Frontals

The pre-frontal is the part that lies behind the forehead.  Everything from the central sulcus, which runs from ear to ear across the middle of the central sensory motor strip, to the very front of the head is frontal lobes–about half the cortex.  The PFC (pre-frontal cortex) is the executive center of the brain, so it controls attention, screening of distractions, processing of sensory information, organizing, planning, short-term working memory, impulse control (verbal, physical, emotional) and (on the left) language output.   Training to improve its function is often very effective in improving these issues and maturing the brain (i.e. speeding it up), just as changing the CEO of a company can improve functions throughout the company. Training in the PFC is difficult with EEG, since on the forehead the EEG picks up signals from facial muscles, eye muscles and the eyes themselves which appear in the EEG though they are not from the brain, so it’s better to train using HEG.

Just as doing aerobic exercise doesn’t mean that a person HAS TO run all the time and stay in a high-energy state, so improving the capacity in the PFC doesn’t mean that it MUST be highly activated all the time.   It’s capacity that’s being trained.

F7 and F8 are in the prefrontal, dorsolateral cortex, and are important impulse control sites.  F8 in particular helps with emotional regulation and social inhibition.  High fast or slow activity there can be a problem.  Sometimes a very hot F8, with lots of beta or high-beta, would fit with an overly inhibited emotional response; lots of alpha, theta or delta would suggest poor inhibition. However, look for any frequency that appears out of whack, and chances are that training that will have a positive impact.

Working memory is related to areas in the pre-frontal cortex, primarily the dorsolateral PFC and primarily on the left side, so around F7 and F3; but there are also areas in the posterior parietal lobe, further back from P3 and P4 that are involved.

F7 and F8 are both control centers (among many other things). F7 is more related to verbal and behavioral impulse control; F8 is more related to social inhibition and emotional control.

F7 is very near Broca’s area, so it is a good place to train for speech or language output problems. There are also a number of sources who say that it is a verbal and physical inhibition site.

The area around F8 is an emotional regulation area.   The PFC is the brakes on many functions in the brain.   Improving blood supply improves the metabolic support for activating and sustaining those functions, cognitive, self-control, emotional brightness and stability among others.

Fp01 is using a zero, not an O.  It is a site in the eye socket, with the electrode placed against the top of the socket near the nose, so it is facing up toward the top of the head.  There is an acupressure point (a slight indentation in the bone there) often used for headaches.  If you train there, you obviously must be very careful not to get anything in the eye. At this site, it’s hard to keep the electrode in place, and eye-blink artifact can severely affect your signal.

Depending on where you put your reference, the Fp02 site would affect the orbito-frontal prefrontal cortex (the shelf that runs back from the forehead over the eye sockets), which is a major emotional balance and control area.  The amygdala would communicate with this area, but the amygdala itself is invisible to EEG, because it has the “wrong” type of neurons in it.