What Is EEG Feedback?
EEG feedback is also known as Neurofeedback or Neurotherapy or Neurobiofeedback. EEG Feedback is a therapy that provides the user real time feedback on brainwave activity. The activity of brain can be measured by the sensors on brain in form of video display, sound or vibration. EEG feedback is used for many disorders where brain is not working well. Conditions like, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and even more severe problems of specific learning disorders, issues like sleep problems speech disorders, teeth grinding, chronic pain, frequent headaches or stomach pain or pediatric migraines.
The training is important which helps to control mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.

Process Of EEG Biofeedback:
The process of EEG can be described in following steps:

• Initial interview is done to obtain information regarding symptoms and background history of patient and family’s health.
• Normally first training session last for about two hours where all the learning is done.
• Once learning is consolidated the benefit appears to be permanent in most cases.
• EEG Feedback is painless and non-invasive in procedure. One or more sensors are placed on the scalp and one to each ear.
• The waves of brain are monitored by means of an amplifier and a computer-based instrument that process the signal and provides for feedback.
• This is displayed by means of video game. As the activity in the desirable frequency band increases, the video game moves faster.
• As the activity in an adverse frequency band increases the activity is inhibited.
• Thus the brain responds to the cues given and learning of new band pattern is formed.
• The newly formed band pattern is studied with the pattern of the person without disability.

• Enhance one’s attention, memory and creativity
• Improve your sleep pattern and moods
• Ease you of anxiety, fatigue and chronic pain
• Reduce your seizure frequency, and
• Help restore cognitive skills and emotional peace after a trauma

What is EEG biofeedback?

This is the biofeedback given by brainwave patterns. The nerve cells of the brain produce a constantly changing pattern of electrical activity, measured by a device called an electroencephalogram (EEG). If there is an increase n the strength of particular frequencies of this signal, it means the subject is going through a particular mental state. If, for example, you read slow-wave patterns or theta waves, it means the subject is inattentive or drowsy.

To measure the brain’s activity on an EEG, sensors are placed on the scalp with water soluble paste and are linked to a computer with an EEG-biofeedback instrument. This gives every possible bit of information and records random changes that take place in your brainwave patterns.

With this feedback, you can help yourself by increasing the amplitude of particular patterns. By doing this, you give yourself therapeutic help. EEG biofeedback is also called neurofeedback and helps maximises your brain functions while your brain goes through various activities and states and transits between two states.

Benefits of EEG biofeedback:

1. Increased concentration and learning:

EEG biofeedback plays an important role in enhancing your concentration and reducing spontaneous action and hyperactivity. It can help increase your I.Q. scores, pay attention to learning, and grades at school among children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and abnormal college students. It can also improve memory and mental alertness among business people, artists and athletes.

2. Improves mood and energy levels:

EEG biofeedback is a mood elevator and also helps reduce pain. So, if you undergo a head injury, trauma, chronic pain and fatigue, you will show great mental clarity and less anger, if you undergo EEG biofeedback.

3. Allows for better sleep and lessens anxiety:

If you practice increasing sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) during the day, you will be able to sleep better at night and reduce the number of times you wake up at night. You can also try to reduce muscle tension, get rid of anxiety, anxiety-related insomnia, and other stress-related disorders by doing relaxation exercises.

4. Brings stability to the brain:

An EEG biofeedback helps to increase your resistance to any seizures you experience, while reducing their frequency, besides helping to get rid of migraines, asthma, traumatic brain injury, stroke, and neurobehavioral spectrum disorders such as autism, Asperger’s and Tourette’s syndromes.

5. Trains the brain to improve functioning:

With EEG biofeedback, your brain can receive enough training so that it stretches and strengthens for better performance, and become more flexible and stable by changing behavior. Over time, when these skills are learnt, they can bring about positive effects in the long term.

Depending on the severity of the problem, treatment sessions can take from up to six sessions to 20 or even 50, as in the case of seizures or stroke sequelae. But with a well-chosen diet, and regular relaxation techniques at home, success can be expedited.

Galvanic skin response: a technique of biofeedback:
A biofeedback therapist gathers information about the body’s responses of a patient through galvanic skin response technique, depending on the particular health problems and objectives of the individual. The machines and techniques used during Galvanic skin response training determine the success of the treatment. In this technique, there are sensors that measure the activity of sweat glands and the amount of perspiration on the skin, alerting the individual about anxiety. This information is very valuable in treating emotional disorders like phobias, anxiety and stuttering.

Procedure of monitoring Galvanic skin response (GSH) or Electro dermal Response (EDR):
The Galvanic skin response equipment measures electrical conductance in the skin, associated with the activity of the sweat glands. A very slight electrical current runs through the skin and the GSR machine measures changes in the salt and water in the sweat gland ducts. More emotionally aroused persons will have more active sweat glands and greater electrical conductivity of skin.

Uses of Galvanic Skin Response:
At times, GSR techniques help cure phobias, anxiety attacks, excessive sweating and stuttering, since these emotions affect the skin’s conductivity as well. The more popular use is as a lie detection test but even the world of sports has significant use of it. Athletes use this technique to prepare games as the use of a GSR machine helps ensure that they are not too nervous with pre-game jitters.

Pros and cons of biofeedback techniques like Galvanic Skin response:
Biofeedback has increasingly found many followers, but even though this alternative therapy may hold appeal to many, there are still considerations that one would be wise to weigh first. Therefore, even though techniques like galvanic skin response can detect anxiety levels and help reduce, or even eliminate, the need for medication, it may not be the last word in healing. It can provide measurable feedback and decrease medical cost, but since expert opinion is divided about how the therapy actually works, it is difficult for even patients having undergone galvanic skin response training to explain how they have been able to control their bodies to relieve their symptoms. The remedy for this therapy to be effective in treating particular symptoms, one suggestion is to keep a daily diary to monitor the utility of the treatment as well as how the person felt before, during and after the therapy. Although, galvanic skin response is considered safe, it is advisable to consult a doctor knowledgeable about this form of complementary medicine, especially if the anxiety has led to depression, severe psychosis, diabetes or other endocrine disorders.

This device shows when blood flow increases by registering an increase in finger temperature. Blood flow in the hands is sensitive to stress and relaxation, so it is necessary that you learn to watch the rise and fall of your temperature. Soon, you will become so aware of your internal feelings linked with relaxation that you will begin to produce this state voluntarily.

How temperature biofeedback helps:

For relief from migraine and cluster headache, and certain types of chronic pain, temperature biofeedback works best. Temperature feedback is very good in assisting you gain control over a migraine by simply warming your hands. For best results, a sensor is attached to your foot or to the middle or small finger of your dominant hand. If you are tense or anxious, your skin temperature will automatically fall as blood is redirected inwards to the muscles and internal organs.

Measuring skin temperature, therefore, is similar to monitoring muscle tension, in terms of managing stress. If you know this, it can help you reduce the frequency of your migraine headaches, and help you relax.

How temperature biofeedback works:

If you are stressed or in pain, your body reacts with a “fight or flight” response that involves greater muscle tension, heart rate, respiration, hormonal changes, blood flow to the head, and lesser blood flow to the extremities. When your body is ready to fight or run away, it responds by increasing blood flow to the brain, heart and large muscles which help you move.

However, blood flow is reduced to the hands and feet to stop you losing blood in an injury. When the blood flow to the head increases, it results in the head feeling warm, and when it reduces in the extremities, it results in these areas feeling cool. Temperature biofeedback, therefore, can be useful for demonstrating deep relaxation. Conversely, when the subject stops the relaxation process, the hand temperature begins to decrease and become cooler.

Normality range:

The temperature of your hands and fingers, when measured, should range between 34°C and 36°C, and indicates that your body is very relaxed. If it reads a lower value of about 30°C-33°C, it shows that you are under slight stress which could increase with any drop in temperature.

However, if your temperature falls below 26°C, it could point to problems of blood circulation in the fingers or Raynaud’s Syndrome, which can be organic or psychological in origin. It is necessary to remember that temperature measuring is sensitive to room temperature, and a standard room temperature is usually 25°C.

With temperature biofeedback device in place, you can get ample relief from your ailments and lead a healthy life.

In certain cases, the electrical activity of the muscles or nerves is abnormal. Finding and describing the electrical properties in the muscle or nerve can be a great source of help to your doctor to diagnose your condition.

EMG is known to help with the diagnosis of nerve compression or injury (e.g. carpal tunnel syndrome), nerve root injury (e.g. sciatica), and with other problems related to the muscles or nerves. It also helps with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, and muscular dystrophy.

EMG preparation:

This test requires no specific preparation.

How it is performed:

A small needle or pin is inserted into the skin or muscle to measure electrical activity. These needles or pins are far different from the needles used for injections. They are small and solid, and because no medication is called for, they do not cause any discomfort. This electrical activity is displayed on an oscilloscope, and can be heard on a speaker.

After placing the electrodes, you will be asked to contract the muscle by bending your arm. The presence, size, and shape of the wave form-or the action potential-is seen on the oscilloscope and provides information about the muscle’s ability to respond to a stimulus from a nerve. Along with an EMG, a nerve conduction velocity test is also performed. Along with nerve conduction studies, small electrodes are usually taped on to the skin or wound around the fingers. They give rise to a mild and brief tingling, which you may find unpleasant.

How you will feel during the test:

You may feel a certain degree of discomfort when the test is conducted.

Why the test is performed:

If you show symptoms of weakness and, on examination, impaired muscle strength becomes apparent, an EMG is conducted. This test usually takes between 30 and 60 minutes.

After the procedure:

If a doctor performs this test in his office, he will send you home once it is over and without restricting your activities in any way. You could suffer from minor aches and pains. Later, the muscle will feel tender or sore for a few days.

Normal values:

At rest, muscle tissue is usually electrically silent. Once you have gone through the trauma of the needle being inserted into your muscle, there will be no need for action on the oscilloscope.

With the muscle voluntarily contracted, action potentials will begin to appear. Once it is contracted to a greater extent, more and more muscle fibres produce action potentials until a disorderly group of action potentials with differing rates and amplitudes appear with full contraction.

What abnormal results mean:

Abnormal results include the presence of the following disorders or conditions: Polymyositis; Denervation; Carpal tunnel syndrome; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); Myopathy; Myasthenia gravis; Alcoholic neuropathy, among others.

EMG is a powerful tool in the world of science and medicine and its potential should be fully explored.

• Temperature biofeedback: This device monitors skin temperature and helps in disorders of the circulatory system, such as Raynaud’s disease. Here, a sensor is attached to your foot or to the middle of your dominant hand. Whenever you are tense or anxious, your skin temperature drops as blood is redirected to the muscles and internal organs.

This device is as useful and important as the one that measures muscle tension, as it teaches the user to manage stress. It also reduces the frequency of migraine headaches, and promotes relaxation.

• Galvanic skin response (GSH) or Electrodermal Response (EDR): This device is also known by the name of Electrodermal Response (EDR), and measures electrical conductance in the skin, which is associated with the activity and performance of the sweat glands. A very low electrical current is made to run through your skin. The device measures any change in the salt and water in your sweat gland ducts.

If you are very emotionally aroused, your sweat glands become very active and the electrical conductivity of your skin also increases. GSR is useful in treating phobias, anxiety, excessive sweating, and stuttering, and is also used as a lie detector. Athletes also depend on this to know if they are very anxious before a game.

• Electroencephalogram (EEG): Though this is meant to measure and monitor brain wave activity, it is very imprecise. This is because the brain emits a variety of electrical signals of various frequencies of which just a few are linked to specific disorders or mental states that the device can register. These are:
• Beta (awake)
• Alpha (calm relaxation)
• Theta (light sleep)
• Delta (deep sleep)

Alpha waves are observable during a period of relaxation, so researchers believe that patients can find relief from anxiety, insomnia and epilepsy if they can increase their alpha wave activity. But this is possible if alpha training is combined with other therapies.

• Other biofeedback instruments: There are biofeedback machines that can monitor heart rate and blood pressure, both that change according to an increase or decrease in levels of stress, arrhythmia and hypertension.
  For best results, combine biofeedback with relaxation techniques, self hypnotism and psychotherapy. This helps you control your reactions to stress and explore the causes of the stress and your thoughts and behavior that lead to this situation.

• Electromyography (EMG):Biofeedback is good for reducing the frequency and severity of many kinds of headaches, tension and post-accident neck pain symptoms.
• GSR2 or Freeze-Framer: For chronic anxiety and panic attacks, using GSR2 or Freeze-Framer can reduce your symptoms. Add to this counselling and you will get the desired relief.

While undergoing biofeedback training, you can understand your stressors and learn to interpret them and study your physiological response patterns. From this, you learn how to change these responses from a position of abnormal to normal and how to recognize and eliminate stress. With daily practice, you will be well again.

The symptoms of early morning insomnia include the patient falling asleep as usual, but waking up in the early hours of the morning and finding it difficult to go back to sleep. This is common among old people and is often associated with depression, anxiety, self-reproach, and self-punitive thinking.

Diagnosis:

The cause of early morning insomnia should be evaluated according to one’s sleep pattern, use of drugs, degree of psychological stress and amount of physical activity. If you haven’t slept regularly, then a cause would be sleep apnea syndrome, but it early morning insomnia could also be due to an irregular sleep schedule, anxiety or emotional disturbance.

Treatment:

By discussing the cause of anxiety that the patient suffers, his distress and sleeplessness can diminish. Such patients should be reassured that the problem will go away, and instructed to relax and encouraged to exercise, and avoid naps through the day. A glass of warm milk at bedtime will help them sleep better. If early morning insomnia is due to depression, a hypnotic drug could be given temporarily.

Hypnotics:

These are drugs given primarily to bring on sleep among the sleepless. But you should guard against taking an overdose or getting habituated to it lest you feel drowsy and lethargic. You might have skin eruptions and GI disturbances such as nausea and vomiting or you may feel restless, excited or are delirious.

Light therapy:

Patients of early morning insomnia should be exposed to light therapy on two consecutive nights to see a marked change in their sleep patterns. If this is continued over a four-week period, they show a greater fall in the time they stay awake after falling asleep and a greater sleep time than before.

They also show a greater improvement in daytime functioning, with fewer bouts of depression. Even after they are completely treated of this problem, it is recommended that such patients undergo occasional treatments of bright-light therapy.

Sleep diary:

Maintain a daily record of your sleep experiences that include the hours you slept, how quickly you fell off to sleep, whether light or heavy sleep, how many times you woke in the night, your behaviour in the daytime, your moods, etc.

Stimulus control techniques:

This technique involves learning to use the bedroom only for a night’s sleep. So, you are expected to go to bed when you are tired and ready for sleep and leave the bedroom when you are no longer sleepy. You must also learn to wake up at the same time each day, whether on weekends or vacation, despite the number of hours of sleep you’ve had.

Early morning insomnia is perfectly curable and apart from bright light therapy, there are other effective therapies too. They are as safe and reliable as bright light therapy and you can resort to them with full confidence.

The relationship Between Light Therapy and Depression

Light therapy is used to treat various depressive and sleep disorders. This therapy is based on light intensity and there are many benefits of light therapy. This intense light triggers off a chemical reaction in the brain’s pineal gland and lessens the transformation of serotonin into the sleep hormone melatonin. Melatonin hormone, made from serotonin, in the absence of light, is in charge of determining sleep cycles. These sleep cycles are also referred to as circadian rhythms, which, when disturbed, led one towards depression, melancholy and sluggishness.

Seasonal changes show physical manifestations in people having received benefits of light therapy

Light therapy and depression have certain effects on the functioning of the human body, which have physical manifestations. The warmer months, like spring and summer, slows the production of melatonin because people are exposed to more natural daylight during these seasons as opposed to wintertime. Fall and winter sees a reverse in pattern as bodies naturally produce more melatonin because of shorter days in the season. This causes mild hibernation in many people. Many people slow down and feel lethargic as a result of the increase of melatonin/decrease in level of serotonin. This is due to energy reserves being used up. Additionally, these low levels of serotonin affect the metabolism and mental state of many people while also disrupting their sleep patterns and circadian clocks.

Youngest users benefiting from light therapy

Commercially created light boxes make use of light to treat disorders in many young people. Infants have benefited from this alternative, new age knowledge too as treatment of skin disorders like psoriasis and hyperbilirubinemia, which causes jaundice in newborns, have been very successful.

The larger perspective: benefits of light therapy extended to the world

Light therapy is a successful remedy for mental illnesses like SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and scientific studies support its benefits for sleep disturbances, depression, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder as well as premenstrual syndrome. The greater advantages are that it is essentially non-invasive, with negligible side effects and a large number of people are recorded to having responded to this treatment quickly. Light therapy has come to mean a rejuvenation process of the skin achievable by wavelengths of light.

Light therapy has powerful therapeutic benefits to living tissues, for both body and mind. Photo-stimulation is one mode used in light therapy, requires a visible red light to penetrate tissue to a depth of about 8-10 mm and this light beam has a beneficial effect on cell tissue.

The other kind of light therapy involves LED light. This converts light energy into cell energy without thermal tissue injury and delivers adequate energy to help the body heal itself by stimulating collagen, increasing fibroblasts and rejuvenating cellular production. Thus, light therapy helps reverse the regenerative aging or sun damage caused to the skin.

From this, the scientists concluded both animals and human beings possess an in-built biological clock that can keep approximate time and can work smoothly in the absence of an external stimulus such as sunlight.

This biological clock, however, is only approximate and best used in the short term-not more than 24-48 hours in pitch darkness. When we use our body clock in natural sunlight, it fine tunes our clock to make it synchronise with the environment outside. If we don’t reset our body clocks but continue to keep it the way it is, we end up with problems such as hormonal imbalances, sleep disorders, and mood disturbances.

Like animals, we too need to rely on solar signals to keep our body clocks precise and our activities synchronized; human beings too need sufficient daylight to synchronize their circadian and circannual rhythms.

Circadian rhythms refer to the 24-hour-period of light and dark and sleep and wakefulness to which our body functions are set. We are programmed to wake each day, become hungry, tired, and later energized.

Apart from this, there is a predictable pattern of activities that is started and overseen by being exposed to sunlight and darkness. This cycle involves the working of body temperature, heartbeat, blood pressure, hormone levels and urine flow rise and fall. On the other hand, the circannual rhythm comprises the annual cycle all human beings use.

The fact that we are faced with a series of illness that are due to hormonal imbalances such as lack of sleep, low appetite, mood swings and reproductive disorders are all linked to a break in circadian rhythms that are largely due to a lack of sufficient sunlight.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is one such example where disturbed sleep patterns, lack of appetite, weight disorders and depression manifest themselves in an annual cycle. At the peak of winter, the symptoms reach their pinnacle and worsen at night. SAD patients do well with a burst of artificial daylight or light therapy to correct their problems, proving thereby that SAD is directly linked with insufficient light.

Other diseases caused due to a break in the circadian rhythm include classical depression that has a daily rhythm. This is at its worst in the morning and gradually improves through the day and in the evening. As a result, the symptoms experienced are mood swings, insomnia or disturbed sleep patterns.

Today, while classical depression is being treated with drugs that exert a positive influence on the circadian rhythms, light therapy is also being used successfully. Irregular menstrual cycles or premenstrual syndrome are two more examples of disturbed biological clocks, for which research will once again prove just how effective light therapy can be.

Since the advent of electricity, however, lifestyles have changed so drastically that we no longer wake when we hear the rooster crow but to the sound of our alarm clocks or radio clocks. And since we can’t roll out of bed the moment the alarm rings, we set the “snooze” button so that we can get a few minutes more in bed.

And since our bedrooms have heavy drapes, we can’t enjoy the first rays of the sun streaming into our rooms. And we watch late night shows on TV, don’t we? Well, that’s another reason why we can’t wake up to enjoy a sunrise.

Our chief problem lies in the fact that our systems don’t get enough rest. We aren’t like animals who sleep better in certain seasons. Animals can predict a season in advance because they sense the days shorten in the fall season and can sense the winter coming on. In spring, when the days grow longer, they know that spring and summer will soon be here.

It now comes to light that we human beings too are influenced by the light. Not only does it determine our sleep cycle but from a hormone called melatonin, we get the desire to sleep. Every evening, the pineal gland or the home of melatonin reacts to the lowering levels of daylight and begins to produce melatonin, which it releases into the blood and causes us to feel drowsy.

It reaches its peak in the middle of the night, when we are in our deepest sleep. When the morning’s sunrays shine through our eyes, the pineal gland reacts by withdrawing its production of melatonin, thus taking away our desire to sleep.

A point of interest is that the pineal gland is linked to the entire hormonal system. Therefore, the level of melatonin also influences the level of operation of other parts of the body. As a result, melatonin changes the secretion of hormones from various organs such as the pituitary, the master gland of the hormonal system at night and while we sleep.

In turn, the pituitary gland regulates the secretion of hormones that control growth, milk production, and egg and sperm production. But that’s not all. The pituitary gland also regulates the work of the thyroid gland, and the adrenal glands. Due to these fluctuations in light and darkness, and in different seasons, animals record a difference in growth and reproduction.

According to scientists, not only do we respond better to the outdoors and to seasonal changes, even children’s growth rates fluctuate depending on the seasons. Surveys conducted in Germany, Sweden and Scotland showed that one’s height and weight increase largely in spring and early summer.

Besides, many countries have reported that more couples conceive in the summer when daylight hours are longest. Other surveys and experiments conducted demonstrate that the seasons also play a role in the timing and amount we sleep, and our pain threshold, alertness and eating habits, among other things.