A way to train the brain

Scientists take a systematic look at the benefits of neurofeedback 
by Jerome Burne FINANCIAL TIMES

LONDON, July 11 -  Sitting at a desk on the 10th floor of Charing Cross hospital, Tobias Egner appears to be relaxing with a curious computer game. Shapes keep changing on the screen but there is no mouse or keyboard. Instead, wires trail from different points on his scalp.

IN FACT, he is working hard at an activity that most people can keep up for only about 20 minutes. Dr. Egner, of the department of cognitive neuroscience and behavior at Imperial College London, is improving his memory and attention by changing his brain waves. Three leads attached to his earlobes and the top of his head connect to a device that monitors his brain activity. The raw data is “fed back” on a screen so that Dr. Egner can see how his brain activity affects the shapes on the monitor. “We tell users: ‘Just let the feedback guide you - be relaxed but focused,” says David Vernon, his colleague. Studies already show that neurofeedback, as the process is known, could be an effective form of drug-free treatment for alcoholics, epileptics and children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.       

John Gruzelier, who runs the cognitive neuroscience and behavior laboratory at Imperial, is one of the few U.K. researchers in this field. In the United States, neurofeedback therapy has grown fast, mainly among parents of ADHD children looking for a non-drug treatment. Neurofeedback is based on the fact that our brains produce electrical waves of different frequencies (hertz) that can be recorded with an electroencephalograph. Each is broadly associated with a particular mental state. Beta waves, the fastest, are 15 Hz to 18 Hz, alpha waves 12 to 15 Hz and theta a leisurely 4 to 7 Hz. Beta is linked with day-to-day alertness, alpha with relaxation and theta with imaginative imagery, although too much theta can cause problems - for instance, inducing a dreamlike state that makes concentration difficult. In the 1960s, researchers found that first animals and then people could learn to produce different types of brain waves at will, using feedback, such as a light or a tone. Then a chance observation found it was possible to prevent an epileptic fit, which involves a slow wave of theta rolling across the brain, by learning to produce “sensorimotor rhythm” (SMR) waves, a particular sort of slow beta wave found in a brain region known as the sensorimotor cortex.         

Children with ADHD show a different pattern of inappropriate theta - they go into slow theta at just the time they need beta to concentrate - and so benefit from learning how to stay in beta. “There are about five good studies supporting this,” says Professor Gruzelier. “The kid’s IQ goes up and so does their ability to attend [to] and comprehend tasks.” A randomized trial is under way at Northwick Park hospital in London. One form of neurofeedback, the “Peniston protocol,” has had dramatic results in helping recovering alcoholics. This concentrates on producing a particular frequency where relaxing alpha waves turn into even slower theta. But anybody can benefit. Professor Gruzelier ran a study two years ago in which he showed neurofeedback could significantly “optimize performance” of high-achieving students at the Royal College of Music by encouraging theta waves. His team took videos of students in performance and had them rated by independent experts.           

Groups of students were allocated to different therapies including aerobics, Alexander Technique, mental skills training and neurofeedback. After two years the students were filmed again and assessed. All those in the neurofeedback group had improved, some by 50 percent, in “stylistic accuracy” and “interpretative imagination.” The number of incidental errors also fell significantly. This year, Professor Gruzelier, who believes applications are “unlimited,” published a paper that showed that people trained to increase both SMR/beta and theta in combination improved both attention and memory. There is also the attraction that the process looks safe, non-addictive and effective. “Further tests are needed to confirm this,” Professor Gruzelier cautions, “but if neurofeedback can positively influence the cognitive performance of healthy individuals, it opens up the possibility that such treatment may be beneficial for those suffering from cognitive deficits.”             

© The Financial Times Ltd 2003. "FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times.                 

Points to consider re the research

1. the research was done with high achieving students clearly demonstrating the peak performance benefits to high achievers, in other words this is not training for people who are having problems, however it can be used for that too.
2. this type of applied research is about 20 years behind trainers experience in the field.
3. the improvements of stylistic accuracy, interpretive imagination and reduced incidental errors held up 2 years from the actual training, which is consistent with trainers experience in the field.
4. a research setting is very restrictive and doesn’t allow for tailored training for individuals, which improves results significantly also the amount of training was far less than you would do in a real life training program, again improving outcomes.
5. the article mentions improvements in attention (concentration) and memory in other research .
6. another important outcome of neurotraining is arousal control especially related to emotional states eg anxiety and depression. In the field it is used extensively to remediate depression and anxiety problems also for emotional control for athletes to improve the consistency of their performance.
7. Other research has shown improvements in concentration, memory, creativity, emotional stability and athletic ability, again well known in the field.
8. think about it…everything you experience and do is based on your brain!