Latest Developments in Live Z-Score Training: Symptom Check List, Phase Reset, and Loreta Z-Score Biofeedback

Authors

  • Robert W. Thatcher

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1080/10874208.2013.759032

Abstract

Advances in neuroscience are applied to the clinical applications of EEG neurofeedback by linking symptoms to functional networks in the brain. This is achieved by reviews of the last 20 years of functional neuroimaging studies of brain networks related to clinical disorders  based on positron emission tomography, functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and EEG/MEG inverse solutions. Considerable consistency exists between different imaging modalities because of the property of functional localization and the existence of large clusters of connections in the brain representing network modules and hubs. Reviewed here is new method of EEG neurofeedback called Z-Score Neurofeedback, and it is demonstrated how real-time comparison to an age-matched population of healthy subjects simplifies protocol generation and allows clinicians to target modules and hubs that indicate dysregulation and
instability in networks related to symptoms. Z-score neurofeedback, by measuring the distance from the center of the healthy age-matched population, increases specificity in operant conditioning and provides a guide by which extreme Z-score outliers are linked to symptoms and then reinforced toward states of greater homeostasis and stability. The goal is increased efficiency of information processing in brain networks related to the patient’s symptoms. The unique advantage of EEG over other neuroimaging methods is high temporal resolution in which the fine temporal details of phase lock and phase shift between large masses of neurons is quantified and can be modified by Z-score neurofeedback to address the patient’s symptoms. The latest developments in Z-score neurofeedback are a harbinger of a bright future for clinicians and, most important, patients that suffer from a variety of brain dysfunctions.

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Published

2016-08-23

Issue

Section

CLINICAL CORNER