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Twelve types of training
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Peak Achievement Trainer®
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| NeuroTek welcomes the IMG Academies in Bradenton, FL to the family of Peak Achievement users:
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My purpose here is to give you
some background on the 40 Hertz rhythm that will show its importance
and also support the ideas that it is a system designed to optimize
the brain’s processing of new discoveries. This is by no means
an exhaustive review, or even an academic one.
One indication of the importance
of the 40 Hertz rhythm is that it is the most highly correlated with
the rate of brain metabolism (Oakes et al, 2004), suggesting that
there is probably a good reason for such energy expenditure.
Relatively few EEG studies of the 40 Hertz rhythm have been
performed in comparison to its neurophysiological importance because
of some methodological problems. In addition to the EMG
(muscle contraction artifact) contamination issue, early researchers
had to deal with another daunting methodological problem when
measuring above 32 Hertz (cycles per second). The old style pen and
paper strip physiological recorders couldn’t easily go that fast
without catching paper or spitting ink across the room. Most
of the current research is recorded by computers and analyzed
quantitatively or printed out by newer, faster technology. It
is also well known that the higher the frequency of any EEG wave,
the greater the percentage of its energy is lost coming through the
scalp and meninges, so the 40 Hertz rhythm appears very small and
therefore unimportant when it is measured from the scalp. On
the surface of the cortex, it is much larger. The Neureka!
Protocol compensates for this problem.
There are several strands of
scientific work that I will weave together to sketch in this brief
history. They appear to be somewhat independent in origin,
because two different techniques were used, electroencephalography
(EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). The third strand
concerns the relationship between 40 Hertz and memory. The
fourth strand focused on the study of meditation and other altered
states such as hypnosis, using EEG. The story begins there,
back in the mid-1950’s.
The original study on the EEG of
meditators was by Das and Gastaut back in 1955. They reported
(in French) high amplitudes of 40 Hertz rhythm from seven trained
yogis, recorded from the occipital lobe (in the back of the brain)
during the samadhi state. Banquet (1973), studying 12 subjects
practicing transcendental meditation and recording from left
occipital and frontal leads, also observed 40 Hertz during the third
deep stage of meditation.
A recent study of Buddhist
meditators who are followers of the Dalai Lama recorded their
brainwaves as they performed an objectless meditation practice,
enhancing “unconditional loving kindness and compassion”. It
demonstrated increases in the 25-42 Hertz band at a number of
locations on the scalp, including the prefrontal locations
surrounding the middle of the forehead (Lutz et al, 2004).
Subsequently, at a meeting sponsored by the Mind and Life Foundation
(2005), Davidson reported that there were strikingly significant
correlations between these amplitudes and the monk’s reported
clarity of their meditation, on a moment to moment basis, but only
for the EEGs recorded from the prefrontal sites.
For the technically
minded: Davidson also reported that there was enhanced
long-range synchrony of the brainwaves between sites in these
meditators. Synchrony is a very confusing word for
neurophysiologists, open to a number of different
interpretations. The basic idea is that it is a measure which
responds to the similarity of the shape of waveforms that come from
two different sources. Actually, the waveform that is measured
by the Peak Achievement Trainer comes from two different sources—the
front tips of the right and left cerebral hemispheres. These
two waveforms are superimposed or added together before we measure
them. I prefer the term “superposition”. Some of the founders
of neurofeedback, particularly Lester Fehmi, would call this
synchrony. In a sense, then, the Neureka! Protocol
responds to long-range synchrony, since the actual fiber connections
between the tips of the hemispheres take a long route through the
corpus callosum. Also, Davidson’s paper calls this
“gamma synchrony”, but this takes some liberties with the term,
since gamma generally refers to brainwave frequencies above 30
Hertz. I don’t find “gamma” precise enough to use here.
In general, when I refer to the 40 Hertz band, I mean approximately
35 to 45 Hertz.
There is also some evidence that
high hypnotizable subjects produce greater 40 Hertz amplitudes while
they are hypnotized than low hypnotizable ones (de Pascalis,
1993). The same researcher did some very interesting work on
the relationship between memory and 40 Hertz. The idea that
hypnosis leads to its life-changing effects through an effect on
memory mediated by the 40 Hertz rhythm is a fascinating one.
The second strand is the work of
Dulio Giannitrapani and Daniel Sheer. Giannitrapani (1966) found
that “increases in 35-45 Hertz occurred immediately prior to
answering in tasks such as multiplication questions” (Hammond,
2000), suggesting the Aha! response to a new discovery. Sheer
thought that 40 Hertz was a particular type of focused arousal
(Sheer, 1984), basically a high frequency “beta” mechanism. He
did not realize that a large part of the 40 Hertz signals he so
carefully isolated from EMG had a different origin. Sheer
(1974) found that normal children produced more 40 Hertz in their
parietal cortex as they solved problems, while those with learning
disabilities did not. His group (Bird et al., 1978a, b)
demonstrated that people could be trained to selectively enhance
their 40 Hertz rhythm and to develop conscious control over it--both
increasing and decreasing it when requested--and five out of six
subjects could repeat this (Ford et al., 1980) when tested one to
three years later! Sheer was not interested in the 40 Hertz
rhythm from the prefrontal cortex, presumably because he was so
concerned about demonstrating that the effects he saw were not due
to muscle artifact. Most neurofeedbackers were even more
concerned and opted not to do 40 Hertz brainwave feedback anywhere
on the scalp for many years. I sincerely hope that the
Neureka! Protocol will help to reverse this trend.
According to Hammond (2000),
Giannitrapani also found that the 40 Hertz rhythm “seemed to
synchronize and coordinate neurons that process incoming sensory
stimuli”. There’s not much of a leap from there to the idea
that it enhances awareness, as we have found from direct
observation. Some have called it the “event binding
rhythm”. Other researchers have found that activation of this
rhythm will not occur with meaningless words, but does occur in
response to meaningful stimuli, even when you aren’t paying
attention to them (see the review by Hammond, 2000). That’s
just what you would expect from a brain system that is designed to
respond—but only to meaningful discoveries—by increasing your
awareness of them and the surrounding context, remembering them, and
then rewarding you with a brief moment of satisfaction.
In an elegant series of
experiments combining animal tissue work, implanted electrode
studies and human MEG (magnetoencephalography), Llinas and his
coworkers (1998) developed evidence for the hypothesis that there
were actually two different brain systems that carried information
at about 40 Hertz. Both of these systems involved feedback
loops between (different) layers of the cerebral cortex and the
thalamus, the organ shaped like two flattened eggs, one in each
hemisphere, with a thick bridge between them in the center of the
brain. Information, in the form of somewhat repetitive
patterns of nerve excitation, resonates--travels back and
forth--between the thalamus and the cortex at about a 40 Hertz
frequency in both of these systems. One system, the specific
sensory and motor relay system, relays information from the external
world through the outer nuclei (technically called the extralaminar
nucleii, those located outside a fiber bundle or lamina dividing
each egg) of the thalamus to the cortex. It is the system in
which most all of the activity related to the Focus and Alertness
measurements takes place. The 40 Hertz activity in this system
may not be that different than the activity in other frequency
ranges, “focused arousal” as Sheer argued. The other,
non-specific, thalamocortical system is uniquely set up to scan all
the regions of the cortex and collect information back from them,
using a beam that resonates near a constant 40 Hertz
frequency. It scans the brain from front to rear 40 times a
second, and delivers this information back to a more central
location, the intralaminar nuclei, where it can be integrated and
analyzed, combining or binding the different neural aspects of the
event together. Hence, the name “event binding rhythm”.
Next, the scanning function can be refined for the next pulse,
modulating our awareness to emphasize the important new discoveries.
This location is very close and well connected to the
hypothalamus, the control center for many of the body’s important
functions.
Llinas argues that consciousness
is actually a result of the simultaneous neural firing produced by
the coherence (I prefer superposition) of the inputs from the
specific and non-specific systems on the layers of dendrites in the
cortex. The specific system would then provide the content
that relates to the external world, and the non-specific system
would give rise to the context. Together, they generate
a single cognitive experience. My perspective is that
consciousness is not inherent in the brain, but rather exists in a
field that is co-located with and simultaneously external to it, a
multidimensional “electroholomorphic” field. In a paper I gave
at the first ISSSEEM meeting in 1990, published informally in
Megabrain (1993), and that is now being revised and in press for Subtle Energies, I argued that the brain is actually
able to holographically project this dendritic excitation pattern
into this electroholomorphic field by using the coherent radiation
(a brain “laser”) that is emitted by these thalamocortical
systems.
I believe that the Neureka!
Protocol actually isolates the output of the non-specific scanning
system that increases awareness and contributes the context to the
cognition. Outside of my knowledge of the proprietary method
by which it is calculated, the evidence for this is largely
empirical. The “Neureka! F--Neureka! Triggers and Enlarges DVD
Research Version.bxd” design shows correlations between Neureka! and
both Focus and Alertness. Our preliminary testing shows that
these correlations are never more than 0.06 if they are allowed to
stabilize for at least three minutes. This indicates that the
measures are independent of each other.
There are several lines of
evidence that indicate that the 40 Hertz rhythm profoundly enhances
learning and memory. Sheer speculated about this relationship
in 1970 on the basis of his studies of the olfactory bulb.
There are studies which show that stimulating cortical cells at more
than 7 Hertz enhances long term potentiation of their ability to
transmit information across synapses (Sterman, 2006). This
process is triggered by calcium entering the cell every time the
synapse is stimulated (Malenka and Nicoll, 1999). It would
seem reasonable that faster stimulation speeds, such as 40 Hertz,
would increase the amount of calcium entering the cells per second
and speed up this process. Long term potentiation of a group
of cells connected together (a “cell assembly”) forms a long term
memory. The clearest experimental evidence for the specific
role of the 40 Hertz rhythm in learning was published by Miltner et al. (1999) in Nature. They measured the
EEGs of a group of young women who were learning the association
between a colored light and a shock to one hand, examining those
regions of the cortex that were known to be stimulated by the light
and the shock to the hand. They found that there was more 40
Hertz activity in those regions of the cortex, as well as some
surrounding regions, during the trials than at other times.
Furthermore, they examined the coherences between the 40 Hertz
outputs of the specific areas involved and compared them with other
regions and other times when the specific color and shock were not
paired as controls. They found clear evidence that associative
learning involved increased connectivity (coherence) between these
brain regions in the 40 Hertz band, and that this coherence dropped
off very quickly as they examined higher or lower frequencies.
In a study of epileptic patients with electrodes implanted right on
their cortical surfaces, Sederberg et al, 2003 found that
their short-term memory for words was related to the gamma output of
electrode sites in their frontal and temporal areas, particularly
near the 40 hertz band. There are several recent studies which
feature relationships between gamma and theta bands, learning and
memory. There is also one study which indicated that quicker
reaction times are related to the faster appearance of the 40 Hertz
band at relevant brain sites (Haig et al., 1999).
The study that lead to the
discovery of the Neureka! Protocol produced some remarkable results
that puzzled me for quite some time. I believe that they can
best be understood as an indication of the power of the Neureka!
Protocol in improving learning and memory. This was a small
pilot study—an undergraduate thesis—performed by Marcus Perman under
the supervision of Dr. Artur Pocswardowski at St. Lawrence
University; the results are in Appendix A. Briefly, three
groups of five young ladies were given the IVA (Integrated Visual
and Auditory Continuous Performance Test) and our Concentration
Protocol (without instructions) as pretests before training.
These tests were repeated after the fourth and eighth (final)
testing session. One group was given training on the
Concentration Protocol, one on the Neureka! Protocol (both from our
older software) and one was a control group given no training.
To our surprise, the Neureka! group showed a very large gain (1.5
standard deviations of their original scores) in just four sessions
on the IVA Full Scale Attention Quotient, and outscored the
Concentration Protocol group. They also did as well as the
group trained on the Concentration Protocol in learning how to
concentrate, despite a lot less practice. Is it possible that
they learned the pre-tests more quickly during their Neureka!
practice right afterwards due to its effects on memory?
One overall reminder about
interpreting these studies is that unless I have specifically stated
that they were done in the prefrontal area, they may not be clearly
applicable to the Neureka! Protocol.
I was not able to find any
literature which substantiated the relationship between the 40 Hertz
rhythm and feelings of satisfaction. This is a new finding
from our informal trials that you will need to substantiate by your
own experience. I can only point to the potential overlap with
the kindness and compassion that characterize the states of
Davidson’s meditators. Kindness, compassion, satisfaction and
gratitude are somewhat similar emotions. All of those feelings
will often briefly enhance Neureka! It is intriguing that
those who practice HRV (heart rate variability) feedback also find
that gratitude and acceptance are related to success. Perhaps
there is a brain to heart connection which involves the 40 Hertz
rhythm.
To investigate the quality of
our feedback for the Three Dimensions of Mental Processing (Focus,
Alertness, and Neureka!), I surveyed 10 biofeedback experts who did
a demo in our booth at the International Society for
Neurofeedback and Research by asking them to fill out the Three
Dimensions of Mental Processing Questionnaire #3. For each
dimension, a 7 point scale was used to answer the question:
"How strong do you think the relationship between your definition of
single-pointed Focus and the Peak Achievement Trainer’s measurement
of [the Dimension] is? Make a / anywhere along the
line." Responses were permitted anywhere along a
continuous line from 1 (Extremely Strong Negative) to 7 (Extremely
Strong Positive). Each of the Dimension's ratings was
significantly different from Neutral (4), p<.001. The averages
were all between 5.8 to 6.0 (Moderately Strong Positive) and did not
differ significantly from each other.
I also asked them to compare the
PAT's clarity with "other types of biofeedback I have experienced".
The average of the 8 responses for each of
the Dimensions--Focus, Alertness, and Awareness--was "clearer
than 90% of the other feedback experiences." While this was
only an imperfect pilot study, it is consistent with all my
experience in demonstrating our system to thousands of people.
To summarize, I believe the big
picture is that the Neureka! Protocol reflects the moment to moment
activity of a scanning system, based in the center of the brain and
looking outwards, which creates the awareness of events as wholes,
in their context. It is activated particularly at moments of
new discovery (the Aha! experience) and results in the enhanced
learning, memory, and satisfaction of accomplishment.
References
Bird, B. L., Newton, F. A., Sheer,
D. E., & Ford, M. R. (1978a). Biofeedback training of 40 Hz. EEG
in humans. Biofeedback & Self-Regulation, 3(1), 1-12.
ird, B.L., Newton, F. A., Sheer, D.
E., & Ford, M. R. (1978b). Behavioral and
electroencephalographic correlates of 40-Hz. EEG biofeedback
training in humans. Biofeedback & Self-Regulation, 3(1),
13-28.
Banquet, J. P. (1973). Spectral
analysis of the EEG in meditation. Electroencephalography &
Clinical Neurophysiology, 35, 143.
Cowan, J. (1993). Mind
as the Projection and Reception of Electroholomorphic Fields by the
Brain: A Proposed Mechanism. Megabrain Report 2(2), 23-30.
Davidson, R.J. (2005). Paper
presented at the Mind and Life XIII Symposium: The Science and
Clinical Applications of Meditation, Washington, 2005.
Das, N. N., & Gastaut, H.
(1955). Variations de l’activite electrique du cerveau, du coeur et
des muscles squellettiques au cours de la meditation et de l’extase
yogique. Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,
Suppl. 6, 211.
De Pascalis, V. (1993). EEG
spectral analysis during hypnotic induction, hypnotic dream, and age
regression. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 15 (2):
153-66.
Ford, M., Bird, B. L., Newton, F.
A., & Sheer, D. (1980). Maintenance and generalization of 40-Hz
EEG biofeedback effects. Biofeedback & Self-Regulation, 5(2),
193-205.
Giannitrapani, D. (1966).
Electroencephalographic differences between resting and mental
multiplication. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 22, 399-405.
Haig, AR, De Pascalis V, &
Gordon, E. (1999): Peak gamma latency correlated with reaction
time in conventional oddball paradigm. Clinical
Neurophysiology, 110 (1): 158-65.
Hammond, C. (2000). Clinical
Corner: The Role of 40 Hertz Activity and Training.
Journal of Neurotherapy, 4(2): 95-100.
Llinas, R., Ribary, U., Contreras,
D., & Pedroarena, C. (1998): The neuronal basis for
consciousness. Philosophical Society of the Royal Society of
London B, 353: 1841-1849.
Lutz, A., Greischar, L.L.,
Rawlings, N., Ricard, M., & Davidson, R.J. (2004):
Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony
during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 101(46): 16369-16373.
Malenka, R.L. & Nicoll, R.J.
(1999): Long-Term Potentiation—A Decade of Progress? Science
285: 1870-1874.
Miltner, W. H. R., Braun, C.,
Arnold, M., Witte, H., & Taub, E. (1999). Coherence of
gamma-band EEG activity as a basis for associative learning. Nature,
397, 434-436.
akes, T.R., Pizzagalli, D.A.,
Hendrick, A.M., Horras, K.A., Larson, C.L., Abercrombie, H.C.,
Schaefer, S.M., Koger, J.V., & Davidson, R.J. (2004). Functional coupling
of simultaneous electrical and metabolic activity in the human
brain. Human Brain Mapping, 21, 257-270.
Sederberg, P.B., Kahana, M.J.,
Howard, M.W., Donner, E.J., & Madsen, J.R. (2003): Theta
and Gamma Oscillations during Encoding Predict Subsequent
Recall. Journal of Neuroscience 23 (34): 10809-10814.
Sheer, D. E. (1974).
Electroencephalographic studies in learning disabilities. Chapter in
H. Eichenwald & A. Talbot (Eds.), The Learning Disabled Child.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
Sheer, D. E. (1975). Biofeedback
training of 40-hz EEG and behavior. Chapter in N. Burch & H. I.
Altshuler (Eds.), Behavior and Brain Electrical Activity. New York
:Plenum.
Sheer, D. E. (1984). Focused
arousal, 40-Hz EEG, and dysfunction. Chapter in J. Elbert et al.,
Self-Regulation of the Brain and Behavior. Berlin: Springer.
Sterman, M.B. (2006). EEG
Oscillations and Synaptic Reorganization: A Model for the
Mechanism of Learning Through Operant Conditioning. Paper
presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Association
for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. |
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