It's been so long since I've blogged on my brain biofeedback treatments, it almost feels like I'm not doing them. But I am. I continue trucking along, each session a 3-minute assessment, 5-minute HRV screen aka deep breathing in rhythm with heart rate going up and down, three neurofeedback screens of 3 minutes each bowling,…
Tag: Brain injury
Beta Spikes and Grisly Scenes During LORETA Neurofeedback
The same week we began stimulation of my Wernicke’s area, we saw beta spikes for the first time during my LORETA neurofeedback session. It began right with the first screen. And it wasn’t just a spike of five or six standard deviations from the norm, it was an off-the-chart spike. My trainer spoke to Andrea…
The Days That Test
I think ongoing, never-ending family stress is retarding the effectiveness of the new tDCS stimulation and LORETA neurofeedback. On the other hand, even though I just wanted to sit on the subway train and read tweets in a zoned-out state, my brain (or mind, and what is the mind anyway?) let me do that for…
Announcing the Launch of #ABIchat on Twitter
One of the great things about Twitter is the way it fosters conversations, the way people support each other. One of the things the brain injury community is lacking is a place to chat regularly on Twitter. And so I am launching a regular Twitter chat I’ve given the moniker “#ABIchat.” After seeing other medical…
Memories of the Past Fuel the Present
I’ve been gradually wandering back into the 1980s. Thanks to a serendipitous request by the city to scan and email a document this past week, I went into a flurry of scanning colour negatives of a 73-day trip to the UK and Europe I shot back in 1984. I’d scanned some photographs here and there…
LORETA #16 — I Need a Nap
I walked in to the ADD Centre and saw a familiar face I haven't seen in six years: my old trainer. Cool! Last time I saw her, she and I were working on me getting a ball to roll across a gorilla’s arm, over the shoulders, and across the other arm, from my left to…
Adding tDCS Back to Gamma Brainwave Biofeedback
Two new things in this week’s gamma brainwave biofeedback session: tDCS and a 3-minute assessment at Wernicke's area to determine if we should do tDCS at that location to improve my receptive language (e.g., reading). These were not so easy to do. My poor trainer, none of the electrode placements are in standard spots, spots…
Back to Reading Subtitles during LORETA Neurofeedback
Well, as I mentioned in my last post, we changed up the LORETA protocol a bit this week. We used an educational-type DVD – David Attenborough narrating BBC’s Frozen Planet – holy cow, what incredible photography! And the music was dramatic and pulled on all the emotional muscles, even though I didn’t feel emotion or…
More LORETA Notes with a Touch of Gamma
Gamma training didn't work as well as usual. It didn't help that my heart rate was way up there (let's pretend we didn't see those 130+ figures shall we, and why didn't rest while I was thankfully waiting for my appointment to start drop it? Scary to think maybe it did.), probably because I stupidly…