What's New in Neurofeedback

• Study Shows How the Brain Recalls What Turns It On
• Brains Contain 'Celebrity Cells'
• Yes, bigger brains mean higher IQ, on average
• Brain's Marijuana-like Chemicals Postpone Pain
• Brain development may be influenced by genetic parasites
• Deep, Dark Secrets of His and Her Brains
• The Scent of a Man
• Revenge of the Right Brain

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

A disgrunted school board treasurer blamed his farm foreclosure on taxes paid for building the new school and to exact retribution he decided to destroy the school, with the children inside. He wired more than 500 pounds of dynamite throughout the basement the night before and detonated it at the start of the school day. He also drove into the schoolyard and detonated dynamite stashed in his car. A total of 37 students and 6 adults were killed, including the demented farmer, and nearly 60 more were injured. So began school violence in America, in Bath, Michigan, on May 18, 1927.

I live in a small town of 2,000 which shares schools with a large neighboring city, like many towns in America do. Together they pull in enough students to satisfy the school district, about 1,600 in the high school, or 400 per (graduating) class. Last month a teenage boy suspended from school was intercepted by police as he headed to the school grounds with his own stash of arms and ammunition in his car. He wanted to prove something to his teachers, or the world, but fortunately his mother tipped off the police and there were no injuries, only one arrest. I drove by moments after he was arrested and when I saw the police cars blocking entry to the school, I had a feeling what for.

In the last decade there were 14 multiple-injury student school shootings in the United States, 11 of these in large schools. In 1959 James Conant, then president of Harvard University, contended that the small high school was the number one problem in education and advocated for its elimination through district reorganization and consolidation. Today the number one problem in education is the large high school.

The past half-century has been a period of unprecedented consolidation as 200,000 public elementary and secondary schools in 1940 have been whittled down to 65,000 in 2005, despite a 70% concomitant increase in population. Median public high school size is 1,200 in suburbs and 1,600 in cities despite the fact that smaller schools (500 to 800) serve every aspect of a child's development to a much better degree than larger schools.

Smaller schools are generally better on academic measures as well. The best high school size for improving math and reading test scores is around 600, 150 per class (Lee & Smith, 1997). Primatology and anthropology finds that this size -- 150 -- is our natural group size, the size of many hunter-gatherer bands and horticultural villages, groups we survived within for 99% of our species' history. Our brain's large size is believed to be an adaptation to the social environment (the Machiavellian hypothesis) but even with a massive supercomputer sitting atop our shoulders we are prone to confusion when too many neighbors are milling about. When we are faced with more than 150 faces, our response has always been to leave, to separate. Bands and villages splinter into daughter groups and move apart when there are too many people to figure out, when the group has become too complex for the brain. Neurobiology limits the number of individuals we can significantly interact with on a regular basis. This is how humanity spread across the globe in a relatively short time: constant division, down to appropriate-sized groups. Kids today, given the same chance to leave large numbers, will often take this option. The 9th grade percentage drop-out rate correlates significantly with school size in cities and large towns, r=.55 and r=.59. Too many faces leads to ingrouping and outgrouping, alienation and depression, cliques and wars. A school populated with strangers is an environment that children are biologically unsuited for, and from which many will separate, emotionally if they cannot physically.

Below is a list of school shootings with multiple injuries:

    LOCATION           Injuries*  Grade Size
-------------------------------------------
    BETHEL, AK              4        74
    MOSES LAKE, WA          4       185
    EDINBORO, PA            4       240
    WEST PADUCAH, KY        8       146
    PEARL, MS              10       250
    SANTEE, CA             13       468
    JONESBORO, AR          15       121
    SPRINGFIELD, OR        26       360
    LITTLETON, CO          35       475
-------------------------------------------
              * includes fatal injuries
 

School shootings are as rare as airplane crashes and might be considered in the same vein in terms of analysis. Airline crashes can be the result of an unfortunate series of random forces and tell us little about a phenomenon, or they can be quite revealing and indicate severe structural flaws that otherwise escaped our attention. The Valujet crash in 1996 exposed operational and organizational problems with that company which eventually shut them down for good. I think school shooting incidents fall into the latter indicative category, the tip of the iceberg phenomenon, revealing structural decay in how we conceive and administrate our schools. Large schools are detrimental to emotional, social, and intellectual development as children do not possess the cortical resources to integrate and function well within such groups. (Nor do the teachers.) Educational systems fail our children when they fail to address and adapt to the neurobiological realities of childhood and adolescence.

We have had a hiatus from school shootings in America until recently. A teenager on a reservation shot many classmates in a small school in Minnesota last month. This reminded me that not all pressures facing our youth can be quantified by the size of his or her social environment. It was still the social environment that failed him, simply the smaller family unit. We police ourselves when we know one another but require police -- formal institutions of behavioral control-- when we do not. Reducing school size to within our children's neurobiological capacity is a form of neurotherapy. Preventive neurotherapy, the best kind.

-DK

News & Reviews NEW BOOKS

Causes of Conduct Disorder and Juvenile Delinquency
by Benjamin B. Lahey
Causal models of conduct disorder are discussed including developmental pathways. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572308818/eegspectrum

Autistic Thinking
by Peter Vermeulen
Introductory book offers window into autistic mind and the very individual way in which it processes information. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1853029955/eegspectrum

Brain Energetics and Neuronal Activity : Applications to fMRI and Medicine
by R. G. Shulman, D. L. Rothman
Theories of neuronal activity and disease states. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470847204/eegspectrum

Healing And Hope: Six Women From The Betty Ford Center
by Betty Ford
Six women share poignant stories of the destructive power of addiction. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0425198308/eegspectrum

Neuroscience : PreTest Self-Assessment & Review
by Allan Siegel
Review neuroscience at a high level with 100s of questions, explanations, and outlines of key material. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071436510/eegspectrum

Stress, the Brain and Depression
by H. M. van Praag, et al
Neurobiological changes induced by stress and depression are reviewed. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/052162147X/eegspectrum

Advances in Neural Population Coding
by Miguel A. L. Nicolelis
Historical overview of neural populations and coding schemes. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/044450110X/eegspectrum

Holographic Reprocessing: A Cognitive-Experiential Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Trauma
by Lori S. Katz
Use of holographic reprocessing in treatment of trauma, sexually or physically-derived PTSD. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/041594757X/eegspectrum

Full Circle : From Addiction to Affection
by Bruce Codrington
Personal story of drug addiction, incarceration, loneliness, depression and feeling unloved, and the woman who removed him from this vicious cycle. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595329160/eegspectrum

Asperger's and Self-Esteem: Insight and Hope through Famous Role Models
by Temple Grandin, Norm Ledgin, Marsha M. Ledgin
Many famous thinkers fell into the Asperger category of self-representation and object-relations. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1885477856/eegspectrum

Functional Neuroimaging in Child Psychiatry
by Monique Ernst, Judith M. Rumsey (Editors)
Reviews functional neuroimaging techniques and their implications for child psychiatry. --www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521650445/eegspectrum

Contributing factors to changes of cerebral blood flow in major depressive disorder. : Reduced blood flow associated with depression appears to be a precursor to an episode rather than a characteristic of depression itself. Apparently mental lethargy drifts us into depression. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15916810

On the human sensorimotor-cortex beta rhythm: Sources and modeling. : Inhibitory neurons drive neuronal synchronization (in the 20 Hz beta band) than those onto excitatory pyramidal cells, as we've always presumed. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15907295

Neural substrates of faulty decision-making in abstinent marijuana users. : Heavy users of marijuana focus on immediate gratification, which results in persistent decision-making deficits and alterations in brain activity. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15907305

EEG biofeedback with Asperger's syndrome. : Pilot study of EEG biofeedback on 5 boys with Asperger's syndrome showed improved behavior as rated by parents and teachers. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15900187

Neuroimaging of Epilepsy: Therapeutic Implications. : Neuroimaging provides new insights into the pathophysiology and neurotherapeutics of epilepsy. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15897958

Neuropsychological dysfunction in bipolar affective disorder: a critical opinion. : Reviews possible causes of neuropsychological dysfunction associated with bipolar disorder, in attention, learning and memory, and executive function. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15898960

Intelligence related differences in EEG-bandpower. : Intelligence is reflected in EEG activity by both lower and higher activitions; a contradiction reflecting differences in task difficulty. Intelligence is the ability to organize energy effectively. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15896490

Neuroimaging of gender differences in alcohol dependence: are women more vulnerable? : Alcoholic effects on brain function and behavior are gender specific. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15897736

Neural correlates during cocaine self-administration : Drug craving correlated with limbic, paralimbic, and mesocortical activity while high were inversely correlated in same areas www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15886020

Functional MRI in ADHD: Evidence for hypofrontality. : Hypofrontality is apparent in ADHD but a compensatory network including basal ganglia, insula and cerebellum for low cognitive load tasks also exists. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15876503

Atypical language representation in chronic seizure disorder : Discusses inefficiencies of right-hemisphere structure for reading. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15816948

Exteroceptive and interoceptive feedback systems in orbital prefrontal cortex : Evidence for two appetitive systems in prefrontal cortex. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15872112

Electrophysiological ratio markers for reward and punishment. : EEG indices reflecting motivational imbalances in reward- and punishment-driven behavior are described. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15878265

Language-learning disorders and youth incarceration. : Discusses how language-learning disorders, poverty, and delinquency in boys may be buffered against to prevent recidivism www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15862813

Effect of traumatic brain injury on the timing of sleep. : Investigates sleep timing in TBI patients and how the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire may be inappropriate for this cognitively impaired group. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15865324

Deep brain stimulation in treatment of neurological and psychiatric disease. : Overviews deep brain stimulation to treat a variety of conditions. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15853543

Neuroplasticity is the hottest topic in neuroscience these days, and neurotherapy is actually well ahead of the curve on this one. Actually it is the curve: We will be there around the bend when the bench neuroscientist look up from their microscopes and staining tools and try to apply what they learned to people. Thirty years ago George Lucas' film THX 1138 showed a world where most learning was essentially forbidden and every child wears state-imposed IVs. Set 400 years in the future, the State has taken control of mental health and everyone is drugged into a continual stupor. Loudspeakers in the home and work constantly remind individuals to take the appropriate amount of sedatives. Avoiding one's medication is a crime. Near the end of the film our fate is tied to one of the men who has fought the system and failed. He's about to be arrested and "re-educated." With nowhere else to go or hide, he sits alone in a lobby, calmly awaiting the authorities. Here we see for the first time children: a line of boys and girls calmly step off a nearby escalator, noticeably subdued, passive, without curiousity. The camera focuses on an IV-tube strapped to each right arm. One of the children appears frightened and confused and approaches our man for help. His IV tube has come loose. Our man, drained of all fight, reattaches the IV tube and with a sweet smile sends the child on his way... Perhaps this way is best for all of us, his weak smile conveys..

I've written about this film and its prescience before and I wish is was more parody and less a growing reality. One goal of neurotherapy is to stop the current rising trend of overmedication of children. Short-term psychoactive treatments, stop-grap measures, these will always be necessary, but too often psychoactive medication merely mask symptoms and fails to address underlying mechanisms. Short-term relief from symptoms sometimes is the cure, or at least opens the road to improvement in many conditions, but in the long run mental health must be earned by the brain. As we gain mastery over our lives and its problems, we grow. When "mastery" is given to us, we shrink.

Here is a brief overview of the 4th conference of the Society for Advancement of Brain Analysis (SABA) which took place from June 6-12, 2005 on a cruise ship from Vancouver to Anchorage, Alaska. SABA is a nonprofit membership group and a number of EEG Spectrum affiliates are members. The point of presenting this overview, in part, is to show people unaware of the variety of dynamic groups involved in "therapist-assisted neuroplasticity" and how many notable practitioners are searching for better answers, better approaches to treating mental illness.

In the keynote address, Barry Sterman presented his model of the role of EEG oscillations in learning, dropping down to molecular levels including transmission facilitation and synaptic reorganization.

Niels Birbaumer & Connie Weber described two controlled studies using slow cortical potential and SMR neurofeedback in ADHD which demonstrated equivalent results than ritalin control and no difference between the two neurofeedback groups. Neils also presented a brain-computer interface (BCI) using SMR, Slow-Brain-Potentials, P-300 and invasive recording of ECoG for direct brain communication in locked-in patients with ALS or for movements of neuroprosthesis of a paralysed hand in chronic stroke.

Edward Hallowell provided a number of insightful and entertaining anecdotes, the most striking being the metaphor for parenting. Parenting is packing your child's suitcase, to prepare them for the world. You have 18 years to pack it, and hope it is filled with confidence, self-esteem, success, and love in order to help the child make their way in the world. He related a story how a teenage daughter was friends with a troubled teenage girl and how the father disapproved and told her that she didn't need friends like that. But as the daughter explained, "But maybe, Dad, she needs a friend like me." Sometimes our children's suitcase are packed better than we imagine.

Michael & Lynda Thompson presented QEEG patterns from child and adult ADHD patients. For instance they find a common pattern in adults with ADHD that they call a 'Busy-Brain' (high amplitude bursts of hi-beta activity, a corresponding dip in SMR, and a high ratio of 26-34/13-15 Hz). They described other patterns including a distraction / inattention profile due to rumination that correlated with bursts of 23-34 Hz activity.

William Sears, M.D. talked about a health care provider model (Pills-Skills) in which the patient is taught skills in order to be weaned off any pills needed for the short term. In another talk, Sears described five Bs for infant caring: bonding at and after birth, breastfeeding, babywearing, bedsharing, and being sensitive to the content of baby cries.

Dave Kaiser discussed the differences between two connectivity measures in QEEG, coherence and comodulation, which measure phase and amplitude difference consistency, respectively. We also attempted a Research Pilot Study that examined the role of immediate consolidation pausing was begun onboard using a counter-balanced, cross-over experimental design.

Here is a list of the talks:

1. EEG Oscillations, Synaptic Reorganization, and Neurofeedback: A Model for the Mechanism of EEG Operant Conditioning -- M. Barry Sterman, Ph.D.
2. Treating the Whole Patient -- Barry Sterman, PhD.
3. Biofeedback and the Nature of Self-Regulation in Epilepsy and AD/HD: Some New Data --Niels Birbaumer, Ph.D.
4. Self-Regulation of the BOLD Effect: -- The fMRI-Brain- Computer-Interface and Emotional -- Regulation Niels Birbaumer, Ph.D.
5. Delivered from Distraction-- Edward Hallowell, M.D.
6. Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness -- Edward Hallowell, M.D.
7. Improving Attention in Adults and Children: Differing EEG Profiles and Implications for Training -- Michael Thompson, M.D. & Lynda Thompson, Ph.D.
8. Invasive and Non-Invasive Brain- Computer-Interfaces (BCI) for Paralyzed Patients -- Neils Birbaumer, Ph.D. -
9. The Difference Between Coherence and Comodulation -- Dave Kaiser, Ph.D.
10. Neuronavigator/QEEG (Introductory) -- Tamara Lorensen, Ph.D. cand.
11. From Pills to Skills: -- A New Paradigm for Managing Chronic Disorders -- William Sears, M.D.
12. Feeding the Brain for Optimal Function -- William Sears, M.D.
13. An Update on the Clinical EEG and Neuropathology -- Denise Malkowicz, M.D.
14. Diversity in Neurofeedback - -Wolfgang Keeser, Ph.D. & Others