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: this emotional regulation area may show high levels of slow, unblocked alpha or, occasionally, even beta/high-beta.  Sometimes a very hot area here connects with a […]

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 that is, but it’s a commonly–if anecdotally–recognized finding. And as you speed up brain frequencies, commonly blinking becomes less of an issue.

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 teacher respond to what I said) which create more outputs, which result in more inputs ad infinitum. Holosync and other systems of binaural beats essentially […]

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 I didn’t think had much of a chance of responding, telling the client that up front and letting them choose to take the flier (e.g. […]

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 won’t have a longer-term result with other problems that underlie the symptoms. I’ve been playing around with anxiety problems for quite a while.   There […]

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. Hence, training HRV is reputed to have a positive effect on both the heart and the brain. HRV is an excellent training–like almost all peripheral […]

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 levels of fast wave activity were common in those (and other) places. I trained hot temporals and trainees found the changes pleasant in Switzerland. The […]

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 seconds. That has several effects: 1. It eventually (over several breaths) improves the turnover of O2 and CO2 in the lungs, especially oxygenating the bottom […]

Games for Slow Brains It can be challenging to work with clients who have very slow brains. The following games may help you enhance your work with such clients, who tend to process information visually rather than with words. The Naming Game The naming game works like this: The player’s job is to name as many things as possible, out loud, that they can see in the area where you are working, in one minute. The coach counts the number […]