How Neuro EP treatments work?

If I ask you to bend your elbow and touch your nose with pointer finger, can you do it? OK, how did you do it? Specifically, how did you simultaneously 1) relax your triceps muscles, 2) contract your biceps muscles, 3) ignore other shoulder and forearm muscles, and 4) guide your arm smoothly and safely to the exact location of your nose? Your brain did it automatically when you wanted it to happen. Neurofeedback is similar in that when using the right tools, your brain can automatically improve your brain activity, just like your brain will automatically increase your heart rate if you watch a scary movie or if something dangerous happens to you.

Have you ever heard a song or a commercial jingle many times without specifically trying to learn it (or even trying to ignore it), but eventually somehow you begin singing, humming, or whistling the song or jingle? Even if it’s not out loud, in your head the melody and lyrics are playing without you consciously trying to learn them. How did that happen? You learned a new brain pattern (called neuroplasticity of learning) without even trying. This is the same way that your brain can learn to improve (for example lower your brain activity in your Pain Network) just by ;istening to tones or watching a video that reward the improved brain activity. Another example, Fill in the blank with the tune: “Jin-gle Bells, Jin-gle Bells, Jin-gle all the ______.” Did you try to consciously learn that? Your brain learned it automatically without you doing anything consciously. Your brain does the same thing in Neurofeedback.

What if I ask you to increase the brain waves in your left frontal lobe that are firing at a rate of 12-20 times per second? Without assistance, you can’t do that because you can’t see, hear, or feel your brainwaves. Neurofeedback allows you to see, hear, or feel your brain activity at specific locations in real time as the waves are happening, like a mirror for your brain activity.

Even though you cannot feel, see, or hear your brainwaves (or the electrical signals that allowed you to bend your arm up to your face), you can definitely feel and see the consequences of both your hand moving and you brain functions improving (less pain, less anxiety, less depression, better memory, better sleep, etc).

If I told you there was a smudge on you (for example a smudge of charcoal or paint), could you successfully clean it off without knowing where it is exactly, what it looks like, and is it getting better or worse as you wipe that area? Those things are forms of feedback to help you improve your skin, but you need a tool like a mirror to be able to use that feedback. Some forms of Neurofeedback are very much like a mirror that displays your brain activity so you can hear it or see it, and this allows your brain to improve unwanted brain activity. Neurofeedback is a tool to improve your brain in the same way that a mirror is a tool to improve your skin.