Neurofeedback “Brain Training”: the Future Expansion of Chiropractic Treatment?
INNOVATION
Trish Leigh
PhD, BCN
Instead of taking a pill, what if a person could improve their performance by watching a movie? Brain training is an increasingly scientifically proven method to change the way the brain performs. When the brain functions better, so do the person’s physical and mental skills, abilities, and behaviors.
Why isn’t the brain working optimally in the first place? This happens because the brain is using an “irregular” neurological pattern that the person was either bom with or has developed due to enviromnental circumstances over time. These irregular patterns are like subluxations of the brain. By adjusting the brain patterns toward optimal functioning, chiropractors can help people overcome ADHD, anxiety, and other disorders.
Irregular Brain Patterns Are “Subluxations of the Brain”
In my journey as a multidisciplined professional— not a chiropractor—I have come to the realization that chiropractic physicians are ideally suited to offer neurofeedback therapy.
Top Five Reasons Why Chiropractors Are Ideal Neurofeedback Therapy Practitioners:
1. Disorders such as ADHD, anxiety, and many other behavioral diagnoses are due to underlying neurological issues. Scientific studies show that although symptoms appear in seemingly other domains, the root cause is neurological dysfunction.
2. Chiropractors are highly trained in the assessment and treatment of the neurological electrophysiology of the body, which is the basis of neurofeedback therapy. Neurofeedback fits most consistently into chiropractic’s scope of practice, more so than other disciplines.
3. Chiropractors are available throughout all communities as private, family-based practices that are accessible to everyone. People can find care without physical or social barriers preventing them from doing so.
4. Chiropractors have historically treated disease and dysfunction of the spine. The natural expansion of care is up the spinal column to the brain using neurofeedback.
5. Neurofeedback therapy should be available via a
practitioner who is like-minded to the principles behind its effectiveness, such as the innate ability of the central nervous system to heal itself through neuroplasticity when guided to do so. Chiropractors are well positioned to communicate the science behind neurofeedback and create a culture of success around its delivery.
How Does Neurofeedback Work?
What fuels the effectiveness of neurofeedback is the brain’s inherent capacity to change the way it is functioning. The past two decades have supplied a wealth of science to support the idea that everyone’s brain is plastic and changeable. The trick is knowing how to get it to change.
If you have ever trained your dog to sit using a treat, then you have already engaged in the learning theory behind neurofeedback—a powerful tool called operant conditioning. Operant conditioning has been proven to train brains to behave in a certain way based upon consequences. Essentially, the consistent delivery of a reward (treat), the absence of reward (no treat), and a correction (re-command to sit) are used to shape behavior.
Our brains can learn in this way without us even being aware of it. In the context of neurofeedback, our brains learn to generate more of the activity that produces a calmfocused state by receiving a reward when it does so. When undesirable brain activity occurs (i.e., lack of focus), the reward is retracted. If a high degree of unwanted activity is produced, a correction is presented.
During neurofeedback, a person watches a movie while wearing headphones. The movie plays bright and the audio is loud when the brain is calm and focused. If
the brain moves away from this state, the movie’s visuals dim and audio lowers. If it moves even further from this state, the person hears a dinging sound that tells the
^ ^ Through the process of operant conditioning, children intuitively learn to permanently promote the use of Beta and suppress the use of Theta for longlasting effects.
brain to refocus. In this way, the brain learns to produce more of the optimal, calm-focused brain pattern, and eradicate irregular, problem-causing patterns. Repeated exposure to this learning conditioning
can bring about long-lasting improvements in brain functioning and life performance.
How Can Brain Activity Be Detected?
Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a widely known and noninvasive technique that has been used to analyze brain activity for more than 90 years. Discovered by Hans Berger, EEG revolutionized neurological practices by visualizing electrophysiology of brain functioning for doctors.
Today, EEG has become a common method of analyzing brain activity in the cortex, the largest area of the brain. Activated brain cells called neurons possess an electrical charge. When groups of cells are activated at the same time and in the same area, it creates behavioral or cognitive states. These states produce cumulative electrical energy that can be detected by sensors placed on the corresponding area of the scalp. By reading the electrical patterns that the brain produces, EEG evaluation analyzes all areas of the brain simultaneously to identify irregular brain patterns. During a neurofeedback therapy session, the information produced by brain activity is gleaned from the sensors and fed back to the person’s brain in the form of visual and auditory feedback as previously described. The brain then uses the information to alter its activity.
How Can Neurofeedback Be Used to Treat Disorders?
Many different cognitive and behavioral disorders are characterized by specific patterns of brain activity. Once identified, these unique, pathological, electrical (EEG) patterns can be improved using neuroplasticity of the brain.
To understand how this might be practically implemented to help people overcome diagnosed disorders, let’s examine ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). ADHD has been identified neurologically as too much use of slow brain activity, called theta, and too little use of faster activity, called beta, in the areas of the brain that control attention and focus. The theta to beta ratio has been identified as a neurological biomarker for ADHD.
For a child with ADHD, neurofeedback therapy is geared toward the reduction of theta magnitude and an increase in beta magnitude to regulate the theta to beta ratio and help the child focus without challenge. During the neurofeedback session, when the child’s brain produces less theta and more beta, it is rewarded. Through the process of operant conditioning, children intuitively learn to permanently promote the use of beta and suppress the use of theta for long-lasting effects.
A recent large-scale meta-analysis showed that, after a six-month period following treatment, neurofeedback therapy has similar efficacy compared to active treatments, including medication. After 24 months, neurofeedback had even greater efficacy than other active treatments. Thus, neurofeedback is proven to achieve long-term benefits in ADHD with minimal to no side effects.
The History of Neurofeedback
In 1958, Dr. Barry Sterman at UCLA was using EEG technology to build upon the foundational study of classical conditioning by Pavlov. He discovered that cats would make more of the neurological activity that is associated with focused stillness, called sensorimotor rhythm (SMR), when rewarded to do so. Shortly after this discovery, Sterman was approached by NASA to continue his research. He discovered that the cats who learned to produce more SMR activity were resistant to epileptic effects of rocket fuel exposure. Sterman published the first paper addressing neurofeedback’s ability to eliminate grand mal epileptic seizures in a human subject by increasing the use of SMR brain activity. His findings put neurofeedback on the map, leading many others to explore it as a treatment modality in various disciplines. Sterman proved that brains could be shaped to change
their performance almost 50 years before the notion of neuroplasticity was widely accepted. Now there is a berth of scientific literature proving neurofeedback’s effectiveness in a wide range of applications, all based upon improving neurological, electrophysiological functioning.
The Future of Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback does not nicely fit into one professional licensure to date. The practice of neurofeedback as a treatment modality currently exists within a variety of disciplines ranging from social work to neurology. Michael Cohen, a healthcare attorney, stated, “Neurofeedback cannot succeed as a fringe discipline, or even as a subset of alternative and complementary medicine.” He continues that it must land in a discipline professionally equipped to move forward with its delivery. “The core will be the increasing understanding of network relations within the cerebrum, and that will quite simply become the headline story for the decades to come.” Neurology and psychiatry as possible homes for neurofeedback, as Cohen suggests, are steeped in a pharmaceutical framework and will not do neurofeedback justice. Chiropractic care, as characterized by Palmer College, is founded in the “philosophy built upon the constructs of vitalism, holism, conservatism, naturalism, and rationalism.” In this way, the nervous system is recognized as an avenue for self-regulating processes of health and wellness. Interference with neurological function, including that within the brain, can impede these mechanisms and disrupt homeostatic balance. In fact, Life University agrees and has been offering neurofeedback training as part of its curriculum since 2016 with other chiropractic colleges interested in following their example.
Although historically founded in the identification and treatment of subluxations of the spine, D. D. Palmer’s early writings clearly endorse the notion of chiropractic care expanding its reach to “subluxations of the brain.” This philosophy, as exercised in chi-
ropractic facilities across the globe, is the natural home for the future of neurofeedback therapy as a widely accessed treatment modality for future generations to come.
References
1. Van Doren, J., et ah, (2018). Sustained effects of neurofeedback in ADHD: A systematic review and meta-analysis. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 1-12.
2. Lenartowicz, A. & Loo, S.K., (2014). Use ofEEG to Diagnose ADHD. Current Psychiatry Reports, 16(11), 498.
2. Hammond, D.C. (2005). Neurofeedback for the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety, Journal of Adult Development, Vol. 12 (2/2), 121-127.
4. Tudor, M, et al., (2005). Hans Berger (1872-1941)—the history of electroencephalography, Acta Med Croat!ica, 59(4): 207-12.
Dr Trish Leigh, Ph.D., BCN is considered a thought leader of opti mizing brain function ing and brain-based theranies to imvrove mental and physical performance. Having been a university professor for 20 years, with multiple college degrees in different disciplines, Dr. Leigh is uniquely positioned to bring Neurofeedback Therapy to communities through her educational programs for Chiropractors and patients alike. With her Chiropractor husband, she operates a thriving Neurofeedback practice called Leigh Brain & Spine. Having a proven office system in place, Dr. Leigh spends most of her time raising her 6 children.
Dr. Leigh teaches professionals hoM’ to build a profitable neurofeedback therapy practice in 45 days through her Neurofeedback Experts program that can be found at dr. trishleigh. com/ neurofeedbackexperts.
