Coherence Training

Coherence just means the relationship is stable. It could be in phase (zero phase angle), 180 degrees out of phase (peak lined up with trough or anywhere in between. Coherence speaks to stability of the relationship. Phase speaks to the timing. Synchrony is when the timing relationship between two signals is consistently the same and the firing and recharge periods line up.

Generally, we expect to see low coherences in faster brainwaves and higher coherences in slower brainwaves.

Fast wave Coherence

High fast wave coherences tend to be related either to excessive sensitivity or to locking up the function in an area (to avoid sensitivity). In the parietals, which should be working independently to help process sensory information, when fast wave coherence is too high, sensory integration is slow or incomplete. In the frontals this pattern often relates to rigidity in thought, inability to switch tasks smoothly, etc.

Coherence and amplitude tend to run pretty closely together. One of the simplest ways to train down coherence is to train down beta amplitude.

High fast wave coherences could easily be related to a level of tension in the client (anxious, trying really hard to sit still, etc.) or electromagnetic noise in the environment, since coherence simply measures the degree to which signals in different places appear to be linked (i.e. connected to one another or coming from the same third place. You do your best while conducting an assessment to minimize these, but I often see high fast wave coherence readings in an assessment that I consider suspect,. Unless all coherences are high in all frequencies at all sites, I usually put a coherence protocol in the training plan if the symptoms/training goals suggest it might really be there (rigidity in thought, anxiety, getting stuck in patterns, etc.) The rule is the same as with anything else in the assessment (e.g. hot temporals that “aren’t there” when you go to train them): move on to the next option.

If you find a client who really does have high fast wave coherence values (EC or EO), you’ll find out why we train them: it often makes a very big difference for the client to reduce them.

Low coherences

Neurons that can’t shift into the coherent relationship in alpha are likely never really letting go of beta, trying to burst back into it at intervals when there is no task, and thus not able to simply link up to the sub-cortical generators that produce the alpha rhythms.

That would certainly lead to them being “tired” or anxious, both of which could have an effect on attention and processing.

Multiband Coherence Designs

The idea of training is not necessarily that the feedback will teach your brain something new; rather it is designed to reflect when the brain moves toward a more desired state. It’s a mirror. So the idea of MBC down is–much like most other trainings–to find that place in yourself where your mind is still and you are present/aware–the observer–of what is going on within and around you.

I personally prefer the Manual protocols for Multi-Band Coherence. The auto ones change the targets to fit what the brain is doing–training the software to follow the brain. It’s not uncommon for a trainee to experience lots of feedback, but there no movement in the brain.

With the Manual versions, I ask the client to get into as quiet and still a place as possible, then I click the Auto/Manual button at the bottom of each of the 4 thresholds on the trainer screen, which sets the manual targets (M) to where the auto-threshold thinks they should be (A). Then I play with the bars a bit, dragging them up or down, until I find a value where most or all of them are scoring (see the number just below the threshold bar graph) 40-60% or more. If possible, I set all 4 targets at that level, though sometimes I’ll have to set one at a different level either because it is much more successful at staying down or has a much more difficult time (and needs a higher target.)

That way, instead of getting 75% feedback, no matter what your brain does, you get feedback on one or more of the bars as they manage to shift below the threshold. As you are already doing, just watch and listen, recognizing when you hear all 4 tones plus the deep bass tone that you are doing very well. Usually over a series of sessions, you’ll be able to move lower and lower with the targets–and sometimes you may have a session where you manage to stay below all of them most of the time.

Remember that you never set them below 40. If your brain is able to stay below 40 in a frequency, that feedback should stay on all the time. When you can set them all at 40 and score well, you’ve made very solid progress.

Because rigidity in fast-wave synchrony forms a kind of frame which​ ​locks the brain’s homeostasis, it’s not uncommon that people who don’t shift coherence much have a hard time shifting their activation patterns.​

Coherence and “Phase Resets”

I’ve recently heard or read people talking about “resets” rather as if the brain where a computer operating system and we could generally reset the whole system. A lot of people talk about harmonizing the brain and balancing it, as well.

My understanding of a phase reset is that it is something that happens in an oscillatory system, usually in response to some stimulus. It’s not a thing you do to a whole brain or to produce a stable state of phase synchrony. When two sites are required to work together to perform a task, there is a momentary shift in the phase curve to allow them to link up (like your phone ringing and you answering it).

Outside of some specific frequencies during cortical resting states (and specific task-related linking) most of the brain’s activity isn’t in phase most of the time. So as cool as “in-phase” and “synchrony” sound, they aren’t necessarily expected long-term states.

When you train to change the relationship between two homologous sites, like C3/C4 or T3/T4, the most common protocol is to reduce the difference in all frequencies and increase it in SMR. If you train to decrease the difference in amplitude, the argument goes, one way the brain can meet the challenge is to move the waveforms out of phase. And that makes sense, except what is the waveform from 2-11 Hz or from 19-38 Hz. Those aren’t frequencies, they’re rather broad bands of frequencies, so the chances of their being in phase in the first place are basically nil.

When you train to increase the difference in 12-15 Hz, you could achieve that by moving the two sites out of phase. Once again my response is very simple: If the client responds positively to that protocol-as many do–does it matter what the effect on phase was?

Exacerbating Low Coherence

If you are exacerbating the situation, whatever it may be, then the client won’t respond well to the training. If the client responds to the training, I guess exacerbating was what was needed. Since most bipolar montages train to REDUCE the difference in slow frequencies (thus theoretically moving the two sites more into phase)…isn’t that what you wanted anyway?

Get used to not knowing “why” something works in training. Think of all the high-powered academics and brain scientists who published for decades as an absolute surety that you are born with all the neurons you will ever have. Not fun to suddenly have to swallow that…oops, yes…well, it seems neurons ARE added to the brain throughout our lives. At least a trainer has the reward of seeing people with whom he works change their lives in positive and lasting ways–even if he can’t “explain” exactly how or why it happened.

Rocking During Coherence Training

The idea of what we call rocking simply is that a brain which tries to keep coherence high often has trouble figuring out how to make it go down. Starting off by training it UP, the direction it already wants to go can pull it out of its comfort zone but on the upside, which is easier for it to do. Then, after 2 minutes, switching to DOWN training coherence asks the brain to go from too high back down, and it often then goes down lower than it’s accustomed. After 2 minutes of that, you train it back up for two minutes, then back down (and keep training down). This creates a kind of momentum and helps break up the stuck-point in the brain, so it often results in the client being able to do what they couldn’t do training straight ahead. People up north probably know about rocking a car to get out of being stuck in snow; in the south being stuck in mud. Same concept.

If you are supposed to be training down, then once you get it going down, forget the rocking. That’s just to break free of any stuckness. You might rock your car back and forth to get out of a snowdrift, but once you are driving, you don’t need to keep doing it.