Speech and Language Issues For resolving language or reading problems, anyone who has done much neurofeedback can tell you that there can be dozens of EEG patterns that could result in speech and language problems.  Assuming that your clients might possibly have one or two other issues in their lives beyond difficulty with reading, just focusing on a tertiary symptom like that can minimize your chances of finding something that resolves it. That said, speech problems often are related to […]

Stage Fright I get it that there are plenty of neurofeedback approaches which are driven by symptoms, and there may be one that can tell you exactly what to train for stage fright, but our system prefers to take a broader look at a client’s complete experience, identify a variety of things that he/she would like to change (if he/she thought it was possible), look at their brain patterns in a fairly comprehensive way and seek to shift the stable […]

Stimulants – Training PFC when using meds, caffeine or other stimulants See also The Impact of Medication and Drugs on Neurofeedback Training I recently worked with a young man here in Brazil who began trying to cut back on coffee and discovered that he had a real crash if he stopped drinking it so frequently.   Over his HEG training, he developed the ability to sustain his increases in oxygenated blood flow (presumably even better if you also stop smoking which […]

Stress (Hesitance to training) I like to tell the story of Barry Sterman’s study of the top-gun pilots. I ask the client if he/she really believes that his job is more stressful than piloting a billion-dollar stealth bomber, and I point out that the stress is not coming from the job–it is coming from the person IN the job. I note that this level of stress has the potential to become addictive as people become adrenalin junkies, and, just as […]

Stroke One of the keys to working with stroke is that you don’t train directly over the site, though around it is okay.  Your primary goal is to help the brain reorganize to pick up lost functions–same as with any head injury. Using HEG with Stroke The conventional wisdom is that, since HEG is designed to improve the brain’s blood distribution system, it will actually reduce pressure, not increase it.

Stuttering Stuttering is usually a clue that F7 and F8 are competing over dominance for language.  F8 (the analogue to Broca’s Area at F7) is supposed to be like an understudy for the main character in a play.  It walks around back-stage, mouthing the words to Hamlet’s soliloquy while F7 is out on the stage declaiming it.  When F8 loses sight of that role, it stands in the wings and speaks the lines in full voice, causing poor F7 to […]

Substance Use/Abuse See also The Impact of Medication and Drugs on Neurofeedback Training I generally sit down with a new client who is admittedly–or appears possibly to be (on the assessment)–using drugs or alcohol and try to get him/her to specify what they get from using.  Also what they hope to achieve through training.  It is important to do this between you and the client only.  Then I explain that the substances change the way the brain works…temporarily…so that they […]

Tardive Dyskinesia I would expect, in any kind of movement control issue, that SMR would be an important place to look in your training plan. If you have a disconnect in the assessment, and you see it both in the amplitudes and in the percents, then that is a good place to test first. But surely there will be other options to put on your list as well. If SMR level at C4/A2 with eyes open is below 10%, I’d […]

Tics Tics aren’t necessarily a physically-located thing, they are usually related to Filtering/Control problems–not necessarily to autonomic tone.   You pretty much train to get the brain able to produce better and longer bursts of SMR in the sensory-motor cortex.   I’ve never been clear on what the particular rationale for C4/P4 (or Pz) was. SMR training is generally good for physical control issues.   It can also be helpful for difficulty falling asleep.   It can be a little tricky […]

Tourette’s Tourette’s would actually usually be a combination of Filtering and Blocking:  ADHD with OCD features.  It is usually characterized by too MUCH dopamine, rather than too little.  Tourette’s often represents a very immature brain in terms of frequencies (tendency for many bands to be slower than you would expect for the chronological age), so you will want to look at the effective SMR frequency for your client. If you find lots of fast activity at Fz, you may want […]