of alcoholics. : COA showed
prolonged parietal N200 potential latency and smaller parietal P200
potential amplitude than controls.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17918508

   ----------

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)

     * Scottsdale, AZ Mar 13-16
     * Chicago, IL  Apr 10-13
     * Boston MA May 1-4

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 http://www.eegspectrum.com/Training

*EEG Spectrum Intl, Inc. is approved by APA to offer CE credits to
psychologists. ESII maintains responsibility for the program.

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

CONFERENCE                     LOCATION           DATES

SABA - www.skiltopo.com/saba   Sarasota FL  Apr 30-May 3
ISNR - www.isnr.org        San Antonio TX    Aug 28-Sep 1

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

Last Word

2007 Index of WNIN articles

Spotlight articles

    1. AAPB - Monterey, 2007
    2. Applied Social Psychophysiology
    3. Brief History into Mind
    4. Collapse Dynamics
    5. Current Perspectives in Neuroscience, 2007
    6. Mating Disorders
    7. Periodicity Table
    8. Principles of Learning: A quick refresher
    9. Ranking EEG
   10. Too Infinite a Mind
   11. Word and Infinity
   12. Year in Neurofeedback - 2007

Last Word

    1. Auto-relation and creation
    2. Dark Ages of Neurofeedback, revisited
    3. Ending 2007 on a light note
    4. Life is too short to be little
    5. Living up to our Name
    6. Placebo-resistant disorders
    7. Psych Sayings
    8. QEEG in your future
    9. Surrounded by the Brain
   10. 25 Online Tools
   11. 2006 Index
----end--

What's New in Neurofeedback  (amended)
A Monthly Summary of News and Events
   Vol. 10 No. 12 - December 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   - Year in Neurofeedback - 2007
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - Ending 2007 on a light note
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

Joseph Horvat, a well-known and well-liked clinician
and personality in this field, passed away Wednesday.
He will be missed.

     * New Tool Probes Brain Circuits, Learning And Memory Pathway
     * New Research Could Help Reverse The Biological Clock For
Dementia Patients
     * Mental And Physical Exercise Delays Dementia In Fatal Genetic
Disease
     * Does Your Pet Seem Almost Human? It May Be A Clever Response To
Loneliness

       Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/
-------------------------------------------------

In the Spotlight

Year in Neurofeedback - 2007

Year 2007 saw a number of EEG biofeedback papers
published in a variety of journals.

Links to abstracts can be found at
http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/dec2007.htm#section1



    1. Angelakis E, Stathopoulou S, Frymiare JL, Green
DL, Lubar JF, Kounios J. EEG neurofeedback: a brief
overview and an example of peak alpha frequency
training for cognitive enhancement in the elderly.
Clin Neuropsychol. 2007 Jan;21(1):110-29. Review.
abstract

    2. Cannon R, Lubar J, Congedo M, Thornton K,
Towler K, Hutchens T. The effects of neurofeedback
training in the cognitive division of the anterior
cingulate gyrus. Int J Neurosci. 2007
Mar;117(3):337-57. abstract

    3. Caria A, Veit R, Sitaram R, Lotze M, Weiskopf
N, Grodd W, Birbaumer N. Regulation of anterior
insular cortex activity using real-time fMRI.
Neuroimage. 2007 Apr 15;35(3):1238-46. Epub 2007 Jan
31. abstract

    4. Coben R, Padolsky I (2007). Assessment-Guided
Neurofeedback for Autistic Spectrum Disorder Journal
of Neurotherapy, 11(1), 5-23. abstract

    5. Dohrmann K, Weisz N, Schlee W, Hartmann T,
Elbert T. Neurofeedback for treating tinnitus. Prog
Brain Res. 2007;166:473-85. Review. abstract

    6. Dohrmann K, Elbert T, Schlee W, Weisz N. Tuning
the tinnitus percept by modification of synchronous
brain activity. Restor Neurol Neurosci.
2007;25(3-4):371-8. abstract

    7. Drechsler R, Straub M, Doehnert M, Heinrich H,
Steinhausen HC, Brandeis D. Controlled evaluation of
a neurofeedback training of slow cortical potentials
in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD). Behav Brain Funct. 2007 Jul 26;3:35.
abstract

    8. Fehmi LG, Collura T (2007). Effects of
Electrode Placement Upon EEG Biofeedback Training:
The Monopolar-Bipolar Controversy Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(2), 45-63. abstract

    9. Fernández T, Harmony T, Fernández-Bouzas A,
Díaz-Comas L, Prado-Alcalá RA, Valdés-Sosa P, Otero
G, Bosch J, Galán L, Santiago-Rodríguez E, Aubert E,
García-Martínez F. Changes in EEG current sources
induced by neurofeedback in learning disabled
children. An exploratory study. Appl Psychophysiol
Biofeedback. 2007 Dec;32(3-4):169-83. Epub 2007 Nov
3. abstract

   10. Friel PN. EEG biofeedback in the treatment of
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Altern Med
Rev. 2007 Jun;12(2):146-51. Review. abstract

   11. Hammond DC (2007). What is Neurofeedback?
Journal of Neurotherapy, 10(4), 25-36. abstract

   12. Hammond DC (2007). Can LENS Neurofeedback Treat
Anosmia Resulting from a Head Injury? Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(1), 57-62. abstract

   13. Heinrich H, Gevensleben H, Strehl U.
Annotation: neurofeedback - train your brain to train
behaviour. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007
Jan;48(1):3-16. abstract

   14. Huang-Storms L, Bodenhamer-Davis E, Davis R,
Dunn J (2007). QEEG-Guided Neurofeedback for Children
with Histories of Abuse and Neglect:
Neurodevelopmental Rationale and Pilot Study Journal
of Neurotherapy, 10(4), 3-16. abstract

   15. Jensen MP, Hakimian S, Sherlin LH, Fregni F.
New Insights Into Neuromodulatory Approaches for the
Treatment of Pain. J Pain. 2007 Dec 18; [Epub ahead
of print] abstract

   16. Jensen MP, Grierson C, Tracy-Smith V,
Bacigalupi SC, Othmer SF (2007). Neurofeedback
Treatment for Pain Associated with Complex Regional
Pain Syndrome Type I Journal of Neurotherapy, 11(1),
45-53. abstract

   17. Kaiser DA (2007). What is Quantitative EEG?
Journal of Neurotherapy, 10(4), 37-52. abstract

   18. Kayiran S, Dursun E, Ermutlu N, Dursun N,
Karamürsel S. Neurofeedback in fibromyalgia syndrome.
Agri. 2007 Jul;19(3):47-53. abstract

   19. Kropotov JD, Grin-Yatsenko VA, Ponomarev VA,
Chutko LS, Yakovenko EA, Nikishena IS (2007). Changes
in EEG Spectrograms, Event-Related Potentials and
Event-Related Desynchronization Induced by Relative
Beta Training in ADHD Children Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(2), 3-11. abstract

   20. Lachaux JP, Jerbi K, Bertrand O, Minotti L,
Hoffmann D, Schoendorff B, Kahane P. A Blueprint for
Real-Time Functional Mapping via Human Intracranial
Recordings. PLoS ONE. 2007 Oct 31;2(10):e1094.
abstract

   21. Lee JH, O'Leary HM, Park H, Jolesz FA, Yoo SS.
Atlas-based multichannel monitoring of functional MRI
signals in real-time: Automated approach. Hum Brain
Mapp. 2008 Feb;29(2):157-66. abstract

   22. Leins U, Goth G, Hinterberger T, Klinger C,
Rumpf N, Strehl U. Neurofeedback for children with
ADHD: a comparison of SCP and Theta/Beta protocols.
Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 2007 Jun;32(2):73-88.
Epub 2007 Mar 14. abstract

   23. Low YF, Trenado C, Delb W, Corona-Strauss FI,
Strauss DJ. The role of attention in the tinnitus
decompensation: reinforcement of a large-scale neural
decompensation measure. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol
Soc. 2007;1:2485-8. abstract

   24. Monjezi S, Lyle RR (2007). Neurofeedback
Treatment of Type I Diabetes Mellitus Journal of
Neurotherapy, 10(4), 17-23. abstract

   25. Sokhadze TM, Stewart CM, Hollifield M (2007).
Integrating Cognitive Neuroscience Research and
Cognitive Behavioral Treatment with Neurofeedback
Therapy in Drug Addiction Comorbid with Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder: A Conceptual Review Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(2), 13-44. abstract

   26. Surmeli T, Ertem A (2007). EEG Neurofeedback
Treatment of Patients with Down Syndrome Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(1), 63-68. abstract

   27. Walker JE, Kozlowski GP, Lawson R. (2007). A
Modular Activation/Coherence Approach to Evaluating
Clinical/QEEG Correlations and for Guiding
Neurofeedback Training Journal of Neurotherapy,
11(1), 25-44. abstract

-DK

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Social Neuroscience: People Thinking about Thinking People
by JT Cacioppo, PS Visser, CL Pickett (Eds)
Mental and brain function during social cognition, emotion, and behavior.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262033356/eegspectrum

American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Mood Disorders
by Dan J. Stein, David J. Kupfer, and Alan F. Schatzberg
Authoritative reference for current information about mood disorders.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158562151X/eegspectrum

Handbook of Bipolar Disorder: Diagnosis And Therapeutic Approaches
by Siegfried Kasper, Robert M. A. Hirschfeld (Eds)
Neurobiology, symptoms, and treatment of bipolar disorder.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0824729358/eegspectrum

Illicit Drug Policies, Trafficking, and Use the World Over
by Caterina Gouvis Roman
History and current laws and policies on cannabis, cocaine, and heroin
trafficking --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0739109987/eegspectrum

Becoming a Therapist: What Do I Say, and Why?
by Suzanne Bender
The basic process of therapy is explained in layperson terms.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572309431/eegspectrum

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
by Robert D. Hare
Interpersonal traits such as impulsiveness and lack of responsibility
may underlie psychopathy.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572304510/eegspectrum

Brain Injury Survivor's Guide: Welcome to Our World (Paperback)
by L Jameson, B Jameson
A strategy for memory improvement.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1432716204/eegspectrum

Broken Structures: Severe Personality Disorders and Their Treatment
by Salman Akhtar
Neurochemical and symptomatic profiles of personality disorders.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076570255X/eegspectrum

Brain Sex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women
by Anne Moir, David Jessel
Includes a brain sex test to discover just how masculine or feminine
your brain
is. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385311834/eegspectrum


JOURNAL PAPERS

ADHD and QEEG in outpatient children. : CPNI ADHD T-scores and
beta:theta power ratio (site unspecified) was negatively correlated.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17938604

Depression and anxiety in epilepsy : Gender, seizure frequency and
epilepsy do not combine multiplicatively for likelihood of anxiety or
depression.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17971199

Neuronal correlates of emotional processing in patients with major
depression. : Majorly depressed patients show continual activation of
bilateral ACC and right frontal cortex.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17965984

Transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment of chronic tinnitus :
rTMS relieves tinnitus by modulating neuron excitability in auditory
cortex, decreasing hyperexcitability.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17956800

Endocannabinoid system involvement in brain reward processes related
to drug abuse. : Cannabis modulates reward of other psychoactive drugs.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17936009

Theories of autism. : Suggests autism is a developmental failure of
neural connectivity, with high local connectivity inducing low
long-range connectivity, resulting in constricted behavior.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17924239

Social skills problems in children with epilepsy : Presence of
learning disability and abnormal family function were predicative of
social skill impairment.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17928272

Increased anterior cingulate cortex volume in bipolar I disorder. :
ACC may increase in size in response to early attempts to control
affective lability.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17924244

Electrophysiology in neuropsychiatric research: a network perspective.
: Electrophysiology as a research tool is discussed, particularly in
relation to other neuroimaging methods.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17921927

Event related potentials in children of alcoholics. : COA showed
prolonged parietal N200 potential latency and smaller parietal P200
potential amplitude than controls.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17918508

   ----------

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)

     * San Diego CA Feb 7-10
     * Glendale CA  Mar 6-9 (neurophysiology)
     * Scottsdale, AZ Mar 13-16
     * Chicago, IL  Apr 10-13

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

Ending 2007 on a light note

Part of my living is made as a writer and I've
learned over the years that you must write for
yourself first, others 3rd, with payment somewhere
in between. My wife has embarked on this life, hard
as it can be sometimes, especially with the cacophony
of the Internet and Blogsphere making all voices
equally ignored. My advice to anyone writing for a
living is to leave it all out there on the playing
field, in more ways than one. Put your mind online
and you'll always be able to find some of it again. My mind
needs relief, so here are some interestings thoughts
to end 2007 with:

I like cats, too. Let's exchange recipes.

Don't bother me. I'm living happily ever after.

Therapy is expensive, poppin' bubble wrap is cheap!

I started out with nothing & still have most of it left.

I pretend to work. They pretend to pay me.

Are those your eyeballs? I found them in my cleavage.

A hard-on doesn't count as personal growth.

Let me show you how the guards used to do it.

I'm not your type. I'm not inflatable.

If I throw a stick, will you leave?

Practice random acts of intelligence & senseless acts of self-control.

Well, this day was a total waste of make-up.

Does your train of thought have a caboose?

Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.

And just how may I screw you over today?

I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very bad mood this life.

If only you'd use your powers for good instead of evil...

See no evil, hear no evil, date no evil.

I've found Jesus. He was behind the sofa the whole time.

Whisper my favorite words: "I'll buy it for you."

Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.

Better living through denial.

Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.

Suburbia: where they tear out the trees & then name streets after them.

Do they ever shut up on your planet?

I'm just working here till a good fast-food job opens up.

Who are these kids and why are they calling me Mom?

I'm trying to imagine you with a personality.

Here I am! Now what are your other two wishes?

Back off! You're standing in my aura.

I can't remember if I'm the good twin or the evil one.

Don't worry. I forgot your name, too!

Adults are just kids who owe money.

One of us is thinking about sex.....OK, it's me.

I have a computer, a vibrator, & pizza delivery. Why should I leave
the house?

I just want revenge. Is that so wrong?

It's sick the way you people keep having sex without me.

I work 40 hours a week to be this poor.

You say I'm a bitch like it's a bad thing.

Can I trade this job for what's behind door #2?

Too may freaks, not enough circuses.

Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.

You look like crap. Is that the style now?

Everyone thinks I'm psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the
earth.

Make yourself at home! Clean my kitchen.

Is it time for your medication or mine?

I refuse to star in your psychodrama.

I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted paychecks.

I'm not tense, just terribly terribly alert.

----end--

What's New in Neurofeedback
A Monthly Summary of News and Events
    Vol. 10 No. 12 - December 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   - Year in Neurofeedback - 2007
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - Ending 2007 on a light note
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

Joseph Horvat, a well-known and well-liked clinician
and personality in this field, passed away Wednesday.
He will be missed.

     * New Tool Probes Brain Circuits, Learning And Memory Pathway
     * New Research Could Help Reverse The Biological Clock For
Dementia Patients
     * Mental And Physical Exercise Delays Dementia In Fatal Genetic
Disease
     * Does Your Pet Seem Almost Human? It May Be A Clever Response To
Loneliness

       Links at http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/
-------------------------------------------------

In the Spotlight

Year in Neurofeedback - 2007

Year 2007 saw a number of EEG biofeedback papers
published in a variety of journals.

Links to abstracts can be found at
http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/dec2007.htm#section1



    1. Angelakis E, Stathopoulou S, Frymiare JL, Green
DL, Lubar JF, Kounios J. EEG neurofeedback: a brief
overview and an example of peak alpha frequency
training for cognitive enhancement in the elderly.
Clin Neuropsychol. 2007 Jan;21(1):110-29. Review.
abstract

    2. Cannon R, Lubar J, Congedo M, Thornton K,
Towler K, Hutchens T. The effects of neurofeedback
training in the cognitive division of the anterior
cingulate gyrus. Int J Neurosci. 2007
Mar;117(3):337-57. abstract

    3. Caria A, Veit R, Sitaram R, Lotze M, Weiskopf
N, Grodd W, Birbaumer N. Regulation of anterior
insular cortex activity using real-time fMRI.
Neuroimage. 2007 Apr 15;35(3):1238-46. Epub 2007 Jan
31. abstract

    4. Coben R, Padolsky I (2007). Assessment-Guided
Neurofeedback for Autistic Spectrum Disorder Journal
of Neurotherapy, 11(1), 5-23. abstract

    5. Dohrmann K, Weisz N, Schlee W, Hartmann T,
Elbert T. Neurofeedback for treating tinnitus. Prog
Brain Res. 2007;166:473-85. Review. abstract

    6. Dohrmann K, Elbert T, Schlee W, Weisz N. Tuning
the tinnitus percept by modification of synchronous
brain activity. Restor Neurol Neurosci.
2007;25(3-4):371-8. abstract

    7. Drechsler R, Straub M, Doehnert M, Heinrich H,
Steinhausen HC, Brandeis D. Controlled evaluation of
a neurofeedback training of slow cortical potentials
in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD). Behav Brain Funct. 2007 Jul 26;3:35.
abstract

    8. Fehmi LG, Collura T (2007). Effects of
Electrode Placement Upon EEG Biofeedback Training:
The Monopolar-Bipolar Controversy Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(2), 45-63. abstract

    9. Fernández T, Harmony T, Fernández-Bouzas A,
Díaz-Comas L, Prado-Alcalá RA, Valdés-Sosa P, Otero
G, Bosch J, Galán L, Santiago-Rodríguez E, Aubert E,
García-Martínez F. Changes in EEG current sources
induced by neurofeedback in learning disabled
children. An exploratory study. Appl Psychophysiol
Biofeedback. 2007 Dec;32(3-4):169-83. Epub 2007 Nov
3. abstract

   10. Friel PN. EEG biofeedback in the treatment of
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Altern Med
Rev. 2007 Jun;12(2):146-51. Review. abstract

   11. Hammond DC (2007). What is Neurofeedback?
Journal of Neurotherapy, 10(4), 25-36. abstract

   12. Hammond DC (2007). Can LENS Neurofeedback Treat
Anosmia Resulting from a Head Injury? Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(1), 57-62. abstract

   13. Heinrich H, Gevensleben H, Strehl U.
Annotation: neurofeedback - train your brain to train
behaviour. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007
Jan;48(1):3-16. abstract

   14. Huang-Storms L, Bodenhamer-Davis E, Davis R,
Dunn J (2007). QEEG-Guided Neurofeedback for Children
with Histories of Abuse and Neglect:
Neurodevelopmental Rationale and Pilot Study Journal
of Neurotherapy, 10(4), 3-16. abstract

   15. Jensen MP, Hakimian S, Sherlin LH, Fregni F.
New Insights Into Neuromodulatory Approaches for the
Treatment of Pain. J Pain. 2007 Dec 18; [Epub ahead
of print] abstract

   16. Jensen MP, Grierson C, Tracy-Smith V,
Bacigalupi SC, Othmer SF (2007). Neurofeedback
Treatment for Pain Associated with Complex Regional
Pain Syndrome Type I Journal of Neurotherapy, 11(1),
45-53. abstract

   17. Kaiser DA (2007). What is Quantitative EEG?
Journal of Neurotherapy, 10(4), 37-52. abstract

   18. Kayiran S, Dursun E, Ermutlu N, Dursun N,
Karamürsel S. Neurofeedback in fibromyalgia syndrome.
Agri. 2007 Jul;19(3):47-53. abstract

   19. Kropotov JD, Grin-Yatsenko VA, Ponomarev VA,
Chutko LS, Yakovenko EA, Nikishena IS (2007). Changes
in EEG Spectrograms, Event-Related Potentials and
Event-Related Desynchronization Induced by Relative
Beta Training in ADHD Children Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(2), 3-11. abstract

   20. Lachaux JP, Jerbi K, Bertrand O, Minotti L,
Hoffmann D, Schoendorff B, Kahane P. A Blueprint for
Real-Time Functional Mapping via Human Intracranial
Recordings. PLoS ONE. 2007 Oct 31;2(10):e1094.
abstract

   21. Lee JH, O'Leary HM, Park H, Jolesz FA, Yoo SS.
Atlas-based multichannel monitoring of functional MRI
signals in real-time: Automated approach. Hum Brain
Mapp. 2008 Feb;29(2):157-66. abstract

   22. Leins U, Goth G, Hinterberger T, Klinger C,
Rumpf N, Strehl U. Neurofeedback for children with
ADHD: a comparison of SCP and Theta/Beta protocols.
Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 2007 Jun;32(2):73-88.
Epub 2007 Mar 14. abstract

   23. Low YF, Trenado C, Delb W, Corona-Strauss FI,
Strauss DJ. The role of attention in the tinnitus
decompensation: reinforcement of a large-scale neural
decompensation measure. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol
Soc. 2007;1:2485-8. abstract

   24. Monjezi S, Lyle RR (2007). Neurofeedback
Treatment of Type I Diabetes Mellitus Journal of
Neurotherapy, 10(4), 17-23. abstract

   25. Sokhadze TM, Stewart CM, Hollifield M (2007).
Integrating Cognitive Neuroscience Research and
Cognitive Behavioral Treatment with Neurofeedback
Therapy in Drug Addiction Comorbid with Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder: A Conceptual Review Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(2), 13-44. abstract

   26. Surmeli T, Ertem A (2007). EEG Neurofeedback
Treatment of Patients with Down Syndrome Journal of
Neurotherapy, 11(1), 63-68. abstract

   27. Walker JE, Kozlowski GP, Lawson R. (2007). A
Modular Activation/Coherence Approach to Evaluating
Clinical/QEEG Correlations and for Guiding
Neurofeedback Training Journal of Neurotherapy,
11(1), 25-44. abstract

-DK

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome
by Tony Attwood
From "intersensory marriages" to day-to-day
functioning of AS.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1843104954/eegspectrum

Human Brain and Spinal Cord
by Lennart Heimer
Clinical cases and functional neuroanatomy.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0387942270/eegspectrum

How to Be an Adult in Relationships
by David Richo
Guide to healthier love relationships
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1570628122/eegspectrum

Finding Out About Asperger's Syndrome,
High-Functioning Autism and PDD
by Gunilla Gerland
Layperson resource and guide to AS.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1853028401/eegspectrum

Misdiagnosis And Dual Diagnoses Of Gifted Children
And Adults
by James T. Webb
Discussion of dual diagnoses and giftedness
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0910707642/eegspectrum

Principles of Cognitive Neurology
by M.-Marsel Mesulam
Essential text to important field of study
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195134753/eegspectrum

--------

JOURNAL PAPERS

Efficiency of prefrontal cortex during working memory in ADHD :
Evidence of
cognitive and behavioral deficits associated with ADHD are due to low
efficiency of prefrontal cortex.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1788557


Quantitative EEG indices of sub-acute ischaemic stroke : QEEG measures
are
helpful for management of stroke patients.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17889600


Left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex imbalance in depression
: Left
DLPFC hypoactivity is associated with negative emotional judgment and
right
DLPFC hyperactivity with attentional modulation.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17888408


Revised brain symmetry index. : QEEG indexes interhemispheric
asymmetry and
diffuse changes better than clinical EEG.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17888719


Bipolar disorder preceded by substance abuse : Bipolar disorder
preceded by
substance misuse is likely a milder subtype.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17886170


Attention problems during childhood predict poor teen executive
function :
Attention problems reflect impaired response inhibition.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17894607


Persistent white matter alteration after early childhood TBI : White
matter
integrity remains abnormal after childhood moderate TBI, notably in
genu of
corpus callosum and intrahemispheric pathways.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17905895


Functional neuroimaging of anxiety : PTSD involves emotional
dysregulation
beyond exaggerated fear response.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17898336


Does meditation enhance cognition and brain longevity? : Meditation
practices
may be neuroprotective, although evidence is spotty.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17905931


Cocaine effect on response to novel objects in familiar environments.
: Cocaine
diminishes investigation drive of novel stimuli in animal research.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17897705

  ----------

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)

     * San Diego CA Feb 7-10
     * Glendale CA  Mar 6-9 (neurophysiology)
     * Scottsdale, AZ Mar 13-16
     * Chicago, IL  Apr 10-13

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

Ending 2007 on a light note

Part of my living is made as a writer and I've
learned over the years that you must write for
yourself first, others 3rd, with payment somewhere
in between. My wife has embarked on this life, hard
as it can be sometimes, especially with the cacophony
of the Internet and Blogsphere making all voices
equally ignored. My advice to anyone writing for a
living is to leave it all out there on the playing
field, in more ways than one. Put your mind online
and you'll always be able to find some of it again. My mind
needs relief, so here are some interestings thoughts
to end 2007 with:

I like cats, too. Let's exchange recipes.

Don't bother me. I'm living happily ever after.

Therapy is expensive, poppin' bubble wrap is cheap!

I started out with nothing & still have most of it left.

I pretend to work. They pretend to pay me.

Are those your eyeballs? I found them in my cleavage.

A hard-on doesn't count as personal growth.

Let me show you how the guards used to do it.

I'm not your type. I'm not inflatable.

If I throw a stick, will you leave?

Practice random acts of intelligence & senseless acts of self-control.

Well, this day was a total waste of make-up.

Does your train of thought have a caboose?

Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.

And just how may I screw you over today?

I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very bad mood this life.

If only you'd use your powers for good instead of evil...

See no evil, hear no evil, date no evil.

I've found Jesus. He was behind the sofa the whole time.

Whisper my favorite words: "I'll buy it for you."

Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.

Better living through denial.

Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.

Suburbia: where they tear out the trees & then name streets after them.

Do they ever shut up on your planet?

I'm just working here till a good fast-food job opens up.

Who are these kids and why are they calling me Mom?

I'm trying to imagine you with a personality.

Here I am! Now what are your other two wishes?

Back off! You're standing in my aura.

I can't remember if I'm the good twin or the evil one.

Don't worry. I forgot your name, too!

Adults are just kids who owe money.

One of us is thinking about sex.....OK, it's me.

I have a computer, a vibrator, & pizza delivery. Why should I leave
the house?

I just want revenge. Is that so wrong?

It's sick the way you people keep having sex without me.

I work 40 hours a week to be this poor.

You say I'm a bitch like it's a bad thing.

Can I trade this job for what's behind door #2?

Too may freaks, not enough circuses.

Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.

You look like crap. Is that the style now?

Everyone thinks I'm psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the
earth.

Make yourself at home! Clean my kitchen.

Is it time for your medication or mine?

I refuse to star in your psychodrama.

I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted paychecks.

I'm not tense, just terribly terribly alert.

----end--

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

Vol. 10 No. 11 - November 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   - Brief History of Mind
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - Life is too short to be little
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

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

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

In the Spotlight

Brief History into Mind

In adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed,
ended, immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be
regenerated. It is for the science of the future to
change, if possible, this harsh decree. --Santiago
Ramon y Cajal, 1928, founder of modern neuroanatomy

Our brain is the most adaptable structure in nature,
child or adult. New connections are created and new
neurons born every moment of life (Lledo et al.,
2006; Eriksson et al., 1998). There is still some
question as to the extent of neurogenesis in the
adult brain (Sohur et al, 2006), but the corpus
callosum only gets better with age: it continues to
myelinate in the frontal regions until age 70 and
beyond (Aboitiz et al., 1996). Synaptogenesis,
neurogenesis, and myelination are all life-long, as
is learning. In fact learning and synaptogenesis are
nearly psychobiological synonyms.

Our modern sense of mind emerged in a select few
2,500 years ago and it took the better part of two
millenia before most people joined this experiment in
self-government and self-understanding. One of the
first controversies surrounding the concept of mind
was its surroundings -- where was it? Was it in the
chest? the arms? the eyes? the head? the genitals?
The first mention we have of the brain in an ancient
Egyptian papyrus 2000 BCE speaks nothing about mental
faculties. In fact the brain was considered useless
in the afterlife; Egyptians hooked and pulled it out
through a nostril and tossed it aside during
mummification (whereas viscera were preserved in jars
and the heart was left intact within the body). It
would take the Greeks 700 miles to the north, fifteen
hundred years later, to begin the discussion about
what function the brain might serve.

Aristotle placed the mind in the chest and considered
our brain to be a radiator, cooling the heart. His
teacher Plato and Hippocrates from Socrates'
generation placed their minds in head, a more modern
view, cerebrocentric, but nothing is ever neatly
decided when it comes to self-understanding. The
heart/head controversy remains with us to this day,
although in a more diluted form. Mind may be largly
situated in the brain but how can we discard the
contributions of body? Body must be part mind as it
is our source of sensory information as well as the
end point of interaction with the environment.
(Ironically, Aristotle's cardiocentric view held sway
over the academic world until the 19th century when
enough courage and political will collectively began
to overturn his views of nature.)

Returning to the formative years of neuroscience,
little was known about brain structure during the
Roman empire. Galen, a renown 2nd century physician,
ignited a revolution in medicine with his dissection
of animals and evaluation of wounded gladiators, but
he passed off knowledge of nonhuman neuroanatomy as
human, causing some confusion for later generations.
To his credit he clearly described brain divisions
but he considered the empty spaces more relevant to
function than brain tissue. By focusing on the brain
vesicles, spinal fluid reservoirs within the head,
and assigning executive, sensory, and memory function
to this liquidy realm, he propelled the field forward
while simultaneously pushing it backwards.

In the mid 16th century Andreas Vesalius realized
Galen's description of neuroanatomy was based on
nonhuman primates -- which made sense given Roman
prohibitions against human dissection -- and
correctly described some of the overlooked
peculiarities of human neuroanatomy. As it often
happens in science, moving us closer to truth enrages
those who considered themselves guardians of the
truth, and his publications turned his mentor and the
older generation of physicians against him.

In the 17th century Rene Descartes centralized the
correspondence between mind and body which for him
was soul-to-body. There are a handful of unique,
unduplicated structures in our brain, those
structures which lay in the center between or below
the hemispheres, and he chose perhaps the most
modular central structure, the pineal gland, a
producer of melatonin. Others who followed suggested
the corpus callosum, the fibers connecting cerebral
cortices, as the seat of reason or soul. This search
for locality, where soul meets body, evolved into our
theory of cerebral localization, that specific brain
tissue is dedicated to specific mental operations.

Cerebral localization move to the forefront of brain
science two centuries later when Franz Gall's
childhood observations (1758-1828) ignited a
firestorm of interest and controversy into brain
function. During this school years Franz had been
often bested verbally by a student with bulging eyes
and Gall decided that the boy's overdeveloped sense
of language was due to this bulge, due to additional
brain tissue beneath the boy's eyes. He went on to
speculate as an adult that the shape of a skull
revealed the quality or amount of mind underneath. He
identified 27 personality features which he
associated from skull topography. Phrenology, as it
came to be called, became the rage in Europe, in both
senses of the word. It grew to be extremely popular
with laypeople, a common practice at parties, and it
enraged medical professionals. Today we live in a new
age of phrenology, for good or bad, with the only
real change being greater abstraction of the
behaviors we attempt to map to brain areas. Gall
linked brain areas to large general habits, such as
veneration, criminality, and spirituality, while
modern neuroscientists have whittled behaviors down
to smaller brain habits, such as assigning sounds to
written words and other mental operations. Gall was
also early in associating frontal lobe injury to loss
of language, which is the issue that propelled
(functional) neurology for more than a century
(1850-1981).

Gall's detractors were many. In the early 19th
century Pierre Flourens set up one of the first
neuroscience labs to discredit Gall's mind-brain
equivalence. Ironically, Flourens would in the end
validate Gall' paradigm, although he never recognized
this. Flourens argued that all functions are
everywhere in the brain, based on religious
conceptions, and he cut away brain areas of small
birds and mammals to prove his point. He proved the
opposite. When he removed the cerebrum of pigeons or
rabbits, perceptions, motor function, and judgment
were abolished; removal of the cerebellum affected
equilibrium and motor coordination; destruction of
the brain stem caused death.

"The function of the cerebral lobes is to will, to
judge, to remember, to see, to hear, or - in a word -
to feel. [They] wish and feel; that is their proper
action. The suppression of these lobes weakens the
activity of the entire nervous system." (Flourens,
translated, 1824)

Flourens' rigorous experimentation established
functional localization, though not in line with
those higher functions Gall was concerned with. A few
years later Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud (1796-1881)
defended Gall in debates before French Medical
Academy. The question or thesis of cerebral
localization was very important, polarizing
scientific institutions throughout Europe, as this
question was another step in our endless struggle to
contest the divinity of humankind. The mind may
possess many faculties but the brain must be unitary
to receive the soul, according to prominent thinkers
of the day. Cerebral holism, as it was called, was
losing the day, until neurologist John Hughlings
Jackson considered localization too narrow a concept
to explain brain-mind correspondence and suggested
that the central nervous system might better be
considered as a series of interactive hierarchies,
which is a reasonable medium of localization and
holism.

"To locate the damage which destroys speech and to
localise speech [itself] are two different things."
(Jackson, 1864)

Or as British physician Henry Head more clearly
stated the idea, "The processes which underlie an act
of speech run through the nervous system like a
prairie fire from bush to bush; remove all
inflammable material at any one point and the fire
stops. So, when a break occurs in the functional
chain, orderly speech becomes impossible, because the
basic physiological processes which subserve it have
been disturbed... The site of such a breach of
continuity is not a 'center for speech', but solely a
place where it can be interrupted or changed." (Head,
1926).

The contest between holism and localization of
cerebral function continues to this day, reformulated
into networks versus modules. Where is the mind?
Where is consciousness? Is self-awareness the
function of a single brain area or is it an emergent
network property?

Both, seems to be a common answer.

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome
by Tony Attwood
From "intersensory marriages" to day-to-day
functioning of AS.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1843104954/eegspectrum

Human Brain and Spinal Cord
by Lennart Heimer
Clinical cases and functional neuroanatomy.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0387942270/eegspectrum

How to Be an Adult in Relationships
by David Richo
Guide to healthier love relationships
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1570628122/eegspectrum

Finding Out About Asperger's Syndrome,
High-Functioning Autism and PDD
by Gunilla Gerland
Layperson resource and guide to AS.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1853028401/eegspectrum

Misdiagnosis And Dual Diagnoses Of Gifted Children
And Adults
by James T. Webb
Discussion of dual diagnoses and giftedness
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0910707642/eegspectrum

Principles of Cognitive Neurology
by M.-Marsel Mesulam
Essential text to important field of study
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195134753/eegspectrum

--------

JOURNAL PAPERS

Efficiency of prefrontal cortex during working memory in ADHD : Evidence of
cognitive and behavioral deficits associated with ADHD are due to low
efficiency of prefrontal cortex.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1788557

Quantitative EEG indices of sub-acute ischaemic stroke : QEEG measures are
helpful for management of stroke patients.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17889600

Left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex imbalance in depression : Left
DLPFC hypoactivity is associated with negative emotional judgment and right
DLPFC hyperactivity with attentional modulation.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17888408

Revised brain symmetry index. : QEEG indexes interhemispheric asymmetry and
diffuse changes better than clinical EEG.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17888719

Bipolar disorder preceded by substance abuse : Bipolar disorder preceded by
substance misuse is likely a milder subtype.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17886170

Attention problems during childhood predict poor teen executive function :
Attention problems reflect impaired response inhibition.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17894607

Persistent white matter alteration after early childhood TBI : White matter
integrity remains abnormal after childhood moderate TBI, notably in genu of
corpus callosum and intrahemispheric pathways.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17905895

Functional neuroimaging of anxiety : PTSD involves emotional dysregulation
beyond exaggerated fear response.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17898336

Does meditation enhance cognition and brain longevity? : Meditation practices
may be neuroprotective, although evidence is spotty.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17905931

Cocaine effect on response to novel objects in familiar environments. : Cocaine
diminishes investigation drive of novel stimuli in animal research.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17897705
  ----------

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)

     * Portland OR Jan 17-20
     * Orlando, FL Jan 24-27
     * San Diego, CA Feb 7-10

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

Life is too short to be little

My father married 394 women during his lifetime. My
mother was first, followed by hundred that he married
off to other men. My father was a United Methodist minister.
He passed away on Christmas Eve, 2000, gone but not
forgotten. I'm fortunate to possess copies of most of
his written word, along with a sprinkling of audio
and video tapes including my wedding video (one of
those women he married was my wife). His extensive
correspondence is scattered to the winds, but I have
his doctoral dissertation and every sermon he wrote,
160 titles across 45 years (1955-2000), 1,000 pages
of typewritten hand-corrected copy. A few years ago I
assembled his sermons into a chronological
five-volume set which I gave out as Christmas
presents to immediate family. Each volume ran about
200 pages and sported a black-and-white photo of my
father at the time. Volume 1 contained sermons
written between 1955 and 57, 2: 1958-59, 3: 1960-62,
4: 1963-65, and 5: 1966-2000. His favorite sermon,
given 82 times over his career, was "Life is too
short to be little." (That I know the exact number
speaks to my father's organizational skills, not
mine.) This was his "Guest Pastor" sermon, his
greatest hit, which he gave often after they kicked
him upstairs in the 1980s to be District
Superintendent of the United Methodist Church of
Western Mass. and Eastern Connecticut.

Below is an excerpt from "Life is too short to be
little," a sermon which counsels us in a way that is
appropriate to this newsletter (psychological,
spiritual). I cut the sermon short, but it makes the
point, and you may notice a family resemblance in his
writing style.

Life is too short to be little - by B.F. Kaiser,
December 3, 1961 Benjamin Disraeli was one of the
greatest men of the 19th century. At one time he was
prime minister of England and during the last half of
his life he enjoyed a great deal of fame as an
author. He was also a man who possessed a great deal
of practical wisdom, which today we would call
"common sense." In fact he once made a statement
which is one of the profoundest guides for living
that has ever been uttered: "Life is too short to be
little."

The great French novelist Andre Maurois once
commented on this statement: "These words have helped
me through many a painful experience: often we allow
ourselves to be upset by small things we should
despise and forget. Here we are on this earth, with
only a few more decades to live, and yet we lose many
irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that in
a year's time will be forgotten by us and by
everybody. Therefore, let us devote our lives to
worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts,
real affections, and enduring undertakings. For life
is too short to be little."

Now I doubt if any of you would try to refute the
truth of Disraeli's statement that "life is too short
to be little." But while we accept it as
theoretically true, we often deny it in our everyday
lives, and as a result we tend to lead lives that are
emotionally and spiritually stunted when we could be
living on a much higher plane.

And yet life is too short to be little. For one thing
it is too short to be little in our attitudes toward
each other. This is particularly true so far as our
feelings of resentment are concerned. All of us need
to have engraved on our hearts the wise words of
Confucius, who lived six centuries before Christ, "To
be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember
it."

Several years ago I was serving a parish in the
northeastern part of Massachusetts. It was a mill
town and the church sat on a hill which looked out on
Mill Street. One day I idly happened to look out a
side window of the church and saw some children
playing on the other side of the street. One little
boy came down the long sloping sidewalk on a scooter;
you can tell how many years ago this was, as there
are not many scooters around today. He came down the
hill faster than he anticipated and he lost control
at the foot of the hill. He bounced off the curb that
separated the sidewalk from the street, and this
threw him and the scooter over into a yard beside a
paper mill, from whence he arose, skinned, bruised,
and more than a little tearful. Angrily he went over
to the curb and kicked it just as hard as he could.
Of course this hurt him far more than it did the
curb, and he screamed some more.

Now this type of behavior is characteristic of all of
us at times, even though most of us are quite a bit
older than this little boy was at that time. We
resent the injuries and the insults that are
inflicted upon us, as so we harbor personal grudges
against the people who inflicted them upon us, even
though the harboring of such grudges does us far more
harm than it does to those who inflicted the
injuries. Most of us, when we are resentful toward
others, feel that we have good reason to be, and we
may be right. But having a good reason for our
resentment does not justify permanently injuring our
own spirits. After all, it is never a problem of how
our resentment affects the one who offended us, for
it seldom does; rather, it is a question of how it
affects us. I suspect that when Jesus insisted that
we should forgive "seventy times seven" He was not
nearly so concerned about the soul of the person who
needed forgiveness as He was about the one who could
only be saved by forgiving.

Probably the most glorious victory that any of us
will ever win in the spiritual realm is to come to
the point in life that when someone else injures us,
we shall retaliate with kindness and forgiveness.
Granted that it is very hard to do that, but life is
far too short to retaliate with anything else, and
thus lead to an endless string of insults, injuries ,
and bitterness. For resentment is a spiritual cancer,
and it will lead us to spiritual death if we harbor
it in our hearts. Certainly life is too short to
spend time and energy constantly worrying about
personal slights and injuries. For life is too short
to be little.

Life is also too short to be little in our purposes.
All of us have to have some sort of purpose to live,
but far too often, we are content with little
purposes when we should have a far greater purpose
that would really bring out the best that is in us.

A former parishioner of mine once told me that what
he fears most when he stands before the great white
throne of God is to hear the voice of the Lord ask:
"Well, what did you see in My world?" and to have to
answer: "I never had time to see it, Lord. I was
always on the telephone." I suspect that all of us
could identify with that, as we become wrapped up in
our jobs and our everyday lives.

All of us have heard the story, in one form or
another, of the man who was working on a new building
with a hammer and a chisel. Finally, one of the
sidewalk superintendents asked him, "Where does this
stone you're working on fit into the building?" The
man just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know; I
haven't seen the plans. I just do what they tell me.
I keep hammering away." Oh, what a parable of life
this is! So many of us spend our lives this way, just
hammering away Monday through Friday, occasionally
Saturday and Sunday, just doing what "they" tell us,
with no other purpose except to get through life in
the easiest way possible. And yet life is too short
for this sort of thing. We have only one life to
spend; let us spend it for the highest purposes that
we can find instead of squandering it on anything
that comes along. For life is too short to be little
in our purpose...

Finally, life is too short to be little in our faith.
We often hear today that people do not have as much
faith as they used to have, but don't you believe it.
All of us have faith in a great many things, whether
we realize it or not. We have faith in our doctor, or
we would not go to that doctor for diagnosis and
treatment. We have faith in our bank, or we would not
deposit our money in it. It is never a question of
having faith or not having faith; rather, it is a
question of what we shall put our faith in. Some of
us, often without realizing it, put our faith in the
little god of things, believing that the more things
we have, the better off we will be. Others of us put
our faith in the little god of pleasure, believing
that the chief end of life is to extract every
possible thrill from it that we can. Still others of
us put our faith in the little god of power,
believing that exercising influence and power over
others is the way to the greatest fulfillment in
life. Most of us tend to put our faith in everything
else except Almighty God until we are at life's
extremity. We are like the woman who raced up to the
captain of an ocean liner in the midst of a storm,
asking, "Are we in any danger?" "Madam," he replied,
"we must have faith in God." "Oh, my goodness!" she
said; "are things that bad?" I suspect that we could
all identify with that; are things that bad?..

(Excerpted)
----end--

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

Vol. 10 No. 10 - October 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   - Applied social psychophysiology
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, courses
Last Word          - Placebo-resistant disorders
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

  -Bad Memories Stick Better Than Good
  -Breakthrough drug for schizophrenia
  -Roots of Fearful Memories

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

In the Spotlight
Applied Social Psychophysiology

Humans are mind readers. We are able to adjust our
communication to match our audience's knowledge and
adjust our behaviors to the intentions of a friend,
stranger, or rival. How we are able to perceive the
behavior of other minds has been under scientific
investigation for decades, but only recently have we
strapped electrodes onto head or body to study its
physical basis.

Social psychophysiology melds social sciences with
psychophysiology, relating brain activity to social
cognition and social behavior. Interactive
biofeedback -- applied social psychophysiology --
promises new means to improve social competence and
function.

There are social and non-social behaviors, and of the
social, we have competitive and cooperative forms.
Competitive behaviors attempt to exclude others from
obtaining resources while cooperative behaviors
include others in the acquisition and distribution of
resources. Our ability to mind-read evolved from
competitive impulses, interestingly. In fact,
chimpanzees fail on theory of mind tests when
cooperation is the goal, but act like mind-reading
humans in competitive situations (Povinelli et al
1990).

Joint attention, or co-perception, is a foundation of
social cognition. Joint attention produces not only a
shared perception but a shared reality: we become
aware of the other person's current state of mind, if
only for a moment. A child advances along his or her
two- decade-long journey of enculturation --
acquiring beliefs, practices and values of a culture
-- through joint attention and other social cognitive
developments (cf. Vygotsky, 1962).

A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away I
collected EEG from a two dozen people while they
watched a slew of bad, good, and mediocre film
previews. The goal was to identify EEG correlates of
perceptual and emotional integration of cinematic
content. In addition to entire previews, I linked
moment-to-moment changes in EEG to fluctuation of
audience engagement. I thought such a technology
would let movie execs know which scene in a video
killed and which was dead weight and should be
killed, where did audience interest wax in their
product and at what point exactly did it flounder.

Such a technology was the end stage of
deconstructionism, a movement in literary criticism
in which an author's point of view is completely
eliminated from her work of art; voided, creation
divorced from creator intent. Had this technology
matured, directors would provide raw material
(scenes) but no integration, not even when to stop or
start a scene. All narrative motion would be
determined by audience brain response. Rank,
rearrange, reorganize to maximize studio product.
What an enemies list I would have created had a
single Hollywood exec understood a word I said.

You can understand it. We measured group cohesion
with electrodes, and by indexing group cohesion
during film watching, we actually measured how well a
stimulus engages an audience.

So considering EEG, we all know that EEG
desynchronizes when we attend to stimuli (e.g., alpha
activity diminishes) and it generally synchronizes
when we don't. Films aren't simple stimuli, however;
they span and build across time. They are narrative
content, so interest in a film cannot be computed by
counting up engagements and subtracting
disengagements. Story interest is a function of
surprise, meaning and surprise. High-surprise story
endings are more interesting than low-surprise story
endings as long as post- surprise incongruity is
resolved (Iran-Nejad & Cecil, 1992). The more
surprises, the better, as long as they are all
relevant. When the unfamiliar is suddenly,
surprisingly familiar, that is meaning. And surprise
is more emotion than cognition, release of all
instead of containment (cognition).

When we process narratives, we seek release.
Engagement is a reasonable mix of containment and
release, as Shakespeare and wordsmiths realized long
ago. Narratives consists of arousal-release cycles,
nothing more, emotional and cognitive tension
building to unbearability .... to be released. The
more thorough, expansive, and all-encompassing the
tension, the greater the release when it is all
resolved. A story bangs our head against the wall
because it feels so good to us when it stops.

We couldn't estimate accurately when tension was
building or releasing in our film previews, but we
could determine when a group acted as one, compared
to when it acted as many. We measured how similar
members of a group responded to each film preview.

The assumption was that when an individual was
interested by a stimulus (scene in a film), his or
her attentional state was likely to be guided by
narrative events and changes. When individuals are
engaged by a film, their brains swim together,
tensing up and releasing together. When a film bores
an audience, they swim apart, going off on
independently tangents.

Simultaneous patterns of engagement and disengagement
for a group is what I call attentional synchrony, and
we believe attentional synchrony should manifest in
EEG as converging alpha activity in response to
stimulation.

Between-subject variance of alpha magnitude at
relevant cortical sites was measured. We chose site
Pz for two reasons: 1) parietal engagement indicated
interest better than other brain areas in a general
analysis, and 2) we chose midline Pz in order to
minimize differences caused by cognitive style
(interhemispheric differences).

Large variance of the group's alpha activity was
expected to occur when some of the audience were more
engaged that other members of the audience. Some
could be entirely disengaged when others were rapt.
On the other hand, large variance of the group's
alpha activity could only occur when alpha magnitudes
were similar across individuals -- that is, when
people were all doing the same thing, be it engaged
or not.

Online are examples of smoothed (10 s) alpha activity
of five individuals during eyes open rest, a low
interest preview, and one rated high in interest.
Individuals respond similarly as the high interest
film progresses.
(start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/oct2007.htm

Another way to depict brains swimming together or
swimming apart is by summarizing group dynamics. To
the right, a high-low graph presents mean alpha
magnitude at each epoch plus or minus 1 standard
deviation for 20 individuals. Each vertical line
signifies the group's range out to one standard
deviation. The wider the range, the more various were
psychophysiological responses at any given moment in
time. As you can see, low engagement -- eyes open
rest baseline -- produced high group variance and
high interest restricted vertical line length, with
low interest films resulting in moderate group
variance.

Finally, we correlated our index of attentional
synchrony (between-subject standard deviation, the
height of each vertical line, divided by two) to
subjective interest ratings of a film preview. Each
film preview was rated on interest level by our
subjects as well as by an independent group. Three
replications of eyes open rest are numbered and
plotted to the left as states of very low interest,
what should indicate nearly random associations
between individuals. As you can see, we found a
robust relationship between group psychophysiology
and group subjective ratings. Interesting stimuli
apparently cohese a group.

An argument might be made that low group alpha
variance is due to a floor effect in alpha magnitude:
lower values tend to show low variability. And alpha
magnitude and subjective interest ratings were
correlated (r =-.42), but not as strongly as ratings
with group alpha variance (r =-.80). In fact trends
of group alpha variance occasionally acted opposite
of trends of alpha magnitude within some film
previews.

The one drawback to this index of attentional
synchrony, which is perhaps true for any measure from
social psychophysiology, is that it cannot be
determined for an individual but requires a group.

Functional neuroimaging will eventually intervene in
the creative process, especially given enormous
budgets and high risk involved in feature film
production. But I would suggest they start not with
scene selection or editing but with score. Whenever
attentional synchrony of an audience's right
hemisphere drops during a movie, add some music to
your production.

--References

Hare B, Brown M, Williamson C, & Tomasello M.
(2002).The domestication of social cognition in dogs.
Science, 298, 1634-6.

Iran-Nejad, A., & Cecil, C. (1992). Interest and
learning: A biofunctional perspective. In K.A.
Renninger, S. Hidi, A. Krapp (Eds), The role of
interest in learning and development pp. 297-332.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Kaiser, D.A. (1994, unpubl dissertation.) Interest in
films as measured by ratings and topographic EEG.
UCLA, co-chairs, MB Sterman & E Zaidel.

Pack, A & Herman, LM (2006). Dolphin social cognition
and joint attention: Our current understanding.
Aquatic Mammals, 32, 443- 460.

Povinelli DJ, Nelson KE & Boysen ST (1990).
Inferences about guessing and knowing by chimpanzees
(Pan troglodytes). Journal of Comparative Psychology,
104, 203-210.

Vygotsky LS (1962) Thought and language. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Frontal Subcortical Circuits Psychiatric Neurological Disorders
by David G. Lichter
Extensive review of frontal circuitry
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572306238/eegspectrum

Utterly Unique Celebrating Strengths High Functioning
by Vivian Strand
Discusses strengths of Asperger Syndrome children.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931282897/eegspectrum

Awareness Deficit after Brain Injury
by George P. Prigatano
Describes treatment and condition of loss of awareness after TBI
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195059417/eegspectrum

Dancing with Fear: Overcoming Anxiety in a World of Stress & Uncertainty
by Paul Foxman
Biological as well as holistic perspective on anxiety.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765701502/eegspectrum

Codependent No More Controlling Yourself
by Melody Beattie
Assistance in recovery from codependency.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0894864025/eegspectrum

----

JOURNAL PAPERS

Long-acting methylphenidate has effect on aggressive behavior in ADHD
: Oppositional-defiant and mild aggressive behavior are improved by this drug.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17822338

Psychosocial and emotional outcomes 10 years following TBI
: Anxiety, depression, fatigue, and alcohol use must be addressed for TBI
recovery.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17878769

Orbitofrontal Cortex Function and Structure in Depression.
: Antidepressant treatment may reduce activity in orbitofrontal cortex.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17872395

Clinical neurophysiology of aging brain
: Neurophysiological techniques (EEG, ERP, MEG, TMS) can assess loss of brain
function with aging.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17870229

Impact of substance use disorder on ADHD and its treatment.
  One in 5 adults with ADHD suffer from a substance use disorder.
www.ncbi.nlm.nihgov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17876905
  ----------

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)

     * San Antonio TX Nov 29-Dec 2
     * Glendale CA Dec 13-16
     * Portland OR Jan 17-20

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 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

Placebo-resistant disorders

It dawn on me, while revising an article of epilepsy
and neurofeedback, how we have been mislabelling
epilepsy and other disorders studied in this field.
People enroll in neurofeedback programs as a latter
option, especially for seizure disorder, having
already undergone months or years of the best Western
medicine has to offer. Medication was ineffective in
controlling seizures so not only do these individuals
provide a historical control against which clinical
improvement ought to be evaluated, we mustn't
overlook a failed placebo effect in all of these
cases. All epilepsy patients undergo lengthy
unsuccessful medication therapies, some even
neurosurgies, spending hundreds of hours in
well-diploma'd medical clinics with men and women in
labcoats scurrying nearby.

The placebo effect had its chance. It ran its course.
As the placebo effect had minimal impact in previous
treatments, its presence in neurofeedback training is
highly unlikely, negligible if you want to quantify it,
and more important to scientific investigation,
it is more conservative to assume a placebo effect
was present in the current post-treatment outcome,
which is the state usually just prior to neurofeedback.
Either that, or Western medicine was
so ineffective it couldn't even elicit a placebo
effect. Or Western medicine harmed the patient but
the placebo effect balanced off the harm. I believe
pills and scalpels are the most powerful placebo
devices yet devised. So when you describe epilepsy
patients who undergo neurofeedback, we need to
clearly labelled them as suffering from both
medication-resistant and placebo-resistant seizure.

That said, here is a slight revision of a piece I
wrote years ago on the Placebo Effect. Be warned --
it goes in a new direction.

When Freud gave a name to Darkness, calling it Our
Unconscious, he set loose a process of distrust in
ourselves and others that is difficult to transcend.
From his infernal creation descends a ray of hope,
the placebo effect, the notion that mind heals itself
if only we can get out of the way. Healing through
interaction with a clinician, regardless of the tools
the clinician brings. A clinician can shake a rattle
or inject an inactive serum, yet we will heal. It's a
powerful idea -- because it works.

Or does it?

Henry K. Beecher's influential 1955 paper "The
Powerful Placebo," published in JAMA, the Journal of
the American Medical Association, was the first to
quantify the magnitude of a placebo effect. From this
paper derives the ubiquitous citation of 35% or one-
third improvement associated with placebo. According
to Beecher, 35% of 1082 patients were "satisfactorily
relieved" by placebo alone, a value never meant to be
carved in stone. It was a mathematical mean from 15
clinical trials that involved numerous diseases, with
a range of improvement from 21 to 58 %.

Forty years later, Kienle and Kiene (1997) reexamined
Beecher's paper and concluded that "no evidence was
found of any placebo effect in any of the studies
cited by (Beecher)."

One hundred percent off the mark - tying a record
with the best of 'em. Instead of a placebo effect,
Kienle and Kiene (1997) concluded that improvements
from these 15 studies could be accounted for by:
spontaneous improvement or recovery (that one is
questionable for eliminating placebo), symptom
fluctuation, regression to mean, concomitant
treatments, scaling bias, obliging reports by
patients, irrelevant response variables, experimental
subordination, conditioned answers, psychosomatic
phenomena, and other factors including an "active
placebo" also known as an (active) treatment. Not one
factor listed by these authors incorporated a concept
of psychological anticipation for well-being, what I
consider the agency of a placebo.

The same authors later wondered whether the placebo
effect was largely illusory. Gotzsche (1995) argued
that the placebo concept should be discarded
altogether. But others disagree and continue to argue
that psychological mechanisms underlay nonspecific
effects (Kirsch, 1997), perhaps because of their lack
of study of the mind. Some researchers sling the
P-term around like mud at anything they do not own
patent rights to. Perhaps with hindsight, Kienle and
Kiene (1997) warned that "the placebo topic seems to
invite sloppy methodological thinking." And sloppy
thinking is the immediate label thrusted upon any
treatment modality which successfully outcompetes the
current standard.

A placebo effect in mental health should have
neurobiological mechanisms underlying it. What are
they? What are the neuroanatomical and
neurophysiological systems involved? We should
observe duration and dose curves with placebo if it
exists.

I can think of three reasons why placebo controls are
desirable in research:

To evaluate absolute efficacy: Placebo controls
determine whether a new treatment is better than
placebo (e.g., nothing).

To avoid difficult decisions about treatment
effectiveness: Differences in cost, unintended side
effects, drug interactions, and other factors may
make comparisons between treatments of similar
efficacy inexact and subjective.

To bolster statistical significance: As any grad
student knows, it is much easier to detect
statistical significance between a placebo and an
active treatment than between two active treatments.

Ignoring the ethics of requiring placebo controls, or
even the phenomenological argument of whether placebo
effects exist at all, I realize that one can define
an active treatment by a set of criteria that
placebos will not meet. This will provide the needed
unfalsifiability of a scientific hypothesis, which is
missing in most arguments about the impact of
placebo.

Specificity: its use impacts a single functional
domain. (This is a weak requirement, allowing domain
to be redefined and ignoring cascading effects.)

Toxicity: its use worsen symptoms in some patients.

Long Duration: Changes associated with its use endure
for weeks, months, or years.

Dose-dependence: Changes reflect an accumulation of
doses. (We should be able to plot at least 2 or 3
points on a dose-response curve between asymptotes.)

Time-dependence: Changes occur in response to a
time-line which can be manipulated in research. ABA.

-DK
----end--

use 60 for message width, 81 for medline url


Yahoo messages uses 55/56

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

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--

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

Vol. 10 No. 8 - August 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   - Word and Infinity
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - nada
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

   See July listings

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

In the Spotlight

Word and Infinity

Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness
from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is
engulfed. - Pascal (1623-1662).

August is my vacation from reality. Raising 4 young
kids means I left reality in the dust long ago. Here
is my summer in tractatus, which is something like an
existential haiku, verbal rifts in a piece of
cerebral jazz.

I spent this summer playing with infinity, reading
about continuum and integers, and deciphering what I
could, as well as reading about my version of human
infinity, Jesus. Like Tupac the late rap star, Jesus'
production hasn't faded, despite premature reports of
his demise. New rifts continue to be released
regularly, 2,000 years after he tangled with
Jerusalem and Rome.

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was family.

"No matter where you are, you are to go to James the
Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into
being," --Jesus, according to Thomas.

Jesus' commentary on the Torah includes many
disturbing points. For instance, in the first
beatitude, Jesus advocates destitution, according to
JD Crossan's translation. "Blessed are the destitute,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This is
Crossan's English and it does change the opening
chord in jesus' music, which I read as, if you lack
spirit, you are in the kindgom of heaven, and
clarifies the opening to a decision I can
contemplate. Jesus asks me to give up all security.
Will this make me free, a human photon of Earth?

Here is much of Matthew's version of the Sermon.

Blessed (God's people) are those who mourn, for they
shall be comforted.

Blessed (God's people) are the meek, for they shall
inherit the earth.

Blessed (God's people) are those who hunger and
thirst for doing what's right, for they shall be
filled.

Blessed (God's people) are the merciful, for they
shall obtain mercy.

Blessed (God's people) are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God.

Blessed (God's people) are the peacemakers, for they
are His children.

Blessed (God's people) are those who are persecuted
for doing what's right, for they shall soon live in
the kingdom of heaven.

Let's stir in Gospel of Thomas,

"Do not lie and do not do what you hate"

Love your friends like your own soul, protecting them
like the pupil of your eye"

"Where there are three deities, they are divine.
Where there are two or one, I am with that one."

"This heaven will pass away, and the one above it
will pass away, -- [when the thalamus and cortex act
as one.]

"Congratulations to the one who came into being
before coming into being.

Now follows my month of August Tractatus:

Always move first to end a staring contest.

Word created Abba. Abba created Love.

Life is infinitely bounded on both sides.

There are three infinities: countable, continuum, and
the zero.

Let your cerebellum control your brain. It is left
and right brain in infinite regress.

We are all galaxies.

Some of us decay quickly, others extremely slowly,
teachers not at all.

Serve the whole by being whole, and less.

The arrow of time is driven by size.

Life occurs only when there is change of status or
size.

Words (1) convey desires, (2) remind us of past
experiences, and (3) act as substitutes for complex
events. Speech (1) trains attention on specific
features; (2) facilitates recall and (3) allows
comparison without perceptual influence. Attempts to
reconstruct our earliest languages suggest that past
languages were as complex as modern languages and may
stretch back millions of years.

You are in the one and only Story. Do not fret!

Speak.

There is no information loss, none.

Early hominids invaded the social predator niche,
pushing out the great cats. Group defense became
offense and now humans exist somewhere between apes
and cats.

Your world must be separated from Mine.

Anytime you need more life, synchronize with all that
is around you.

Synchrony feeds us physically, mentally, socially.

Healing rituals should produce psychobiological
synchrony between individuals.

Language improves when priorities change.

Self is a set of nested propositions, a tractatus.

Self was invented when people speaking different
languages were encountered by early Greek and Hebrew
cultures. When mental states were publicly discussed
and compared, recognized as shared experiences
(Jaynes, 1976), the concept of self ignited and has
yet to fade.

Like the universe, healthy people are always in the
process of unbounding. Unsustainable boundaries, for
whatever reason unrewarding, should be dismantled and
reconstituted, else everything about existence will
come into doubt.

The I should know no it.

Awareness is a boundary the thalamus creates against
sensory information. Self-awareness is cortical
boundary against thalamic activity.

We map our own story deeper than all and have no
shame in it.

Mind discovered story, story became body.

We are the one true sole negotiation with All. The
universe expands out from us. We cannot deny our
role.

Emerson considered beauty to be the moment of
transition, one form becoming another -- but beauty
is, without any process of becoming. It is one that
is two. Beauty is identifying you and another in
another.

There is only one pain, infinite loss.

Life is attraction and change. Don't make it about
you.

Be unique.

Sing.

Release history, or don't.

Who can define you except you?

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

ADD in The Workplace: Choices, Changes, and Challenges
by Kathleen G. Nadeau
Discusses ways to maintain an optimal work environment for ADD adults.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0876308477/eegspectrum

The Neuropsychiatry of Epilepsy
by Michael Trimble, Bettina Schmitz
Recent findings for epilepsy and behavior disorders.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521005167/eegspectrum

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
by Michel Foucault
A timely look back at a classic (which is an oxymoronic statement, I guess).
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 067972110X/eegspectrum

The Computer and the Brain
by John von Neumann
A giant of 20th century mathematics and his thoughts on the brain and
intelligence. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0300024150/eegspectrum

Journeys Through ADDulthood
by Sari Solden
A response to how ADHD treatment focuses on overcoming its symptoms rather than
leading a fulfilling life. --
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802713769/eegspectrum

Starting Again: Early Rehabilitation After Traumatic Brain Injury
by Patricia M. Davies
Practical advice on physical rehab of brain injured patients.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0387559345/eegspectrum

Beethoven's Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture
by William L. Benzon
Speculation on how emotion and physiology combine in music-making.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465015441/ eegspectrum

Asperger's: What Does It Mean to Me?
by Catherine Faherty
Workbook to help child learn more about himself.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1885477597/eegspectrum


  ----------
JOURNAL PAPERS

Coherence in ADHD and excess beta activity : Excessive beta power in ADHD
children may be evidence of a frontal lobe dysfunction in this subtype.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17502165


No neurochemical evidence for brain injury caused by heading in soccer. :
Repeated low severity head impacts were not associated with neurochemical signs
of brain injury.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17496068


Grandchildren at Risk for Depression Differ in EEG Asymmetry. : Grandchildren
with depressed parent and grandparent showed relatively less right than left
hemisphere activity.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17481594


Can behavioural therapy influence neuromodulation? : Reviews behavioral therapy
impact on CNS function.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17508158


Testosterone-related disorders in women with autism spectrum conditions. :
Androgen theory of autism evaluated by surveying women with autism spectrum
conditions. These women more often exhibited irregular menstrual cycle,
epilepsy, and tomboyism, among other conditions.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17462645


Complementary and alternative medicine for epilepsy in Midwest : Nearly 2 in 5
epileptics surveyed used CAMs, including prayer/spirituality, "mega" vitamins,
and stress management (16%).
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17459780


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


Topographic brain: from neural connectivity to cognition. : Broader
understanding of topographic maps may link genetics, neurophysiology and
cognition.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17462748


Correlation between EEG rhythms during sleep: surface versus mediotemporal EEG.
: Power density is negatively correlated between delta/theta and beta
frequencies above 16 Hz during NREM sleep.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17471077


Event-related functional MRI study of working memory in euthymic bipolar
disorder. : Widespread fronto-cortico- limbic dysfunction may be inherent in
bipolar disorder.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17476364


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
  ----------

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)

     * Glensdale CA Aug 23-26
     * Alexandria VA Sep 6-9
     * Chicago IL Sep 27-30

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 - www.isnr.org   San Diego, CA     Sep 6-9,   2007
AAPB - www.aapb.org   Daytona Beach, FL May 13-18, 2008

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


Last Word


None - Summer Break! See you after Labor Day.


----end--

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

Vol. 10 No. 7 - July 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   - Periodicity Table
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - QEEG in your future
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

     * Study Probes Roots of Fearful Memories
     * Sex Drive in Brain, Not Hormones, Study Suggests
     * Brain chemical has key role in ADHD: studies
     * Brain Studies Show ADHD Is Real Disease
     * Coffee may slow memory declines in women: study

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

In the Spotlight

Periodicity Table

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more
complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius
-- and a lot of courage - - to move in the opposite
direction. -- Albert Einstein

Most EEG rhythms are the product of bidirectional
traffic between thalami and cortex. Hypersynchrony
between cortex and thalamus produces a loss of
consciousness, with a complete lack of responsiveness
to sensory input altogether, as in sleep, coma, or
seizure. The amount of synchrony varies across brain
sites and frequencies during different stages of
maturation, and one of our jobs as neurotherapists is
to identify whether each brain area is functioning
properly in our clients. Is it showing the proper
amount of synchrony or dependence for the
individual's age group? Which sites show too little
autonomy or independence, or too much?

Neurotherapy training has started to expand beyond
the handful of spectral parameters it has relied on
for most of its history -- magnitude (or power),
relative magnitude, coherence, phase, band ratio. We
can summarize the family of spectral parameters by
the following: consistency or difference of magnitude
or phase for multiple sites or frequencies. If we
limit electrode sites and frequency to no more than
two, we generate a set of 2x2 tables that contain
familiar as well as unfamiliar terms. The unfamiliar
terms can be applied to help complete our picture of
brain function at this level of measurement, EEG.

These tables, along with transformational properties,
comprise a periodicity table, the start of an
organizing scheme for understanding EEG dynamics.
Tables contain measures of activity or connectivity,
depending upon whether a spectral parameter is
capturing negotiation across cortex or between cortex
and thalamus or similar local activity (see http://
www.skiltopo.com/period.htm to see pictures of the
tables).

Activity Table # 1 - 1 site, 1 frequency.
Autocoherence (phase consistency),
Autophase (phase difference),
Variability (magnitude consistency), and
Magnitude (magnitude difference, from zero)

Connectivity Table #1 - shared activity between two
sites, one frequency.
Coherence (phase consistency),
Phase Lag (phase difference),
Comodulation (magnitude consistency), and
Asymmetry (magnitude difference). I added another
approach here called Unity, which is the epoch-level
absolute value of Asymmetry.

Activity Table 2 - one site, two frequencies.
Selection between systems, one site.
Bicoherence (phase consistency),
Biphase (phase difference),
Bimodulation (magnitude consistency), and
Band Ratio (magnitude difference between frequencies,
same site, e.g., theta/beta ratios). If more
frequencies were including, spectral entropy would
also squeeze in here along with relative magnitude, a
noisy version of SE.

Connectivity Table 2. Shared activity between sites,
between frequency. Selection by equals. Division of
labor connectivity.
Cross-bicoherence (phase consistency),
Cross-biphase (phase difference),
Cross-bimodulation (magnitude consistency), and
Cross-band Ratio (magnitude difference between
frequencies, different sites, e.g., frontal
theta/central beta ratio).

EEG transitions, when network activity impacts local
events, or vice versa, may be measured as well. I
call them transformational properties, and they refer
to the connection or disconnection between local and
network responses. In four Asperger syndrome
individuals we observe spectral magnitude values
inconsistent with network changes, as measured by
global comodulation. Energy was poorly correlated
with network traffic in this small group compared to
healthy adults, which may suggest too much focality
in information processing. Energy changes were too
localized, without attendant changes in network
traffic. In normal individuals we see a greater
coupling of energy and network action. Network
synchrony may fuel local cortical events, or vice
versa. This is just one way in which intelligence
shows lower coupling to normative standards.

When most people think of synchrony measures in EEG
they think of coherence. Coherence is a measure of
phase consistency between signals developed
apparently by Norbert Weiner and colleagues to
understand quantum mechanics and other avenues of
research. Early pioneers in the application of
coherence analysis in EEG are Walter (1968), Orr and
Naitoh, 1976; and Thatcher (1992). How to compute
coherence is clearly described by Thatcher et al.
(2007; online). Comodulation, on the other hand, is a
complementary measure, one based on magnitude and not
phase, orthogonal to coherence. Comodulation is
magnitude consistency between EEG signals (Kaiser,
1994) and is very easy to calculate compared to
coherence. Compute magnitude of a frequency at each
moment in time for two sites and Pearson product
moment correlate the magnitudes across time. The
orthogonal nature of these two measures is obvious in
definition -- phase consistency, magnitude
consistency -- and in their computation. Coherence is
spectral analysis of correlation coefficients and
comodulation is correlation of spectral coefficients.

Short moving segments provide a fluidic and
point-like representation of energy or timing
changes, so the above tables can be extended into the
time dimension as well.

Coherence measures stability of phase between
signals. Shared timing indicates a common origin
(degrees of freedom, none). Comodulation measures
stability of amplitude between signals Shared energy
indicates functional unity. Energy is independence,
higher degrees of freedom. Both are across time.
Coherence averages across time (sameness) whereas
Comod evaluates changes across time (differences).
Coherence quantifies the degree of similar influences
and comodulation quantifies the degree of similar
autonomy

In comodulation we are looking at shared energies,
coherence shared timings. If these definitions don't
grab you, metaphorically or mathematically, try
stability of phase difference and stability of
magnitude difference.

For certain brain functions magnitude consistency
between brain areas may be more important than
coherence; for other functions, phase consistency may
be. In many cases there is no clear preference. That
said, we should keep in mind that comodulation,
coherence, and any feasible assortment of spectral
indices are but a few of the parameters that may
relate brain function to mental function.
Non-spectral measures, or medians and other
derivatives such as slope or variability, mobility or
complexity may prove useful in mapping brain to mind.
Quantitative EEG needs to incorporate some of the
promising new approaches to shed more light on the
informational vortex that envelopes brain behavior.
To date, it has barely scratched the surface.

Early phase descriptions
Adrian EDK & Yamagiwa (1935) The origin of the Berger
rhythm, Brain, 58 323-351.

Motokawa K & Tuziguti K (1944). Alpha phases in EEG
activity. Japanese Journal of Medical Sciences, 10,
23-38.

Computation of Coherence
Goodman, N.R. (1957, diss.). On the joint estimation
of the spectra, cospectrum and quadrature spectrum of
a two- dimensional stationary Gaussian process.
Princeton Univ. JW Tukey advisor

Walter DO. (1961).Spectral analysis for
electroencephalograms: mathematical determination of
neurophysiological relationships from records of
limited duration. Experimental Neurology, 8, 151-181.

Early magnitude descriptions
Berger H. (1929). Ueber das Elektroenkephalogramm des
Menschen. Archiv Psy Nerv, 87, 527-570.

Dietsch, G. (1932). Fourier-analyse von
Elektrenkephalog. des Menschen. Pflüger's Arch. Ges.
Physiol., 230, 106-112.

Computation of Comodulation
Kaiser, DA. (1994, diss.). Interest in Films as
Measured by Subjective & Behavioral Ratings and
Topographic EEG. UCLA. MB Sterman, advisor

Sterman, M.B. & Kaiser, D.A. (1999). Topographic
analysis of spectral density co-variation: normative
database and clinical assessment. Clinical
Neurophysiology, 110 (S1), S80.

-DK

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

ADD in The Workplace: Choices, Changes, and Challenges
by Kathleen G. Nadeau
Discusses ways to maintain an optimal work environment for ADD adults.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0876308477/eegspectrum

The Neuropsychiatry of Epilepsy
by Michael Trimble, Bettina Schmitz
Recent findings for epilepsy and behavior disorders.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521005167/eegspectrum

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
by Michel Foucault
A timely look back at a classic (which is an oxymoronic statement, I guess).
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 067972110X/eegspectrum

The Computer and the Brain
by John von Neumann
A giant of 20th century mathematics and his thoughts on the brain and
intelligence. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0300024150/eegspectrum

Journeys Through ADDulthood
by Sari Solden
A response to how ADHD treatment focuses on overcoming its symptoms rather than
leading a fulfilling life. --
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802713769/eegspectrum

Starting Again: Early Rehabilitation After Traumatic Brain Injury
by Patricia M. Davies
Practical advice on physical rehab of brain injured patients.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0387559345/eegspectrum

Beethoven's Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture
by William L. Benzon
Speculation on how emotion and physiology combine in music-making.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465015441/ eegspectrum

Asperger's: What Does It Mean to Me?
by Catherine Faherty
Workbook to help child learn more about himself.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1885477597/eegspectrum


  ----------
JOURNAL PAPERS

Coherence in ADHD and excess beta activity : Excessive beta power in ADHD
children may be evidence of a frontal lobe dysfunction in this subtype.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17502165


No neurochemical evidence for brain injury caused by heading in soccer. :
Repeated low severity head impacts were not associated with neurochemical signs
of brain injury.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17496068


Grandchildren at Risk for Depression Differ in EEG Asymmetry. : Grandchildren
with depressed parent and grandparent showed relatively less right than left
hemisphere activity.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17481594


Can behavioural therapy influence neuromodulation? : Reviews behavioral therapy
impact on CNS function.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17508158


Testosterone-related disorders in women with autism spectrum conditions. :
Androgen theory of autism evaluated by surveying women with autism spectrum
conditions. These women more often exhibited irregular menstrual cycle,
epilepsy, and tomboyism, among other conditions.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17462645


Complementary and alternative medicine for epilepsy in Midwest : Nearly 2 in 5
epileptics surveyed used CAMs, including prayer/spirituality, "mega" vitamins,
and stress management (16%).
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17459780


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


Topographic brain: from neural connectivity to cognition. : Broader
understanding of topographic maps may link genetics, neurophysiology and
cognition.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17462748


Correlation between EEG rhythms during sleep: surface versus mediotemporal EEG.
: Power density is negatively correlated between delta/theta and beta
frequencies above 16 Hz during NREM sleep.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17471077


Event-related functional MRI study of working memory in euthymic bipolar
disorder. : Widespread fronto-cortico- limbic dysfunction may be inherent in
bipolar disorder.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17476364


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
  ----------

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)

     * Glensdale CA Aug 23-26
     * Alexandria VA Sep 6-9
     * Chicago IL Sep 27-30

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 - www.isnr.org   San Diego, CA     Sep 6-9,   2007
AAPB - www.aapb.org   Daytona Beach, FL May 13-18, 2008

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


Last Word


QEEG in your future


As the first decade of 21st century heads for a
close, expect more electrodes in your future.
Laplacian training, Brodmann area training (tm).
Quantitative EEG technologies have enormous potential
in supplementing and possibly supplanting current
psychological measures and modalities. The reason for
this can be reduced to a handful of strengths or
advantages over the current host of subjective and
behavioral aproaches. Subjective measures typically
involve questions -- surveys, questionnaires, rating
scales, forced choices -- and behavioral measures
involve keypads, triggers, stopwatches, and cameras.
One measures the mind's output, the other the body's.
Then there is psychophysiology -- the brain's
output-- a middle ground.

An interesting question (to neurofeedback clinicians)
would be whether the strengths of qEEG exist in EEG
biofeedback and cross over into mental health
treatment. There are five general properties of qEEG
that are advantageous compared to most subjective or
behavioral measures. These are:

high temporal resolution
moderate functional resolution
passive (unobtrusive) measure
intrinsic & quantitative responses (not arbitrary or
conventional)
circumvents consciousness

I don't have room to go into each of these
properties, but the last one should have caught your
eye: EEG circumvents consciousness. The success of
alpha-theta training for PTSD and other conditions
may be due to its ability to suppress self-
consciousness. Temporarily suppressed, the individual
now has the freedom to process traumatic events
freely, without attacks of emotions or anxiety. Many
of the affective disorders described in DSM-IV might
be better understood as faulty consciousness which
have become "calcified" through great use until such
short-circuits are essentially hard-wired throughout
the brain. In other words, consciousness may not only
interfere with mental health treatments, but may be
the primary source of such conditions. This may be
why children suffer from certain mental health
conditions but not others. Young minds are only
equipped with an early sense of self-consciousness,
if any, as they retain non-self-conscious elements
such as egocentrism and non-private mentality.

Pharmocological modalities also circumvent
consciousness -- and perhaps herein lies much of
their success. They too have modest functional
resolution and can be unobtrusive and intrinsic.
Perhaps the only advantage EEG biofeedback might have
over chemicals is a temporal one, and possibly a
slight functional one (at least for awhile), but then
again I suspect that EEG has a number of advantages
over drugs that my consciousness cannot put into
words.

-DK (Slight revision)

----end--

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

Vol. 10 No. 6 - June 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   - Ranking EEG
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - Psych Sayings
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

     * Brain chemical has key role in ADHD: studies
     * Brain Studies Show ADHD Is Real Disease
     * Coffee may slow memory declines in women
     * Blossoming brains

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

In the Spotlight

Ranking EEG

"How can you learn what's never shown?" -- Goo Goo
Dolls, 2007

EEG normalization training requires a clinician to
choose, to prioritize what deficit or excess should
be tackled first by training. I am a cognitive
neuroscientist with limited clinical experience
(although I started my psych education in clinical
psych), so my list of what to tackle first is based
on neuroscientific theory more than experience. [I
train my son, myself, and eventually every one of my
crazy kids, if they ever sit still.] In EEG
normalization training, a QEEG assessment identifies
those aspects of an individual's brain activity
profile which are abnormal and potentially
dysfunctional, and this is typically achieved by
comparing him or her to a database of healthy
individuals of same or similar ages.

So let's say we've run a Q with replicated
conditions for eyes closed and open rest and low and
high challenge tasks like reading and math, and now
we are faced with 100 or so significant differences
from our database. A hundred isn't many when you can
see the full extent of the psychophysiological
landscape, or brainscape, as I can with my analysis
program (SKIL). So I have a 100 findings -- now what
should I address first with training? All findings
are equal but some findings are more equal than
others. How do I decide where to start training?
Which findings are most meaningful?

Below is my rankings for selecting a protocol -- if
all I have to go on is EEG data and know nothing
about a client such as his major complaint or
disorder.

First I set "significant deviance from normals" at
greater than 2 std deviations on all spectral
parameter examined and require this criterion be
replicated. Replications are critical to assessment
and without them I am less confident in my
conclusion even when the results fall 3 or more
standard deviations away from a norm. Replications
let me sleep at night peacefully. If a difference
doesn't show up twice, or three times, or four
times, how real can it be? If a finding doesn't
replicate, it's unreliable (given the assumption
that conditions were comparable). The more often a
finding occurs, the more reliable it is, and the
more likely it is a valid indication of abnormal
psychophysiologic functioning.

In SKIL, replications can be identified
mathematically, but that isn't as fun as using my
eyeballs to see what's real. My simple stereoscopic
technique (to give it a fancy name) instantly
eliminates noise from signal. This is done by the
following: Display Replication 1 for a spectral
parameter (eyes closed alpha magnitude, for
instance), and right beside it display another map
with Replication 2 for the same parameter. (see
http://www.skiltopo.com/images/replicate.jpg).
Wherever red or blue duplicate (higher or lower than
2 standard deviations), I pay attention. If I see
red in one map (e.g., frontal alpha) but green (
normal) in the same area in the other map, I ignore
the finding -- which sounds harsh and overly
conservative, but I have the entire spectral
landscape in front of me to explore and if the
unreplicated finding is real, it will find a way to
show itself. It will bleed into other bands, other
montages, other parameters, better than it even
shows itself in its first appearance. [The image I
refer to at skiltopo has a white-out option to
eliminate the middle z-scores. Where there is white
would be green when this option is turned off.]

Replicate, triplicate, tetraplicate findings to be
sure. For multiple replications across the same
condition (EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4, etc) or across
conditions (EC1, EC2, EO1, EO2, etc).

Okay, so using this stereoscopic approach (or
similar control for randomness), let's say we cut
away half of the chaff and end up with 50 or more
statistically reliable findings. Now what?

Here is my priority of deviance, in descending
importance:

Low frequency > high frequency: (delta > theta >
alpha > beta )
Anterior > posterior deviance
Eyes closed > Eyes open > Low challenge task > high
challenge task
Connectivity deviance > amplitude deviance
Coherence deviance > comodulation deviance
Homologue > ipsilateral (intrahemispheric) >
heterologue deviance
Greater > lower statistical deviance

So a 2 standard deviation deviance in Theta activity
during EO1 and replicated in EO2 is more relevant
than a 3 standard deviation deviation deviance in
Alpha activity during EO1 and EO2, according to my
scheme.

A 2 std dev deviance at the anterior site F3 is
judged more intrinsic to brain dysfunction than a 3
std deviation deviation at posterior site P3.

A 2 std dev deviance during EO1 and EO2 is judged
more relevant than a 3 std deviation deviance in EC1
and EC2.

A 2 std dev deviance in Alpha comodulation is more
relevant than a 3 std deviation deviance in Alpha
magnitude.

A 2 std dev deviance in Alpha coherence is more
relevant than a 3 std deviation deviance in Alpha
comodulation.

A 2 std dev deviance in Alpha coherence between
homologues T3-T4 is more relevant than a 3 std
deviation deviance in Alpha coherence between
ipsilateral T3-C3 .

A 2 std dev deviance in Alpha coherence between
ipsilateral T3-C3 is more relevant than a 3 std
deviation deviance in Alpha coherence between
non-homotopic T3-C4 .

And finally 3 std dev > 2 std dev

There are always holes is such generic schemes.
Where does gamma magnitude rank -- after beta, or
before? Where do phase and magnitude asymmetry or
unity rank? Can a 4 or 5 std deviation of a lesser
finding be more meaningful than 2 std deviation?

And what exactly is my rationale for this scheme?

Evolution.

Brain dysfunction can be conceived as primitive
responses to events, subcortically-dominated
behaviors, lacking integration with anyone's vast
experience. The theory of microgeny was prominent
around the turn of last century (1900s, that is) and
in this theory brain injury was conceived in an
evolutionary context. Injury was thought to expose
earlier stages of our processing, pulling the tarp
away from the wall to reveal the scalfolding
beneath. Each brain event incorporated our entire
evolution in a matter of milliseconds. We scale the
fish-to-human evolutionary ladder in our head every
second of our days -- except when we failed to do
so.

Now my thinking, metaphorizing, steps in: Fear is
amphibian, anxiety reptilean, control mammalian. So
I rank EEG phenomena evolutionarily as best I can. I
want to increase traffic of the mammalian brain and
decrease influence of our ancient parts. So the
cortex must be connected to everything below as
directly as possible (i.e., delta suggest
decortication or white matter injury), and the
cortex should be governed by infiltration of the
thalamocortical network (theta & alpha, and
connectivity measures), which is mediated by frontal
lobe systems that draw on our experiences and
perceptions coolly and comprehensively to make us
the full human we can be.

This priority list is independent of behavioral and
symptom considerations. A client's complaints should
obviously factor into protocol selection. Two brain
loops might be broken, but our client will let us
know which s/he can compensate for and which s/he
cannot.

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

ADD in The Workplace: Choices, Changes, and Challenges
by Kathleen G. Nadeau
Discusses ways to maintain an optimal work environment for ADD adults.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0876308477/eegspectrum

The Neuropsychiatry of Epilepsy
by Michael Trimble, Bettina Schmitz
Recent findings for epilepsy and behavior disorders.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521005167/eegspectrum

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
by Michel Foucault
A timely look back at a classic (which is an oxymoronic statement, I guess).
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 067972110X/eegspectrum

The Computer and the Brain
by John von Neumann
A giant of 20th century mathematics and his thoughts on the brain and
intelligence. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0300024150/eegspectrum

Journeys Through ADDulthood
by Sari Solden
A response to how ADHD treatment focuses on overcoming its symptoms rather than
leading a fulfilling life. --
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802713769/eegspectrum

Starting Again: Early Rehabilitation After Traumatic Brain Injury
by Patricia M. Davies
Practical advice on physical rehab of brain injured patients.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0387559345/eegspectrum

Beethoven's Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture
by William L. Benzon
Speculation on how emotion and physiology combine in music-making.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465015441/ eegspectrum

Asperger's: What Does It Mean to Me?
by Catherine Faherty
Workbook to help child learn more about himself.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1885477597/eegspectrum


  ----------
JOURNAL PAPERS

Coherence in ADHD and excess beta activity : Excessive beta power in ADHD
children may be evidence of a frontal lobe dysfunction in this subtype.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17502165


No neurochemical evidence for brain injury caused by heading in soccer. :
Repeated low severity head impacts were not associated with neurochemical signs
of brain injury.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17496068


Grandchildren at Risk for Depression Differ in EEG Asymmetry. : Grandchildren
with depressed parent and grandparent showed relatively less right than left
hemisphere activity.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17481594


Can behavioural therapy influence neuromodulation? : Reviews behavioral therapy
impact on CNS function.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17508158


Testosterone-related disorders in women with autism spectrum conditions. :
Androgen theory of autism evaluated by surveying women with autism spectrum
conditions. These women more often exhibited irregular menstrual cycle,
epilepsy, and tomboyism, among other conditions.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17462645


Complementary and alternative medicine for epilepsy in Midwest : Nearly 2 in 5
epileptics surveyed used CAMs, including prayer/spirituality, "mega" vitamins,
and stress management (16%).
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17459780


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


Topographic brain: from neural connectivity to cognition. : Broader
understanding of topographic maps may link genetics, neurophysiology and
cognition.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17462748


Correlation between EEG rhythms during sleep: surface versus mediotemporal EEG.
: Power density is negatively correlated between delta/theta and beta
frequencies above 16 Hz during NREM sleep.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17471077


Event-related functional MRI study of working memory in euthymic bipolar
disorder. : Widespread fronto-cortico- limbic dysfunction may be inherent in
bipolar disorder.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17476364


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
  ----------

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)

     * Glensdale CA Aug 23-26
     * Alexandria VA Sep 6-9
     * Chicago IL Sep 27-30

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 - www.isnr.org   San Diego, CA     Sep 6-9,   2007
AAPB - www.aapb.org   Daytona Beach, FL   May 13-18, 2008

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


Last Word


Psych Sayings

If you just set people in motion they'll heal themselves.

The child is father to the man.

Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.

Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.

The human brain is a most unusual instrument of elegant and as yet unknown
capacity.

The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.

I am not young enough to know everything.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature,
compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.

Actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

The palest ink is better than the best memory.

It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.

Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.

To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it, requires
brains.

A mind too active is no mind at all.

I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.

----end--

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

Vol. 10 No. 5 - May 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   - Mating Disorders
News & Reviews     - Books & journal papers
Events & Locations - Conferences, Courses
Last Word          - 25 Online Tools+
--------------------------------------------------

Announcements

     * Many Brain Cells Seek, to Help You Find
     * Poor Memory Tied to Sleep Woes in Aging Women
     * Remember your home phone number? Forget it
     * Fantasy Gaming Gives Insight Into Learning
     * You can forget the unhappy past: study

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

In the Spotlight

Mating Disorders

"So far as love or affection is concerned,
psychologists have failed..." Harry Harlow, 1958.

Sadie Hawkins Day, February 29, 1972, a day when
women propose and men accept their proposals or pay
the consequences; a day when women approach men,
girls chase boys. Our 2nd grade teacher Mrs
Katherine explained the strange day, leap day, then
walked over to Peter's desk, knelt beside the shy
boy, and asked him to marry her. Recess came and we
ran outside to play. I found myself being chased by
Tammy over and around the piles of snow a plow had
pushed against the school. And as she was about to
catch me, and kiss me, I called time-out. What a
coward! And although I realized my mistake
instantly, and called time-in, preparing to let her
catch me, I didn't count on Olivia crossing our
path. She appeared out of nowhere and I was not
going to let Olivia kiss me so I dashed across the
parking lot and she followed and fell on a spot of
ice and cut her head and that was the end of our
game -- forever, and the start of a mating disorder
on my part, alas.

A Google search of the term "mating disorder"
reveals nothing, or nearly so (two pornographic
sites). Neither the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual (DSM) nor the International Classification of
Diseases (ICD) list Mating Disorders on any axis.
How can we exclude such important behavior from our
roll of dysfunctions? What, do we believe everyone
is successful at mating and all attempts are
performed effortlessly and without conflict? Given
its importance I suspect it is done properly and
trauma-free by only a select few. Maybe so, but some
of us must be doing it worse than others, clinically
so, and need help, need assistance, need therapy
along these lines. The first step in treatment is
knowing what we are treating, so delineation and
diagnoses of mating disorders are necessary.

Sexual selection is why we survive. Life requires
consumption but continuance requires selection. To
paraphrase Darwin in two of his later works, sexual
selection is about a billion times more powerful
than natural selection. Nature only acts as a grim
reaper in those cases where sexual selection has
created a near-species-wide mating disorder, where
there are too many resources spent on the chase and
fending off rivals and too little thought and
response given to predators and the ever-changing
environment.

DSM-IV and ICD-10 list the end points of rare mating
disorders -- sexual dysfunction and paraphilias --
but both manuals fail to incorporate the range of
behaviors and cognitions involved in mating or
dismating, to make up a term for it. The most
important decision a child makes in his or her short
life is to what degree to invest in him- or herself.
The most important decision an adult makes in the
years after being a child is who will be his or her
partner and to what degree will they invest in him
or her. Mating underlies both significant decisions.

Popular culture and mating disorders are nearly
synonymous. From celebrities to politicians, we
witness full circle the cacophony of disorders: from
short-term mating, serial monogamy, partner
swapping, polygamy, extravagent lifestyles,
bountiful waste, jealousy crimes, martyrdom and
related forms of homicide, as well as a dozen
different forms of histrionics.

Childhood mating disorders include early maturation,
early exposure, late maturation, late exposure, as
well as insufficient interactions with opposite and
same sex members to ensure competent approaches to
intersexual and intrasexual competition and adaptive
responses to failures on both fronts. It is well
known that late maturing boys and early maturing
girls often undergo social isolation and most mating
disorder emerge from some form of social or familial
deprivation. To give an example, consider a woman
who was always the prettiest around in both junior
and senior high school, but without the confidence
to respond to the girls who successfully isolated
her. This lack of acceptance by the same sex
compelled her to seek acceptance from the opposite
sex, unwavering acceptance. You may guess how her
life progressed from there.

Did she have a personality disorder? No. A sexual
dysfunction, no. An emotional disturbance, not
exactly. She developed a mating disorder, stemming
from low confidence and gender isolation, which led
directly to behaviors inappropriate to her level of
maturity. In high school she was abused by a series
of boyfriends because she bonded out of the family
group too early and trusted adolescent boys without
familial investment in her when the boys were still
bonded to their families and unprepared for
couplehood. Again and again.

David Buss, professor of Psychology at UT Austin, is
well known for his research of human mating
behaviors. There were considerable adaptations
during human evolution for our complex system of
mating to arise, and for every adaptation, there is
an opportunity for malfunction and disorder. Here is
his list of obstacles which must be overcome (by all
creatures) for successful mating (Buss, 2002):

-Selecting a fertile mate
-Outcompeting intrasexual rivals for attracting a mate
-Fending off mate poachers
-Preventing mate defection
-Engaging in appropriate sexual/social behaviors to ensure conception

For each of these goals, think of an approach and
think of it going wrong. Used too often, too
severely, too rarely, too resourcefully. Based on
his work and others, I would characterize the
following general categories of mating disorders:

* Selection disorder: Unable to find appropriate
potential mates in terms of age, interests,
commitment, relationship status, etc.; with a
subcategory for hyper- and hypo-responsiveness to
rejection.

* Intrasexual competition disorder: Too little time
spent developing one's desirability, or too much
time to the exclusion of our domains of function.

* Intersexual competition disorder, or gender
disorder: extreme involvement in gender-cultural
stereotypic behaviors to exclusion of intersexual
abilities, or too little.

* Pathological mating disorders which include
behaviors such as harrassment, stalking, preference
on mate substitutes (often inanimate)

* Bonding disorder: Maladaptation at any of stage of
relationship development, with a focus on blending
and nesting (McWhirter & Mattison, 1984). Primary
bonding disorder would be premature or postponed or
ineffectual blending or nesting. Blending is when
two individuals become a couple, a single unit,
spending much of their free time together; and
nesting is when homemaking occurs, when couples
strengthen their commitment through acceptance and a
realistic understanding of relationship (McWhirter &
Mattison, 1984).

Instability disorder: Trying to revisit and resolve
the primary relationship conflict from childhood in
a person less invested in you than the person you
had the conflict with.

Finally, there are five types of mates: parent,
sibling, self, child, stranger. You can marry
someone who re-creates the parent- child bond with
you (on either end), the sibling bond, the
auto-erotic bond, or go out and create your own
disorder by rejecting all you've ever known.

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

News & Reviews

NEW BOOKS

Awakening the Mind PA: Harnessing the Power of Your Brainwaves
by Anna Wise
Describes brain-wave patternsin hopes of elucidating processes of creativity
and enlightenment.
--www.amazon.com/exec/ obidos/ASIN/1585421456/eegspectrum

Awareness of Deficit after Brain Injury: Clinical and Theoretical Issues
by GP Prigatano, DL Schacter (Eds)
Multidisciplinary approach on awareness deficits following brain injury.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195059417/eegspectrum

The Challenge of Epilepsy
by Sally Fletcher
Educates and provides resources, contacts. Includes biofeedback.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0961551364/ eegspectrum

Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness
by David A. Karp
Psychological, chemical, and cultural perspectives on depression.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195113861/eegspectrum

Brain Allergies: The Psychonutrient and Magnetic Connections
by WH. Philpott et al
Overviews psychopharmacology and related topics.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0658003984/eegspectrum

The Highly Sensitive Person
by Elaine Aron
Case studies, self-tests, and exercises to assist the HSP.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553062182/eegspectrum

Communities That Care: Action for Drug Abuse Prevention
by JD Hawkins, RF Catalano Jr
Community and educational strategies for drug abuse.
--www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555424716/eegspectrum

  ----------
JOURNAL PAPERS

Working memory and EEG to academic performance: high school students. : Low
academic attainment students show EEG evidence of a diminished WM capacity.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17454248

ADHD and substance use disorders: developmental aspects and stimulant
treatment. : Deficits in self-regulation may underlie the developmental
progression of substance abuse.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17453602

Intrahemispheric reorganization of language in children with intractable
epilepsy : Anterior displacement of Broca's area was seen in some children with
epilepsy.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17445300

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

Auditory brain-computer interface (BCI). : Auditory BCI take longer to learn,
but are necessary for visually impaired patients.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17399797

Changes in brain function during acute cannabis intoxication : Cannabis mimics
lateral prefrontal cortex lesions in slow potentials.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17393553

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

Classification algorithms for EEG-based brain-computer interfaces. : Review of
EEG-based brain-computer interface algorithms.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=17409472

  ----------

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)

     * Atlanta GA Jul 26-29
     * Denver CO Aug 9-12
     * Glensdale CA Aug 23-26
     * Alexandria VA Sep 6-9

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 - www.isnr.org San Diego, CA     Sep 6-9,   2007
AAPB - www.aapb.org Daytona Beach, FL May 13-18, 2008

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

Last Word

     25 Online Tools

There are now 76 yahoo groups associated with
neurofeedback. What a change from when I started
this newsletter 10 years ago. Here are some of
the best online resources available for
neurotherapists and other professionals.

Neurofeedback groups:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=neurofeedback

Medline citations.
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Neuroscience Intro:
  http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html

Brain Research:
  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Science/Brain_Research/

EEG News:
  http://news.google.com/news?q=eeg

Knowledge Network:
  http://www.nytimes.com/college/

Scientific articles:
  http://scholar.google.com

Wikipedia:
  http://en.wikipedia.org

Free Net-Phone: http://www.skype.net

WebUnyte: http://www.unyte.net

Great music: http://www.mydrivefm.com

Email: http://mail.yahoo.com,
http://www.hotmail.com, http://www.gmail.com

Quotes: http://www.quotationspage.com

Software: http://www.tucows.com

News coverage: http://news.google.com

Online Newspapers: http://www.metagrid.com,
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

Discussion groupshttp://groups.yahoo.com

Images: http://images.google.com

Time: http://www.arachnoid.com/abouttime

Statistics online:
http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/VassarStats.html

Dictionary: http://www.m-w.com

Thesaurus: http://www.m-w.com

Synonyms: http://vancouver-webpages.com/synonyms.html

Translation Tools: http://babelfish.altavista.com,
http://www.google.com/language_tools

Psycholinguistic Tools:
http://www.psy.uwa.edu.au/mrcdatabase/uwa_mrc.htm
----end--