Assuming that you are not seeing explosive, often apparently unprovoked rages, which would suggest temporal lobe epilepsy, with anger outbursts, there are several things I would usually look for: 1. Hot right side:  beta and high-beta levels about 14% and 10%–often significantly higher–and often reversed L/R anywhere from F to P. 2. Anomalies at F8: […]

Blinking Blinking is very interesting. We used to use it as an indicator of progress in speeding up the brain. When a client was holding down theta relative to beta, blinking frequency dropped way down. This was very reliable. People who have a fair amount of slow activity OFTEN blink a LOT! Don’t know why […]

Entrainment The brain is essentially an organ that receives information from outside (sensory inputs) and inside (memories, emotional responses, associations with previous experience), integrates all this and responds to it with motor outputs (speaking, acting) and changes in its own body’s internal environment. This is a constant cycle with outputs creating inputs (how did the […]

General anesthesia will affect the brain, slowing it down significantly–and also usually over a period of time as well.

I don’t think of anything that would be contra-indicated for brain training if you are willing to take on the person/support system that carries the brain around. We screened out families with split parents (one strongly favoring training, the other strongly opposed) and kids on three or more psychoactive meds. We worked with things that […]

There are many things that could relate to anxiety and irritability, including high fastwave coherence in the front and central areas, excessive beta and/or high beta on the right hemisphere, reversals of beta left/right or front/back, a hot cingulate, or alpha problems.  Training SMR will nearly always have a fairly immediate symptom-relief effect, but it […]

Heart-Rate Variability Training (HRV) There is a fair amount of research suggesting that, when the autonomic nervous system is working properly–not over-stressed–heart rate dances around like a barefoot ballerina on hot concrete. When stress levels are high, it tends to become rigidly locked into certain rates. The more variable the rate, the healthier the heart. […]

Cultural Differences I agree that it’s likely there are cultural differences in brains. Heck, there are large individual differences in their patterns, why not cultural. I don’t think I ever did an assessment in Switzerland or Korea that didn’t have hot temporals, but no one ever indicated an interest in training to reduce anxiety. High […]

Eyes Open vs. Eyes Closed Training As for training down beta and high beta, in my experience it matters quite a bit whether you are training eyes closed or eyes open. Also what kind of feedback you are giving can make a difference. Using contingent feedback (beeps or clicks) only when the client passes on […]

Essentially the way to change autonomic activation is to teach the client to breathe and still the mind. I prefer RSA breathing, which focuses on exhaling very slowly and counting the seconds mentally, trying to completely empty the lungs in 7 seconds. Then let the air come back in and continue counting, usually for 3 […]