What's New in Neurofeedback

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• Hoarders Show Unique Brain Pattern, Study Finds
• Doctors Peer Into Brains to Gauge Antidepressants
• Histamine Key to Waking, Study Finds
• Brain scans prove teenagers are children at heart
• Placebos effect revealed in calmed brain cells
• How we dig up distant memories
• Concussions found to cause depression
• The brain is beauty's final arbiter
• Eureka! Scientists map the moment

  All links at: http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=science&cat=brain_research

The Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB) hosted its 35th Annual Conference last month in Colorado Springs, Colorado. What was most evident during this four-day affair was that increasing influx of scientists to our field. There's a saying in Los Angeles: "But what I really want to do is direct." From Mel Gibson to Ron Howard to Clint Eastwood, even players prominent in front of the camera want to get behind it. Everyone eventually grows tired of following the dictates of others. In neuroimaging, functions are assessed, activation localized to the millimeter, but at the end of the day, neuroimagers are spectators, not directors. Except in the field of neurotherapy. A few years ago, Michael Posner lamented to me how he had all this neuroimaging data on anterior cingulate during Stroop task performance, but not confirmation of mechanism, of causality. A true experiment on cingulate function and attention requires altering activation patterns and recording the changes in performance. Neuroimaging is correlational research, with all its causal uncertainties. If only he could use operant conditioning of some psychophysiological measure... I smiled. And now Eran Zaidel (see below) has done just that.

So even the "father of Cognitive Neuroscience" (Posner) aims to direct. He is not alone in the field of neuroscience. A few of his kindred trickled into Colorado last month.

Richard Davidson, Director of the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was the opening keynoter. (This is the same institution where Harry Harlow performed his research, uncoincidentally). His talk on the neural substrates of affective style reviewed recent findings on emotional processing in the brain. Davidson is best known for his medial frontal asymmetry index of emotional valence: activation of the left medial frontal cortex (F3) produces appetitive behaviors, activation of the right (F4), withdrawal behaviors. Too much right activation or too little left appear to be indicative of certain subtypes of depression. Originally an EEG measure, Davidson's lab has branched into all methods of neuroimaging. Davidson presented his work on meditation with Tibetan monks. He also discussed affective forecasting, the brain's attempts to predict future emotional states.

Bug Craig presented his insights on the hardware (that is, neuroanatomy) of self-representation. Only in the order of primates do we find the physiological condition so well represented. Could this be the foundation of social intelligence and intelligence in general? We know others because we know ourselves, our internal states, so well.

Simon Hanslmayr, a doctoral student from Wolfgang Klimesch's lab in Austria, reported on this laboratory's recent work in event-related desynchronization, notably in connection with theta oscillations, intelligence, and cognitive performance.

Scott Makeig describe how independent components analysis (ICA) can be applied to QEEG to successfully eliminate artifact.

David Kaiser (myself) presented Rogue Site Analysis (RSA), a comodulatory index premised on the idea that our sense of meaning reflects independent action of single neurons against a larger neuronal cascade, in the millisecond range. Failure to acquire appropriate neuronal individuation in any brain area, or its loss from emotional or physical trauma, are thought to underlie psychiatric and neurological deficits such as learning disabilities, autism, schizophrenia, PTSD, etc. RSA quantifies which cortical site is most functionally independent at any given point in time. The current technique analyzes dominant frequency transitions (what I call timing transformations) at 8 ms intervals -- which approximates thalamic firing rates (e.g., 300/s).

Barry Sterman continued his effort to educate the field on the role of synchronization in cognition. Cortical synchronization is a "fortunate accident" of mammalian evolution. The loss of synchrony in any brain area may be the primary culprit underlying neurological and psychiatric dysfunction.

Eran Zaidel, an expert in right hemisphere abilities, presented the final talk at the conference. He extended the laterality paradigm into this field as a ingenious means to validate the effectiveness of neurofeedback training. By preferentially training one hemisphere, then testing this individual on tasks better performed by one or the other hemisphere, the efficacy of specific neurofeedback protocols can be quantified. Because individuals act as their own controls, the results should prove powerful.

Next year's AAPB conference will be held from March 31 to April 03, 2005 in Austin, TX, one of the best small cities in America. CU there.

More meeting information, including selected proceedings, are found at http://www.aapb.org/

-DK

News & Reviews NEW BOOKS

Cognitive Electrophysiology of Mind and Brain
by Alberto Zani, Alice Proverbio
Reviews developments in recording of bioelectric and magnetic responses of the brain. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0127754210/top100

Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
by Steven Johnson
Layperson view of 21st century brain sciences which includes neurofeedback. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743241657/top100

Handbook of Emotions, 2nd Edition
by Michael Lewis, Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones
From the philosophy of emotions to emotions in art and the humanities to emotions in the mammalian brain and facial expressions. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572305290/top100

Clinicians' Guide to Adult ADHD: Assessment and Intervention
by Sam Goldstein, Anne Teeter Ellison
Mental health and education scholars discuss how the controversial attention-deficit syndrome affects adults as well as children. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0122870492/top100

Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Proactive Intervention
by Roberta Depompei, Jean L. Blosser
Textbook on treatment of traumatic brain injury in children, emphasizing the use of intervention teams of medical personnel, educators, and families. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0769300553/top100

The Treatment of Anxiety Disorders: Clinician Guides and Patient Manuals
by Gavin Andrews and others
Reviews new developments in research and treatment of anxiety disorders and provides up-to-date treatment materials. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521788773/top100

Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Proactive Intervention
by Roberta Depompei, Jean L. Blosser
Textbook on treatment of traumatic brain injury in children, emphasizing the use of intervention teams of medical personnel, educators, and families. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0769300553/top100

Clinical Neuropsychology
ISBN: 0195133676
A definitive text on all major neurobehavioral disorders of adults, including aphasia, alexia, agraphia, agnosia, apraxia, amnesic disorders, dementia, and others. A required reference. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/neth Heilm/top100

The Addiction-Prone Personality (Longitudinal research)
by Gordon E. Barnes and others
Investigates to what extent there is a causal link between personality traits and the development of alcohol abuse. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0306462494/top100

Anxiety and Its Disorders, 2nd Ed: The Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic
by David H. Barlow
Model of panic and anxiety based on recent developments in emotion theory, cognitive science, and neuroscience. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572304308/top100

Follow-up Survey on Seizures Induced by Animated Cartoon TV Program "Pocket Monster". : Two-thirds of the 103 patients who had a seizure during the incident had no seizures before and during follow-up. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15030500

Frontal lobe dysfunction and everyday problem-solving : Impairments in problem- solving are described in groups of participants with left anterior frontal lobe lesions, Tourette's syndrome and Asperger's syndrome. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14962402

Pharmacokinetic considerations in the treatment of ADHD with methylphenidate. : Methylphenidate is a rapidly absorbed medication that readily penetrates the CNS, particularly the striatum. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15015904

Training of slow cortical potentials in ADHD : ADHD symptomatology was reduced by 25% after SCP training. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15039008

Stability of resting frontal electroencephalographic asymmetry in depression. : Asymmetry scores displayed good internal consistency and exhibited modest stability over the 8- and 16- week assessment intervals in depressed individuals. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15032992

Hemispheral asymmetry and regional activity of qEEG in children with stuttering. : QEEG analysis showed increased delta activity, especially in the right frontal and parietal regions and decreased alpha frequency in bi-frontal regions of the stutterers. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15039601

The "Mozart effect": an EEG analysis : Mozart's music influences the level of arousal, regardless of induced mood, musical tempo and complexity. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14977200

Neuroanatomical differences between autism and asperger syndrome. : Brain-IQ relationships reveal some differences between high functioning autism and Asperger's, suggesting neurodevelopmental differences, though it's not at all conclusive. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14993117

Quantitative EEG in Acute Ischemic Stroke : Acute qEEG data might be used to monitor and predict stroke evolution. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15001786

Extensive medial frontal lobe damage on 'Theory of Mind' and cognition. : Patient GT (bilateral anterior cerebral artery infarction, without complications) acquired dysexecutive syndrome (poor planning and memory, tendency to confabulate) but was unimpaired in Theory of Mind. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14998913

Neuropsychological deficits in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. : CFS patients are often impaired on one or more of the following: attention, speed of information processing, and motor speed (memory and executive functioning show no impairment). www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15012848

Cortico-striatal contributions to feedback-based learning : Cortico-striatal systems are necessary for feedback-based learning on a cognitive task; discusses role of midbrain dopaminergic systems in feedback processing. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15013954