Can neurofeedback rewire our brain without the help of drugs?
Summary
TLDRThe video script introduces neurofeedback, a non-invasive technology that alters brain states without drugs. It has shown potential in reducing ADHD symptoms and weaning patients off medication by training the brain to create new patterns. The process involves recording and analyzing electrical brain activity through electrodes attached to a cap. During sessions, participants might watch a movie that only plays clearly when their brain activity meets certain goals, promoting focus and neural firing. Neurofeedback requires commitment, with 20 to 40 sessions potentially needed for significant results. Side effects are minimal. While studies on its effectiveness for other conditions like anxiety, autism, and schizophrenia are less conclusive, anecdotal evidence suggests benefits for a range of issues, including PTSD, OCD, speech challenges, anger management, peak performance for athletes, and migraines. The technology also fosters self-awareness and self-reflection.
Takeaways
- 💡 Neurofeedback is a technology that can change brain states without drugs, potentially reducing the need for medication in conditions like ADHD.
- 🎓 It works by training the brain to create new patterns, which can lead to reduced symptoms of certain conditions after a period of training.
- 🧠 The process involves recording and analyzing the electrical activity of the brain, specifically the firing of neurons, through electrodes attached to the scalp.
- 📺 Neurofeedback training often involves watching a movie that becomes clearer and the volume increases as the brain activity meets the desired parameters.
- 🐶 The training uses a form of classical conditioning, similar to Pavlov's experiment, where the brain associates a reward (clearer movie) with the desired brain state.
- 🧵 The electrodes are connected to a computer that receives and responds to the brain's electrical activity in real time.
- 📉 The side effects of neurofeedback are minimal compared to pharmaceutical interventions.
- 🕒 It requires time and effort, with substantial changes possibly taking 20 to 40 sessions of training.
- 🧘♂️ Many people report increased self-awareness and comfort with their thoughts after neurofeedback training.
- 🛑 While neurofeedback has shown promise in treating ADHD, studies on its effectiveness for other disorders like anxiety, autism, or schizophrenia are less conclusive.
- 🏆 The technology has also been used to enhance peak performance in athletes and reduce the severity of migraines.
Q & A
What is neurofeedback and how does it differ from using drugs to change brain state?
-Neurofeedback is a technology that can change a person's brain state without the use of drugs. It trains the brain to create new patterns, potentially reducing the dependency on medications for conditions like ADHD.
How does neurofeedback help with ADHD symptoms?
-Neurofeedback can help reduce the severity of ADHD symptoms by training the brain, particularly focusing on the prefrontal cortex, to increase the rate of neuron firing which is associated with better focus and concentration.
What does a typical neurofeedback session involve?
-A typical neurofeedback session involves placing electrodes on the head, usually over the prefrontal cortex, and connecting them to a computer. The computer records and analyzes the brain's electrical activity in real time.
How does the neurofeedback process work with electrodes and a computer?
-The electrodes are placed on the scalp to pick up electrical pulses from the brain. A conductive gel helps transmit these pulses to the electrodes, which are then connected to a computer. The computer records this data and provides real-time feedback, which can be used to train the brain.
What is the role of the prefrontal cortex in ADHD and how does neurofeedback target it?
-The prefrontal cortex is associated with executive functions like planning, concentration, and organization. In ADHD, this region may fire at a slower rate. Neurofeedback aims to increase the firing rate of neurons in this area to improve ADHD symptoms.
How does watching a movie play a role in neurofeedback training?
-Watching a movie is used as a form of biofeedback in neurofeedback training. The clarity and volume of the movie are linked to the brain's activity. As the person focuses and their brain activity changes, the movie becomes clearer and easier to hear, providing a reward for the desired brain activity.
What is the concept of rewarding brain activity in neurofeedback similar to?
-The concept is similar to Pavlov's experiment with conditioning a response. Just as the dogs began to salivate at the sound of a bell associated with food, neurofeedback trains the brain to associate a reward (like a clearer movie) with the desired brain activity.
What are the potential benefits of neurofeedback training?
-Neurofeedback training can potentially improve focus, reduce the severity of ADHD symptoms, and even help with other mental disorders like PTSD, anxiety, and OCD. It can also enhance self-awareness and the ability for self-reflection.
How many sessions are typically required to see substantial changes from neurofeedback training?
-It can take anywhere from 20 to 40 sessions of neurofeedback training to see substantial changes, depending on the individual and the specific condition being addressed.
What are the side effects of neurofeedback?
-The side effects of neurofeedback are minimal and, if experienced, usually do not last long. It is considered a safe method for brain training with few risks.
How does neurofeedback compare to other clinical treatments for disorders like anxiety or schizophrenia?
-While neurofeedback has shown promise in treating ADHD, studies on its effectiveness for other disorders like anxiety or schizophrenia are less robust and results are somewhat inconclusive. More research with proper controls is needed to draw definitive conclusions.
What is the speaker's personal opinion on the effectiveness of neurofeedback?
-The speaker has seen good success with neurofeedback for a range of issues, including ADHD, PTSD, anxiety, OCD, speech challenges, anger outbursts, peak performance for athletes, and even migraines. The speaker notes that most people tend to experience some form of improvement.
Outlines
🧠 Introduction to Neurofeedback Therapy
The first paragraph introduces the concept of neurofeedback as a non-pharmaceutical method to alter brain states. It discusses the potential of neurofeedback to help with conditions like ADHD by training the brain to function differently, reducing dependency on medication. The technology measures and analyzes electrical activity in the brain, specifically looking at the firing rate of neurons. The process involves using a cap with electrodes that connect to a computer to record brain activity in real time. The goal for someone with ADHD is to increase the firing rate in the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with executive functions like planning, concentration, and organization.
🎥 How Neurofeedback Training Works
The second paragraph explains the process of a neurofeedback training session. It details how electrodes are placed on the head, typically over the prefrontal cortex, and connected to a computer that monitors brain activity. A common training method involves watching a movie that becomes clearer and the volume louder as the brain activity, specifically the firing rate of neurons, increases. This real-time feedback and reward mechanism is likened to Pavlov's experiment, where a conditioned response is created. The training aims to increase focus and awareness by accelerating the neuron firing rate, which over time and with repetition, can lead to a new default state of heightened focus.
💊 Commitment and Applications of Neurofeedback
The third paragraph addresses the commitment required for neurofeedback training, noting that substantial changes may take up to 40 sessions. It highlights the minimal side effects compared to pharmaceutical treatments. The paragraph also explores the potential applications of neurofeedback for a range of disorders beyond ADHD, including anxiety, autism, and schizophrenia, although it notes that studies on these are less conclusive. Personal experiences shared include successes with mental disorders like PTSD, anxiety, OCD, speech challenges, anger outbursts, peak performance for athletes, and migraines. The benefits extend beyond the intended goals, with many individuals reporting increased self-awareness and comfort with self-reflection after training.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Neurofeedback
💡ADHD
💡Brain State
💡Electrical Activity
💡Prefrontal Cortex
💡Electrodes
💡Pavlovian Conditioning
💡Pharmaceuticals
💡Clinical Disorders
💡Biofeedback
💡Peak Performance
Highlights
Neurofeedback is a technology that can change brain state without drugs.
It has the potential to help individuals with ADHD reduce their dependence on medication.
Neurofeedback trains the brain to create new patterns, improving focus and reducing ADHD symptoms.
The technology records and analyzes electrical pulses from the brain, known as neuronal firing.
A common method involves using a cap with electrodes to capture brain activity.
The cap is connected to a computer which receives brain activity in real time.
Neurofeedback can identify areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, that need training.
Training sessions involve tasks that require increased neuronal firing to achieve a goal, like watching a clear movie.
The process uses a reward system similar to Pavlov's experiment to condition the brain to new firing rates.
Neurofeedback can take multiple sessions to see substantial changes.
It has minimal side effects compared to pharmaceutical options.
Studies on neurofeedback for disorders other than ADHD are less robust and inconclusive.
The presenter has seen success using neurofeedback for a range of conditions including PTSD, anxiety, OCD, and peak performance.
Neurofeedback can also help with self-reflection and comfort with one's thoughts post-training.
Many people report improvements and unintended benefits from neurofeedback training.
The technology is not a quick fix and requires work and commitment from the individual.
Neurofeedback is a powerful tool with the potential for significant transformation in various mental health areas.
Transcripts
I often get the question are you putting
electricity into my brain with this
thing we typically use drugs to change
our brain state to help us improve our
Focus or to give us a high or to help us
calm down it's a huge industry as we all
know for both prescription and
recreational drugs but what if I told
you that there's a technology out there
that can change our brain State without
taking any drugs at all
well there's actually a number of
technologies that can do this I'll make
sure to cover all of these in future
videos but for today I want to show you
one in particular it's called neuro
feedback say you have ADHD and you're
taking meds to help you with your focus
well neuro feedback has the capacity to
help you titrate off from your meds this
technology trains your brain and once
your brain has been trained you're no
longer as dependent on these meds
you literally are creating new patterns
within your
brain a number of Studies have shown
that neuro feedback can help reduce the
severity of participants ADHD symptoms
I'll link to a few of these in the
description below now I am not a doctor
I am not giving medical advice speak to
your doctor before you make any
adjustments in your
medications so what does neuro feedback
look like well say you're coming in for
ADHD you want to reduce the severity of
your ADHD symptoms well many clinics
will want to see what your brain state
looks like before you start any
training neuro feedback looks at the
electrical activity of your brain you
might have heard someone say neurons in
your brain
fire the firing of these neurons is
actually electrical they're electric
pulses or signals this is how your
neurons communicate with each other now
neuro feedback is recording and
analyzing these electric pulses within
your
brain so how does that even work how do
you peer inside the brain well there are
many methods one common way is with this
it does look pretty funny doesn't it now
let's pop this on so you can see how
this
[Music]
works got to make sure you get a good
rainbow coming out of your head speaking
of this rainbow these colorful wires
serve a really important purpose they'll
be sending the electrical pulses coming
from your head over to a computer that's
how the computer will receive your brain
activity and record it in real
time I often get the question are you
putting electricity into my brain with
this thing nope no there's absolutely no
electricity going into your brain this
cap is designed to only listen to the
electrical pulses occurring in your
brain
so once you get the cap on your neuro
feedback provider will squirt gel into
each of these holes here now these holes
are actually electrodes and the gel is a
type of electr gel it can conduct the
electricity coming from your brain and
pipe that electricity right into these
electrodes now from there these
electrodes are attached to our rainbow
actually you can you can see it let me
take this off for a second oh jeez you
can see all these wires right here these
wires are directly connected to these
electrodes now the signal travels
through the wire to the computer and
again that's how the computer can
receive the electrical activity of your
brain in real
time so we've seen what's happening
inside the brain now we can determine
what needs training specifically so for
our ADHD example let's take a look at
what the brain looks like when you have
ADHD D so typically the prefrontal
cortex will be firing at a slower rate
compared to the norm so again firing
that's those electric pulses that we
were talking about so if you're firing
at a pretty slow pace you're kind of in
a day dreamy State especially if it's
occurring in the prefrontal cortex this
front region of your head so the
prefrontal cortex is especially related
to planning basically your executive
functions so again plan planning
concentration Focus organization all of
that happens mainly up here in this
prefrontal cortex region so if your
prefrontal cortex isn't firing at a fast
enough rate then you likely have a
harder time concentrating focusing
basically staying on task or you might
have a hard time keeping organized or
completing tasks these are all classic
ADHD symptoms so our job during your
neuro feedback training sessions is to
upt Trin the rate of firing of those
neurons located within your prefrontal
cortex to basically get these neurons to
fire faster within this region how the
heck do we do that let me show
you a neuro feedback training session
could look something like this you walk
into the office and your neur feedback
provider places electrodes onto your
head it could look like that whole cap
that we had looked at earlier so the
whole thing with the rainbow sticking
out and all now the cap is really useful
because you can train the brain all at
once as a cohesive unit it's a really
powerful training tool or they might
Place individual electrodes on your head
in those specific regions that you need
training so for us with ADHD it would be
the prefrontal cortex this frontal
region here now once they have the
electrodes on your head they'll plug
them into a computer just like we
learned earlier now the computer can see
your brain activity in real time a a
common Training Method that many people
use is to let you watch a movie I know
right just watching a movie well you got
to work for it and the work happens up
here remember our situation for the ADHD
our neurons up here in the prefrontal
cortex are firing slowly we've got to
get them firing faster that's our
training goal now the only way we'll be
able to watch this movie
is if we get our neurons firing faster
than they currently are so if our
neurons aren't firing at a fast enough
rate the computer will know that and it
will make the movie get blurry hard to
see and the volume will really drop so
it's really hard to hear it's so
frustrating but then your prefrontal
cortex starts fing a little faster
because you're starting to focus more
you're trying to figure out what the
heck is going on here how can I get this
movie to clear up so I can actually see
the darn thing and in that moment
something really crazy happens the movie
starts getting
clear and the volume increases you can
hear the movie better
too well what happened well as you were
starting to focus your neurons in your
prefrontal cortex started firing more
started firing faster and the computer
registered that and it responded to your
neurons firing faster in real time it
immediately shifted the movie so that
you could see it more
clearly you were rewarded for increasing
the rate of firing of these neurons in
the prefrontal cortex for increasing
your focus now this reward is
key have you heard of Pavlov's
salivating dog
experiment well this researcher named
Ivan Pavlov trained a bunch of dogs to
get really excited about eating food
every time he rang this Bell I bet you
can guess how he did it you might have
even done it yourself with your own pets
you might pull out your pet's favorite
bowl and set it on the counter and that
clanking noise of the bowl gets your cat
or dog or whatever it is running right
over to you your pet has Associated this
clanking sound with food because it's
heard the sound every time right before
it gets food
and that's what Pavlov did he rang the
bell and gave the dogs food rang the
bell gave the dogs food you better
believe that those dogs expected food
every time they heard that bell ringing
it became such a strong Association that
they started to salivate just from
hearing the Bell whether there was food
there or not they were like oh yeah I
can already taste the food that right
there is a conditioned response the
Salvation itself is the condition
condition to
response and that's what we're doing
with your brain it's the exact same
process every time your brain does the
thing that we want it to do you get a
reward you get to watch the
movie over time over many repetitions
your brain starts to shift a new default
habit begins to
form this default habit is your neurons
firing at a faster rate than ever before
and guess what that means faster firing
often corresponds with more focus a more
heightened
awareness your new default is greater
Focus that sounds like success to me so
that's how neuro feedback Works in a
nutshell now as you might have noticed
this requires work time effort this
isn't a pill that you take to have
everything be solved you're literally
changing how your brain is firing that
requires work so it could take you 20 to
40 sessions of training to see
substantial changes substantial results
so that's something just to be aware of
speaking of taking pills the side
effects of neuro feedback are very
minimal if anything and if you are
experiencing something it usually
doesn't last that long so neuro feedback
has some pretty powerful applications as
we've seen with ADHD it does a pretty
good job but what about all these other
clinical disorders like anxiety or
Autism or
schizophrenia can neuro feedback treat
these or at least reduce the severity of
them potentially the studies done on
these disorders are less robust than the
ADHD studies so their results are a bit
inconclusive to have a strong study you
have to have certain controls in place
but many of these studies don't do that
so it's hard to know if their results
are accurate in the description I'll
link to some of the studies that explore
these other clinical disorders so that
you can explore the results for
yourself so those are some things to
look for when reading through research
papers now maybe you don't have time to
read a bunch of papers and instead
you're just looking for a general
opinion on neuro feedback well I can
tell you what my personal opinion is
based off my experience I've trained a
lot of people at this point and have a
pretty good sample
size but also I'm just one data point so
just keep that in mind as we go forwards
I've personally seen good success with
treating other mental disorders like
PTSD or anxiety or OCD I've also seen it
for speech challenges as well as anger
outbursts I've even seen it for Peak
Performance you know for athletes when
they're training for their sport I've
even seen it for reducing the severity
of migraines
I've seen small improvements in some
people and in others I've seen truly
remarkable Transformations even within
just a few sessions but in general the
vast majority of people tend to have
some form of
improvement I've also seen people get
more in tune with themselves after a few
sessions of training getting more
comfortable with simply sitting with
one's thoughts a greater ability for
self-reflection of develops which can
help in future challenges long after you
finish the nerfy back
training I've found that there tends to
be many benefits from this training some
we weren't even looking
for so there we are that's neuro
feedback in a nutshell tell me how it
landed with you did I answer all of your
questions or are you looking for a
deeper explanation on some topic within
this let me know in the comments and
I'll be sure to get that answer
if you know someone who's considering
neuro feedback share this video with
them so they can get a little background
on what they're getting into subscribe
to the channel like the video you know
the drill I'll see you in the next one
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