Brain research and ways to understand and improve mental and emotional function are really hot topics, these days. Exciting discoveries about the brain are being made every day, and yet there is so much we have yet to learn about this amazing and complex organ. The brain is interesting to us because we all have one, and we'd all like it to function better in certain ways!
Many brain games, toys, and apps are now easily available. They are fun and maybe helpful to some people. There are also apps and recordings that promote different #energy states such as focus, #relaxation, or #sleep.
Many of these use an approach called "binaural beats", where different sound frequencies are fed through headphones and layered together to influence specific energy states or #brain waves in your head.
If these work for you, great! If not, you may naturally have too much of the brain waves that these apps or devices are promoting, and your brain really needs something else. Unfortunately, most games, #apps, and devices have no way of completely measuring what is already going on.
Neurofeedback can actually measure the various combinations of brain waves throughout your head. Little sensors are applied to the scalp that can pick up electrical information and send it back to very sophisticated software.
This data is used to help understand why you might be anxious, tuned-out, angry, sad, or sleep-deprived, and to help plan individualized training #protocols to help you achieve a better balance of brain waves.
Repeated sessions with the sensors and the software can help you learn to naturally balance your brain waves and settle your nervous system.
More and more research is being done to support the effect of healthy brain wave activity not only on our symptoms, but also on our chemical, cellular, and #metabolic systems for better health.
Neurofeedback is increasingly becoming an option for those whose physical, cognitive, emotional, and even developmental #symptoms have not been helped by other means, or for whom medication is not an option.
Unlike some of the games and apps mentioned. #Neurofeedback is also a way of teaching the brain to learn and hold a more desired state, and changes are often long-term to permanent after the sessions are completed.
We're fortunate to be living in an age of incredible tools to learn about and help our amazing brains!
Neurofeedback can be an exciting way to learn more about your brain, and to exercise it into more optimal function!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gretchen Morse, DMA, is board certified in Neurofeedback and serves on the Board of the Midwest Society for Behavioral Medicine and Biofeedback. For information on Neurofeedback, call her at 517/290-4965, visit www.mmneuro.com