“Neurofeedback” is both exercise and therapy for your brain.

It is a process in which simple auditory and visual feedback guide your brain gradually to make more or less of specific brainwave frequency bands, and/or to enhance connectivity between two regions of the brain. These frequencies and connectivity guide much of our mental behavior, so as we adjust them we adjust the corresponding behaviors.

How does it work?

Neurofeedback provides information to the brain about its own activity in real time, encouraging and allowing it to change based on this monitoring. A common example is when a brain makes too much of the frequency called theta, which typically expresses as high impulsivity and distractibility in a person. Neurofeedback can train the brain to produce less theta, thus giving the person greater controlled focus.

Training the brain is similar to physical exercise. Only after exercising regularly will you experience a gradual shift in experience of resources and performance. However, unlike exercising your body, exercising your brain with neurofeedback typically requires only between 20-40 sessions to make noticeable and lasting changes!

What does a typical neurofeedback session look like?

(Before beginning neurofeedback training, clients must first receive a QEEG brain scan. Based on the results of this, and following discussion, Dr. Hill will design a protocol specifically tailored to each client’s unique needs and desired outcomes.)

A typical neurofeedback session at Peak Brain begins with you making yourself comfortable in one of our plush armchairs. We will consult with you briefly on how you’ve felt since your last session and make any adjustments to your protocol if necessary. We will then attach 1-5 electrodes to your scalp using only a saline paste. These electrodes simply read the brainwaves naturally occurring beneath them.

Next we will begin the training method of your choice. Depending on your protocol, you may play a video game or watch a tv show or movie. The sights and sounds on the screen before you will change according to your brainwaves. This is the “feedback” of neurofeedback, and this system of positive reinforcement and reward is how we train your brain to produce the brainwave activity associated with your personal goals for peak performance.

How can neurofeedback help me?

As we like to say here at Peak Brain, “No matter how good your brain is, we can always make it better!”
This is what we mean by peak brain performance!

Neurofeedback is used to affect broad regulatory action of the brain, including mood, attention, self-regulation and self-control, sleep, energy, stress, and even migraines and seizures.

Neurofeedback also has outstanding success in treating age-related cognitive disorders, anxiety disorders, addiction, and symptoms of the autism spectrum.

We also use neurofeedback to trigger a deep relaxation (for creativity, or anxiety and overstimulation), or to exercise the brain for stability and increased metabolism.

Everything we do here at Peak Brain Institute is evidence-based and research-validated.

What types of neurofeedback are there?

Neurofeedback can be called EEG Biofeedback when training “brain waves” (delta, theta, alpha beta), or HEG Biofeedback when training frontal lobe blood flow. While EEG encourages more or less specific frequency bands, HEG is an infrared brain training technique which increases cerebral blood flow and consequently increases brain activity in that region of the brain and performance on tasks related to it. HEG also increases perfusion and the metabolic rate of the brain.

EEG and HEG are forms of “central” biofeedback.

Complementary “peripheral” biofeedback modalities include Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) training.

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