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Clinicians at Windward Biofeedback Associates have extensive experience in collecting, reading, and interpreting the initial qEEG. We use the initial Q, in conjunction with the client’s stated goals, to determine beginning protocols for treatment.

Quantitative electrophysiology uses mathematical and statistical methods to analyze brain activity, typically recorded through an EEG.

qEEG processes raw EEG data to extract insights like power spectral density, coherence, and brain connectivity, aiding in diagnostics, treatment monitoring, and research. Its development reflects advances in computational tools over time.

qEEG Applications:

1. Diagnostics: Detects brain activity abnormalities in conditions like epilepsy, ADHD, depression, and brain injury.
2. Treatment Monitoring: Assesses the effectiveness of treatments like neurofeedback or medication by comparing brain activity over time.
3. Neurofeedback Therapy: Guides neurofeedback by identifying dysregulated brainwave patterns, common in ADHD and PTSD.
4. Cognitive Enhancement: Used in non-clinical settings for optimizing mental performance and athletic training.
5. Research: Explores brain function, connectivity, and responses to stimuli.

qEEG Accuracy:

Accuracy depends on clinical application, data quality, expertise, and comparison to normative databases. It’s highly reliable in diagnosing conditions like epilepsy but less so as a standalone tool for ADHD or depression, where it’s used alongside other methods.

qEEG vs. MRI:

qEEG measures brain function, while MRI maps brain structure. They are complementary tools, often used together for a full picture of brain health.

qEEG vs. fMRI:

1. Measurement: qEEG captures electrical activity in real time; fMRI measures blood flow to infer brain activity.
2. Temporal Resolution: qEEG is faster, detecting millisecond-level changes; fMRI is slower due to delayed blood flow response.
3. Spatial Resolution: fMRI provides more precise spatial mapping of brain regions, while qEEG has lower spatial accuracy.
4. Portability: qEEG is portable and less expensive, while fMRI requires specialized equipment.
qEEG excels in real-time brain function monitoring, while fMRI offers detailed spatial imaging. Both are complementary, providing a comprehensive view of brain activity and structure.

Yes, neurofeedback can be an effective treatment for insomnia. This therapy helps by training individuals to modify their brainwave patterns, promoting a balance that is conducive to better sleep. Here’s how neurofeedback specifically assists with insomnia:

Regulating Brainwaves: Insomnia often involves disruptions in specific brainwave patterns, particularly an overactivity of high-frequency waves like beta waves, which are associated with alertness and waking states. Neurofeedback targets these patterns, training the brain to produce more of the lower-frequency alpha and theta waves that are conducive to relaxation and sleep.

Enhancing Relaxation: Neurofeedback sessions can help enhance overall relaxation and reduce anxiety, which are common contributors to insomnia. By learning to control and regulate brain activity, individuals can better manage stress and anxiety, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Improving Sleep Quality: Through the modulation of brainwaves, neurofeedback can improve the quality of sleep, increasing the amount of restorative sleep stages. This not only helps in falling asleep faster but also in achieving deeper, more restful sleep.

Cognitive and Emotional Benefits: By improving sleep, neurofeedback also helps in enhancing cognitive function and emotional regulation, which can be adversely affected by poor sleep.

Long-Term Benefits: Unlike some sleep medications, neurofeedback provides a potential long-term solution to insomnia without the risks of dependency or side effects. Over time, patients can learn to maintain healthy sleep patterns independently.

Research and clinical practices have shown positive results, with many patients experiencing significant improvements in their sleep patterns following a course of neurofeedback sessions. However, individual results can vary, and it is often recommended as part of a comprehensive approach that may include cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and proper sleep hygiene practices.

These conclusions are detailed in the “Evidence-Based Practice in Biofeedback and Neurofeedback, 4th edition,” published by the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB).

Research on neurofeedback has demonstrated promising outcomes, though the level of evidence varies based on the specific condition being addressed. Here is a summary of findings on neurofeedback’s impact on anxiety and depression:

Effectiveness: Various studies indicate that neurofeedback can significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. It enhances mood and emotional regulation by teaching the brain to better manage stress and emotional responses.

Support: Existing research supports the use of neurofeedback as an effective adjunct therapy for mood disorders. Particularly, panic and generalized anxiety disorders respond favorably to biofeedback and neurofeedback. Alpha Theta training, a specific type of neurofeedback, is especially effective for these conditions.

These conclusions are detailed in the “Evidence-Based Practice in Biofeedback and Neurofeedback, 4th edition,” published by the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB).

The Hawaii Biofeedback Association (https://hawaiibiofeedback.org/) is a valuable resource for biofeedback and neurofeedback professionals, offering access to a provider directory, educational content on feedback modalities, and details about our monthly Zoom meetings. Held on the third Monday of each month, these meetings are open to everyone interested.

Meetings are moderated by Chiyo Churchill, Chair of HBA, who also helps distribute the Zoom information. For more details or to receive the meeting link, please email Chiyo at chiyo.churchill@catholiccharitieshawaii.org.

Whether you’re a practitioner or just curious about biofeedback, we invite you to explore Hawaii Biofeedback Association and connect with our community!

Explore this website for clear, concise insights into how neurofeedback works and the conditions it can help improve. Whether you’re considering neurofeedback treatment or just curious about its benefits, this resource is a great place to start.

Learn more about Neurofeedback

https://neurofeedbackalliance.org/

Neurofeedback, like aerobics, weight training, walking, fast walking, etc., is simply a form of exercise using a biofeedback device like the fitbit to monitor and encourage progress. A neurofeedback therapist is simply a fitness coach with extensive knowledge of the brain and of self regulatory techniques. Neurofeedback addresses a large number of psychiatric and emotional issues, in the same way fitness training addresses a large number of physiological issues, simply by providing graded, monitored and behaviorally rewarded brain exercises that move the brain into a more centered, and regulated place, just the way physical fitness reduces cholesterol and blood pressure.

Because the brain is extremely sensitive, neuro providers have to know what they are doing. And because so many of our clients have psychiatric conditions, we need to be proficient in diagnosis and treatment of those conditions, or we’ll be in malpractice and harm patients

However neurofeedback, and all biofeedback, techniques, simply teach self regulation. Self regulation just happens to be at the root of many, many issues.

As far as ADHD research, if you look at ALL the literature (and I’ve looked at most of it), NFB outperforms stimulant medication in about 80 % of the cases studied only because the effects aren’t reversed when the nfb training stops. As you know, stimulant meds + CBT and parent training, out perform stimulalnt meds alone – and stimulant meds alone are effective in about 40% of treatment cases, but the gains are reversed when the stimulant meds are withdrawn. With nfb the treatment effects remain after 40 treatments in about 80% of all clients treated. When we did the demonstration project at TIFFE (with protocols I disagreed with), we got 75%. That’s not a placebo effect. (if I remember correctly that’s about 30%) And it’s way better than stimulant meds.

It’s been a year – and our results adding brain mapping to existing protocols have been phenomenal. Now we understand how to work with a person showing signs of dyslexia, for example. We’re so pleased!

Aloha – we are also proud to announce that 4 channel training is now available at Windward Biofeedback Associates.  4 channel training means that 4 times the amount of training can be provided within the clinical hour.  Now, this is not for everyone!  A client needs to build up capacity to train, otherwise sleep is the order of the following hours.  However when a client is ready for it, the results are amazing!

Aloha – the American Pediatric Association has announced that Neurofeedback is an “Evidenced Based Best Practice” to help remediate ADHD symptoms.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) “Evidence-
Based Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Interventions”
tool is created twice each year and posted on the
AAP Web site at www.aap.org/mentalhealth, using
data from the PracticeWise Evidence-Based Services
Database, available at www.practicewise.com.”

We’re so proud that this evidence based grid was in fact based on the Hawaii State Child and Adolescent Mental Health Best Practice Grid posted in 2004. We remain first in the nation on child’s health.

This article comes thanks to LA Times Blog

Biofeedback technique eases musicians’ anxiety

June 17, 2010 |  7:00 am

If you’ve ever sat down at the piano to play a Mozart sonata and couldn’t find middle C, you know the feeling of performance anxiety. The condition, often called stage fright, is anxiety that is so severe it can impede performance. As many as three-quarters of musicians have musical performance anxiety. Thus, for serious students, learning to master this condition may be as important as learning all the scales.

A new study shows that a specific biofeedback technique is highly effective in decreasing stage fright. Researchers studied 14 college-age musicians. The musicians’ tendency to have stage fright was estimated in a performance before an audience at the start of the study (with questionnaires and heart rate measurements). Half of the musicians repeated the performance four weeks later. The other half received training in biofeedback that was designed to teach them how to control their heart rate through thoughts and emotions. These students also performed again after four weeks.

The study showed a 71% decrease in performance anxiety in the biofeedback group compared with the control group. The biofeedback group had a 62% improvement in performance. The musicians in the biofeedback group also said they had an overall increased sense of calmness, slept better, were more relaxed and had less anger in their everyday lives.

Biofeedback helps coordinate the brain-heart-body processes, the authors wrote. This synchronicity defeats performance anxiety and gives musicians a feeling of “flow,” the authors said, which they defined as “when a person is functioning at peak capacity, including mind, body and energy.”

The study appears in the current [June 2010] issue of Biofeedback, published by the Assn. for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.