For more than 40 years, neurofeedback has been used to help people experiencing a variety of neurological symptoms, yet most people don’t know what it is, what it is used for, and how it works.
What is Neurofeedback?
Neurofeedback is a painless, non-invasive way to train your brain to work in the healthiest way possible.
A cap is placed on your head that monitors the electrical signals that your brain sends and receives as you watch a movie or listen to music. When your brain sends an abnormal impulse, a visual cue appears on the screen. Your brain then stops the irregular wave, makes adjustments, and sends a normal signal without you having to make a conscious effort.
Over time and through operant conditioning, the brain adjusts to only send regular, effective signals throughout the body.
How Does Neurofeedback Work?
Neurofeedback uses a process called operant conditioning to train your brain to only send regular impulses.
Operant conditioning affects us every day. When you wake up, you may make a cup of coffee to start your day. You have been conditioned to crave coffee first thing in the morning. The stimulus, your alarm clock, is associated with a behavior, making coffee, and a reward, feeling energized by the caffeine.
Neurofeedback works the same way.
When your brain sends out an abnormal signal during a neurofeedback session, you receive a stimulus, a visual cue on a screen. Your brain wants the stimulus to stop, so it makes adjustments to the way it is sending signals. The reward is that the visual cue ends, and you can resume listening to music or watching a video.
Why Does Neurofeedback Target the Brain?
Your brain is your body’s most powerful resource. Often compared to the most high-tech computer you can imagine, your brain controls everything from movement to emotion.
However, when signals get crossed, your brain can work against your body as well as its environment. You feel anxious, depressed, jumpy, or erratic, or have trouble concentrating or regulating your emotions. Each of these feelings registers as an irregular electrical impulse, or wave, in your brain. Neurofeedback targets these irregular waves to relieve your emotional, psychological, or physical symptoms.
Are the Results from Neurofeedback Permanent?
You know the old saying, “It’s like riding a bike?” Once you know how to ride a bike, your brain and body don’t forget, no matter how long it has been since you got on two wheels. Neurofeedback works the same way. Once your brain is trained to send regular signals to other parts of your brain and body, it doesn’t forget. The results you experience as a result of neurofeedback are often permanent, eliminating the need for medications that treat neurological or emotional disorders.
What Symptoms Does Neurofeedback Help Overcome?
Research has shown people of all ages who go through neurofeedback treatment see improvement in their symptoms from Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, Seizures, Chronic Pain, Brain Injury, Addiction, and other neurological, emotional, and physical conditions.
Don’t see your question here? Want to know if neurofeedback is right for you? Call our office to find out more about neurofeedback or schedule your brain map today.
*Sandstone Center for Neurofeedback does not diagnose medical conditions. Sandstone Center for Neurofeedback is a nonmedical, medication-free program for children and adults who struggle.