Brain-Trainer Approach The Brain-Trainer approach is more than just a full-brain workout. It is a unique and important way of understanding the brain’s electrical habits of being and how to shift those for optimal performance.

Interpreting Assessments Please remember, TQ8 is neither a diagnostic nor a research tool, though it could be used for either. Diagnoses don’t provide much guidance in figuring out how to train the brain to change desired behaviors, and it’s useless to start an assessment with a diagnosis already in mind. The TQ8 is meant to be a practical way of identifying trainable issues in the electrical pattern of the brain. I don’t guess anyone knows whether the problem causes the […]

Tone Tone, as used in the TQ Assessment, refers to autonomic tone and relates to emotional stress building over a significant period of time, resulting in disruptions of the autonomically-mediated functions of the body, as well as relatively ongoing levels of anxiety or depression. It’s important not to confuse the Tone category, which does include the over-wound autonomic response, with the specific brain activation patterns that make it up. Tone is a meta-category, which takes in folks whose brains are […]

Monopolar (or referential) montages are channels in which one electrode (usually the active, but that’s not necessarily true) is placed over an active EEG site on the head. Bipolar (or sequential) montages are channels in which BOTH active and reference electrode are placed over active EEG sites. T3/A1 has one electrode over a head site and one over a relatively inert site (the earlobe), so it is monopolar. T3/T4 has both electrodes over head sites, so it is bipolar. A […]

Sites on the Scalp and Cortical Functions The Brain-Trainer approach uses the standard international 10-20 system that neuroscientists and neurologists use. This system is basically an address book to find specific locations on the scalp and the brain function that can be detected at that site. The 10-20 sites are, in turn, located on larger geographic portions of the brain: frontal and pre-frontal cortex, sensory-motor strip, temporal lobes, parietal lobes, and occipital lobes. You can think of this as countries […]

Filtering and Processing In the Brain-Trainer system we split attention into two groups that are ends of a continuum: Filtering and Processing. Processing and Filtering are the two categories we use to cover what is commonly called ADHD. Filtering people can’t manage the interface between the outside world and their inside world. They are easily distracted by things around them because they cannot control what stimulation is coming in. They act and speak impulsively because they cannot control what’s going […]

Alpha peak frequency is the dominant frequency in the range. For example, if you looked at bars on the power spectrum in the alpha range, the bar that was tallest would be the peak frequency. This is another way of looking at level of activation. Alpha peak frequency should be around 10Hz (especially in the front) in most adults. Lower peak frequencies indicate EEG slowing with the problems related to that (language and attention difficulties, depression, etc.); higher peak frequencies […]

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) […]

Graphing and Charting versus Real Life Most people want to become less anxious, or pay attention better, or sleep more effectively, or stop obsessing over things or whatever. If they are showing better average scores in their sessions, but those things aren’t changing, do you really think you can convince them the training is “working”? The problem with using scores is that, depending on what designs you are using, chances are the targets are reset at the beginning of each […]

Peak Performance There is a valid point about “peak performance” training that says that ALL neurofeedback is just that.  Unless you happen upon a perfect brain, whatever that might look like, everyone, even high performers, have issues of anxiety or low energy or obsessiveness or lapses of attention of impulsive behavior or whatever.  If you start by looking at the client’s brain and determining what is KEEPING him from performing even better, then training that, you will often make your […]