In my work with clients, I have generally used the analogy of working at the gym. If you go once a week, you may feel better after the workout, but you are unlikely to produce any long-term changes. On the other hand, working out every day may not give a lot faster changes. I believe two-four times a week is ideal. Training the brain, like training the body, involves changing an energy set point. That takes time and consistency. I […]

Skull Thickness I’ve heard from a number of folks who are experts in EEG that the single factor that accounts for about 85% of overall differences in absolute EEG amplitudes is thickness of the skull.  The reality is that some people just have thick skulls.

Training Specific Bands I’m careful about trying to train down just a narrow frequency band (i.e. just delta). It’s very possible to reduce delta and increase theta or even (if there is dissociation involved) high beta. Squashes and windowed squashes are a good alternative in that they allow you to put a ceiling on a wide range of frequencies without necessarily training to increase anything. When the brain reduces amplitudes, it is activating its control circuits, which is usually what […]

When to Finish Training Usually by around 3 cycles through the blocks of training, you should be beginning to notice that changes are becoming more stable–not fading after a session. At that point I usually start stretching out the sessions. If you’ve been doing them 4 times a week, try dropping to 2; if 2 times a week, drop to 1. The idea is to verify that you are not regressing between sessions as you increase the period between them. […]

Bandpass Filters and Thresholds The bandpass filters simply define the frequency to be passed and do not say anything about the protocol. The threshold objects HAVE to have a definition of whether the signal is to be rewarded or inhibited.  If you go to the Objects menu and choose any of the Thresholds on the list, you’ll open the Properties window for that threshold.  On that window, in the Threshold Tab, the bottom of the three check boxes is “Increase.”  […]

BxShadow shadow feedback One point I wanted to make about BxShadow is that it does not work “inside” BioExplorer or any other program. It creates a shadow box that you can control and that is linked to BioExplorer’s feedback. You can size and place this box over a whole screen or anything on it–not just a BioExplorer window. For example, 1. Instead of using the DVD player in BE, use your standard DVD player and place the shadow window over […]

Alpha Training If someone doesn’t produce alpha, train up 9-13 Hz–and train alpha coherence–in the parietals.   All this, of course, assumes that you’ve already checked for other issues related to fast wave blocking and worked on those, since alpha and beta are antagonists–they block each other.

Oscilloscope and Spectrum Analyzer The oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer are just displays.  They have nothing to do with the training, just how the overall signal is portrayed on the screen. Tone Generators There have always been Tone generators free standing (the binaural beat always playing e.g. alpha theta), others linked in a conditional way to thresholds or AND objects (beats sounding only when the brain is out of the target range) and others linked to frequency activity so they track […]

What is a Bipolar Protocol Any time you train in a channel, you are training the difference between the active and reference electrode signals. The fact is that you are training the pyramidal neurons close to the line between the active and reference sites whose axons happen to be pretty much parallel to the line. In a sense you are always training an area and not just one spot, because that’s what’s being read. A bipolar montage, like C3/C4, is […]

Adding a DVD Player Object to your design You can easily enough change to the DVD player object:In the Window menus, choose Signal Diagram.In the Design menu, choose Add Object and select DVD Player.The DVD Player box will appear in the upper left corner of the Signal DiagramDrag it to the spot where the Windows Media Player object is and park it directly below.Draw the same arrow connections to the DVD player that are visible in the WM player object.Open […]