Transcript The Three Fundamental Dimensions of Mental Processing

Prefrontal Gamma
Neurofeedback Improves
Emotional State and Cognitive
Function
Jon Cowan, Ph.D., BCN
Peak Achievement Training
and
Estate (Tato) Sokhadze, Ph.D.
Univ. of Louisville
AAPB2011
Hypotheses: The Neureka! Protocol
Measures the Brain’s Neureka! System
• The Protocol is a clarification of the 40 Hz.
gamma EEG rhythm involved in memory and
learning.
• The Event Binding Rhythm ties elements of
events together.
• This Neureka! (=Neural Eureka!) System
responds to new discoveries, by enhancing your
learning and memory.
• It motivates you to continue learning by creating
positive feelings.
Hypotheses About the Neural
Eureka (Neureka!) Protocol
• It is a clarification of a gamma EEG rhythm involved
in memory and learning.
• Increasing it feels like really waking up—“Aha!”—
awareness and mindfulness.
• It measures EEG from the Prefrontal Pleasure
Center, which is stimulated to reward you for
learning something new. This is a part of the brain’s
dopamine pleasure system
• Dopamine also enhances memory formation.
fMRI Studies Indicate That
Pleasurable Experiences Excite
the Medial Prefrontal Cortex
• Neuroeconomics
• These include
winning money
and other
pleasures.
• The anticipation of
pleasure also
enhances activity.
• Our Sensor at FPz
The Neureka! Protocol
Clarifies the 40 Hz. Rhythm
The Neureka! Protocol (blue) doesn’t
respond to the forehead muscle
tightening at the right, present in the raw
40 Hz. (pink) and its amplitude (white).
Our Observations Indicated That Neureka!
Neurofeedback Was Related to Positive
Feelings, Awareness, Learning and Memory
• An initial experiment done at St. Lawrence
Univ. suggested that it improved memory.
• Based on informal testing, I discovered that
there seemed to be relationships between
Neureka! and feelings of happiness,
satisfaction, love, and gratitude.
• Neureka! also increased when subjects did
an awareness exercise, or tried to learn or
recall (immediate and remote).
Dr. Rubik’s Study of Neureka!
• Subjects
• 6 TM meditators with more than 10 years
of experience each
• 6 normal controls
• Procedure
• Free exploration and description of
enhancing the Neureka! Protocol
• Judging the relationship of the experience
to provided descriptions
• Enhancing Neureka! on request
Non-Meditator’s Descriptions
Love; compassion; anger; surge of joy
Concern for others; romantic feelings; receptive to
loving touch; opposite of trauma and grief
Relaxed; feeling good; having a good time; happy
inner laughter; opposite of anxiety. Joy;
clairvoyance; loving feeling; meditative bliss; trying
doesn’t get me there; preparing for the state
doesn’t always make it happen
Open heart chakra; relaxed and calm; receptive;
warm fuzzy feeling; feels close to the center of the
brain
Pure love; childlike wonder; anticipation of something
new and good; thinking higher thoughts; a core
connection to the Absolute; the opposite of stress
Meditator’s Descriptions
Detachment from myself; trust in something bigger.
Letting something higher come into my
consciousness; not trying from the ego
Joy; bliss; connection with the angelic realm
Alert; focused on something new; being in the
moment
Warmth from my heart chakra and the bottom of my
feet; thinking of people I love, including love for
those who have passed on
Curiosity; enthusiasm; joy; novelty of experience
Testing the Relationship of
Neureka! to Adjectives
•
The subjects were given two minutes
to try to create the state specified by
the adjective and then asked the same
question for each adjective:
1. “By taking note of the moment-tomoment fluctuations in the intensity of
my inner experience of
(adjective)____ and the changes in
the visual reading, I believe that they
have a:
Neureka! Feedback is Strongly Related to
Positive Feelings and Experiences:
Average Ratings Above Zero, All p < .0001
This excludes data when subject couldn’t create the experience.
Neureka! is Related to
Decreased Stress
Meditators are Better than
Non-Meditators in Rapidly
Maximizing Neureka!
Mean Neureka! Score
Comparison of Meditators' and Controls'
Neureka! Scores During Baseline and with
Neurofeedback
30
20
10
0
Controls
Meditators
Baseline
19.85
19.25
Feedback
20.93
24.75
Subjects were given three tries to raise Neureka! rapidly.
First Collaborative Experiment
(Experiment 2)
• Performed at the Univ. of Louisville by
Dr. Tato Sokhadze
• The next three experiments were done
there
• Subjects were exposed to positive and
neutral words for 6 seconds each and
asked to “Visualize the experience or
feeling associated with the word”
• We selected the names of positive
emotions from a longer list I taped
Experiences of Positive Emotions for
6 Seconds Increased Neureka!
Neureka! during all the emotional words was significantly better than Baseline
Problems with Anticipation
• The big problem with this study was that the
baseline before the words was predictably
increased by the anticipation of something
good.
• We had to pick the best eyes-open baseline,
which was 2.5-3.0 minutes after the positive
words were over, in order to avoid contamination.
Improved Methods for Next Study
• We used both the eyes-open baseline and a
better one in which they were occupied by
repeating three-digit numbers to themselves.
• We picked the five descriptions of positive
emotions most related to Neureka! from
Rubik’s study and compared them with five
emotionally neutral descriptions and five
negative emotions.
• Exposed for 20 seconds each.
• Asked to “form an image or thought and induce
any feeling or state associated with the word.”
Neureka! was Selectively
Enhanced by Positive Emotions
Neureka! during positive emotions was significantly better
than each of the other conditions (N=9)
Neureka! During Happy
Feelings was Better Than
During Unhappy Ones
Training Study #4
• This study trained with
the Peak Brain
Happiness Trainer’s
Neureka! protocol
• Individual reports of selfreceived happiness
scores were assessed
during each session by
rotating the Continuous
Response Digital
Interface (CRDI) dial
every minute.
Study Design
• Trained two groups of subjects for 12 sessions,
• During NFB 40 Hz “Neureka!” power and CRDI
based perceived happiness rating were recorded
• Pre- and post-treatment performance was
assessed using neurocognitive (MicroCog) and
attention (IVA+Plus) tasks, scores on emotional
self-reports (happiness and self-satisfaction,
Siahpush et al., 2008) and clinical instruments
(Beck Depression Inventory II [BDI-II], Beck et al.,
1996).
• Follow-up measures included BDI-II and two
happiness questions.
Methods: Neurofeedback
• Active training used auditory and video feedback
(DVD feedback with positive documentary film, e.g.,
BBC’s Planet Earth, etc.) with picture size and
volume dependent on Neureka! amplitude.
• Primary goal was the enhancement of Neureka! 40
Hz. protocol.
• In(hibit)All (wideband suppression) Focus protocol
used to keep subjects engaged. Low values dimmed
and then stopped feedback.
• Sessions were usually once/per week, 25 minutes
per session of active training.
• Total training time was five hours.
Subjects
• One group of subjects had documented drug
use history (N=6, most of them referred from
Louisville Adolescent Network for Substance
Abuse Treatment (LANSAT) - a community
mental health system of care for adolescents
with substance use/abuse issues), but did not
meet criteria for drug abuse diagnosis.
• Another one was a group of drug-naïve
subjects (N=6, recruited mostly from students
and residents).
• Group differences in results were not
significant so they were pooled.
Subject Demographics
Group
Control
Subjects
Number
Gender
6
Mean 24.8
SD=3.65
5 males
1 female
6
Mean 19.1
SD=4.07
5 males
1 female
Subjects with
occasional drug
abuse history
(from LANSAT)
Age/yrs
(1 dropped out)
CRDI-Based Perceived Happiness Scores During
25 Minute Neurofeedback Session
Trend was highly significant, p <.0001
Changes of CRDI-Based Positive Emotion Rating and
“Neureka!” Measures Across 12 Sessions of NFB
Regression was significant, p < .05
Regression was significant, p <.001
The Australian Survey
Happiness Question from
Siahpush et al.
During the past 4 weeks, have you been a
happy person?
(6) all of the time,
(5) most of the time,
(4) a good bit of the time,
(3) some of the time,
(2) a little of the time,
(1) none of the time.
Results:
Post-neurofeedback and Follow-up Happiness
Self-Report and Depression (BDI) scores
The mean happiness
rating for the group
increased by 32%
(p<0.05) , while BDI
scores decreased by
27% (p<0.01).
At follow-up, nearly 4
months later, the
happiness gains
were unchanged, but
the BDI gains
disappeared.
Lasting happiness?
The Problem with the Australian
Happiness Question
• No one is happy all of the time.
• Therefore, those who initially reported
that they were happy “(5) most of the
time” had no way to report
improvement.
• Improvement was 50% without (5)s.
• We developed a retrospective question
to use at follow-up that was
comparative.
Comparision Question
Compared with the four weeks just before
you began the study, how happy were you
in the four weeks after the study ended? I
was:
(1) happier
(2) about the same
(3) less happy
Results: 8 out of 11 reported (1), the rest
marked (2). Of the “happy most of the
times”, 3 out of 4 marked (1), the other (2).
Present Happiness Predicts
Future Health
• Saihpush’s results from a survey of
nearly 10,000 people indicated that
those who were happy most of the time
in 2001 were 50% more likely to be
healthier in 2004.
• Diener and Chan’s recent review of 160
studies of seven different types also
came to this conclusion.
• Can neurofeedback enhance future
health by improving happiness?
MicroCog: Pre- to Post-Neurofeedback
Changes
Cognitive Performance and Memory
Changes Post-NFB (MicroCog)
 General Cognitive Functioning, combining
processing speed and accuracy measurements for
all the tests it offers showed a very significant (p <
.001) 7% increase.
 General Cognitive Processing was increased by
6% (p<.05).
 The improvements were all due to better
Information Processing Accuracy (13% increase,
p < .05) rather than Information Processing
Speed (1.5% change).
 More specifically, the largest increase was in
Memory (13%), significant at the p < .05 level.
Effects of Neureka! Training on Selective
Attention (IVA+Plus)
IVA+Plus Selective Audio-Visual Attention Quotients
Pre- and Post-Neurofeedback
Auditory Pre
Auditory Post
Visual Pre
Visual Post
IVA+Plus Scale Scores
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
Auditory
Visual
Paired sample t-test (pre- vs. post-neurofeedback):
Sustained auditory attention quotient: t=2.20, df=10, p=0.036 (one tailed), 7%
Sustained visual attention quotient: t=2.52, df=10, p=0.034 (2-tailed), 7%
Potential Uses for Neureka!
Measurement and Training
• There are many potential uses for a simple
system that enhances positive feelings:
• Positive psychobiology
• Mild to moderate depression
• Addiction recovery
• Many other health benefits—link to the
Australian study
• Measure and enhance memory and learning
• Training mindfulness and awareness
• Toys and entertainment