What Is Brain-Mapping?
Brain-mapping — also known as neurofeedback therapy — is a drug-free way to change your behaviors based on learning how your brain works. Doctors monitor your brainwave patterns, give you real-time data, and show how your brain operates when you perform certain functions. The idea is that once you learn your brain’s patterns, you can […]
Brain-mapping — also known as neurofeedback therapy — is a drug-free way to change your behaviors based on learning how your brain works. Doctors monitor your brainwave patterns, give you real-time data, and show how your brain operates when you perform certain functions. The idea is that once you learn your brain’s patterns, you can change your behaviors and manipulate how you perform them. According to a study published in Current Psychiatry Reports, neurofeedback is used for three primary reasons today: 1) to treat mental illnesses or learning disabilities, 2) to enhance the performance of professionals, and 3) to experiment.
How Brain-Mapping Works
Manipulation of brainwave patterns relies on two psychological concepts that have been tried and tested through many aspects of therapy. The first is operant conditioning, which uses rewards and consequences. The second is neural plasticity, or the concept that the brain will change to survive and operate functionally. Your brain’s neural plasticity is tested every day. It has gotten you through happiness and trauma, and it has helped you make choices to protect yourself when needed.As you practice rewarding the real-time neural pathway you see on the screen, the brain makes it faster and easier to change a particular behavior and take the desired neural pathway. Think of your neural pathway as a dirt path. When you don’t use the path, it may become overgrown or unusable. If you consistently walk and maintain the dirt path, it will widen, deepen, and create better access to your destination, making it easier to use and follow. A doctor or therapist will place a cap on your head that has multiple dots, monitoring specific parts of your brain to track patterns in your neural pathway. The patterns or feedback the therapist reads are called EEG patterns. EEG is the abbreviated name for the electrical pulses sent out by neurons as they are activated. The doctor or therapist will listen for these EEG pulses, as they emit sound as your neurons are activated. Table 2 of a study published in Basic and Clinical Neuroscience provides more information about the parts of your brain being monitored for EEG readings.When the doctor or therapist performs a neurofeedback reading, they observe real-time brain patterns in the form of EEGs to help the patient see what neural patterns are normal and healthy and which ones should be changed. This process is like strengthening a certain muscle or doing targeted physical therapy for your brain. While hooked up to the neurofeedback reader, the patient may be asked to consciously and actively use methods of changing behavior. To change the neural path, the patient is asked to meditate, use breathing and concentration exercises, or other methods to find a place of calm and treat a specific ailment. The doctor or therapist talks the patient through what to try and monitors their neurofeedback. If the desired outcome is achieved, the patient then gets a reward.Types of Neurofeedback and the Conditions They Treat
Several different types of neurofeedback are used based on the condition they are treating. A doctor or therapist will consider the symptoms or diagnosis of the patient and then assign the neurofeedback method accordingly. Some types of neurofeedback and the conditions they treat include:- Frequency/Power Neurofeedback – For the treatment of ADHD, insomnia, and anxiety
- Slow Cortical Potential Neurofeedback – For the treatment of ADHD, epilepsy, and migraines
- Low-Energy Neurofeedback System – For the treatment of brain injury, insomnia, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, anxiety, depression, and anger
- Hemoencephalographic Neurofeedback – For the treatment of migraines
- Live Z-Score Neurofeedback – For the treatment of insomnia
- Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Topography – For the treatment of addiction, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
