In the field of EEG neurofeedback, the cutting edge over the last decade has been the fine-tuning and accelerated development of infra-low frequency protocols in training the brain.
This method has been practiced for fifteen years and was pioneered by the Othmers—Dr. Siegfried and Susan Othmer. I was trained in their methods decades ago and have kept up with recent developments and practices. (I co-authored the book, ADD: The 20-Hour Solution with Dr. Othmer in 2004.)
EEG neurofeedback is a highly successful treatment for a host of conditions and symptoms. It has a 60-year history and its efficacy is abundantly documented in the scientific literature. There are many ways to administer neurofeedback. Because of its robust effects, different approaches typically achieve good results. Many would assert that the advent of infra-low frequency (ILF) protocols has boosted the successful outcomes of neurofeedback treatment. Though widely used for a range of conditions, ILF training has been demonstrably effective with populations showing high sensitivity and significant impairment—e.g., autism, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, chronic sleep disorders, panic, etc.
As people become more interested in neurofeedback and are exposed to different ideas and methods claiming advantages, I am frequently asked about neurofeedback approaches and often about ILF training.
Infra-low neurofeedback training refers to training the brain with protocols —computer settings that encourage and reward specific components of the EEG (brainwaves)—at frequencies below one Hertz (<1Hz). Before getting into what that means, let’s review some basics about the process of training the EEG.
EEG biofeedback (the formal name for neurofeedback) has been practiced for six decades. Originally pioneered and researched for the treatment of seizures and migraines, it has evolved and is being used successfully for many clinical conditions:
The central organizing principle that makes neurofeedback effective for such a wide range of conditions is that it allows the brain to recover and develop its own self-regulation—the natural biological mechanism by which the brain balances its activity, restores itself, and integrates functioning appropriate to changing conditions and demands, both within the body and interacting with the environment. Neurofeedback facilitates the brain’s ability to witness its own regulatory neural activity, thereby making adjustments toward normalization.
There are three principal mechanisms by which neurofeedback modifies brain activity:
Encouraging (or reinforcing) your brain to produce brainwaves helpful and relevant to desired outcome states
The nuts and bolts of neurofeedback training comprise how the procedure encourages your brain to make greater signal strengths at particular frequencies (electrical cycles per second). The computers processing the brain signals we can measure on the scalp extracts information about certain key brainwave frequencies. The movie or video game continuously shows you the ebb and flow of this activity. As you play the game, you are changing the activity levels of different brainwave frequencies. Eventually, your brainwave activity is “shaped” toward more desirable, more regulated performance. The frequencies we target and the specific locations on the scalp where we “listen in” on the brain are specific to the conditions we are trying to address and specific to the individual.
The two basic models of encouraging better EEG self-regulation are amplitude training and phase training. In the amplitude training model, you are encouraging your brain (getting rewarded) to produce proportionately more of higher amplitudes of signal at particular cortical sites. This training is typically done at frequencies in the EEG range (usually between 4-20 Hz). In the phase training model, you are encouraging your brain to produce proportionately greater phase differences (i.e., timing differences) between sites within specified neural networks. (See below for further explanation.)
By promoting greater production of amplitudes at certain frequencies and/or greater phase differences between sites within specified neural networks, we are teaching your brain (actually, you are teaching your brain) to gravitate toward more functional states and to maintain these states as is useful and appropriate to varying situations. People prefer different names for these states—such as “being in the zone,” “putting on your game face,” “chilling out,” and so forth—but the basic idea is that you learn to activate and deactivate your brainwave activity as suits the situation. The training on the computer generalizes to varying real-life circumstances, much as weight training or running would generalize to heightened fitness that would allow you to meet the physical demands and challenges of daily activities.
Discouraging (or minimizing) the prominence of brainwaves interfering with desired outcome states
In tandem with teaching your brain to make more of the brainwaves associated with desirable outcomes, neurofeedback discourages the brain’s excursion into dysfunctional states. These excursions may be so brief that they are unobservable in overt behavior. Rather, we infer them from the existence of certain patterns in the EEG. Such excursions, however, are infrequent. The coupling of overt behavior and EEG “behavior” is so intimate that we may assume that the production of anomalous brainwave patterns interferes with desired outcome states. The neurofeedback procedure accomplishes control over excursions by inhibiting the reward (screen clarity, picture size, forward motion, points, sounds, etc.) on the video game or movie when you are generating amplitudes on the less desirable frequencies above thresholds set by the therapist on the computer. In particular, this modality teaches your brain to avoid significant departures from the functional flow of activity that suits a particular brain state. This may sound abstract or complicated, but it is really a simple principle, ingeniously applied to neurobiology via the science of blending digital technology, learning theory, and the brilliance of devoted engineering.
Think of the process as though you are driving on the freeway with sensors attached that allow you to drift slightly within a lane, to change lanes gradually, and to slow down and speed up within a range of allowable speeds. However, should you suddenly veer way out beyond the freeway lanes or slow down or accelerate in a manner that posed danger, the system would notify you and diminish fuel supply to the engine until you regained control.
Or, here’s another analogy: in baseball, a runner is allowed a lenient margin of sideways drift when running from one base to another. However, he is not allowed to veer too far outside of rule-based limits, and he must touch each base as he makes progress.
The significant feature of this inhibition of rewards (inhibition of continuous movement) process is that there is no punishment involved. The reward is simply cut off until you regain control and resume progress within the allowable margins. This process is supportive and efficient, since people generally do not learn as well under conditions of punishment or stress. Remember, neurofeedback is attempting to teach brains that are already stressed. You don’t learn to drive well by having multiple accidents. Rather, you master the process of adapting to changing conditions via the gentle persistent nudges in the right direction provided by correct practice and subtly noticeable reminders of when you exceed limits (such as the bumps in the lane stripes).
The inhibit features of neurofeedback training are especially helpful to those individuals who struggle with an unstable brain that routinely deregulates into overreactive electrical activity. For example, people with seizures, intractable anxiety, migraines, cerebral irritability, anger, and other conditions are prone to this disruptive brain activity without being aware of it. By bringing it into subliminal awareness without the penalty of symptoms or censure, neurofeedback allows the brain to self-correct its own aberrations in a manner that is natural, comfortable, and enduring.
Presenting your brain with specific challenges designed to train particular brain areas to strengthen, problem solve, and communicate better with each other
Basic models of neurofeedback training have used the first two principles for decades with cumulative and far-reaching efficacy; many practitioners continue to succeed with these models. Again, these basic principles are:
However, in recent years, neurofeedback scientists in the field of neurofeedback have significantly increased its success with the challenge model. The emphasis on two aspects of neurofeedback interaction with brain function has quickened and deepened the effects when the brain is challenged by a task and then learns to “push back” and become more capable.
A remarkable advance is the neurofeedback training of phase relationships between brain sites. Another extraordinary innovation is the introduction of infra-low frequency (ILF) reward-based training.
To appreciate these innovations, it is helpful to understand some mathematical principles of physics and electrical signals. Phase refers to the timing relationship of two electrical cycles operating independently. As a practical matter, the parameter of phase is useful only when the two cycles are operating at the same or nearly the same frequency. This happens to be precisely the situation when the brain is organizing communication between two locations on the scalp. These two regions have to be attuned to each other, much like the radio station and the receiver.
When an electrode is placed on the scalp, it samples the signal coming from that area (site) and displays the information as a cycle ranging from a peak of +1 to -1. The height or depth of the wave is measured in microvolts (millionths of a volt) and displayed in an undulating line a certain number of times per second. For example, a brainwave pattern of 12 Hz at 75 microvolts would mean that there are twelve up-and-down complete wave patterns each second. Each cycle would include a peak of +1 and a nadir of -1 at its particular amplitude. The point at which the waveform crosses from plus to minus in each cycle can be assigned the phase value of zero. Phase values for each waveform vary continuously and smoothly until the wave undergoes a complete cycle, and then it repeats.
The first two principal mechanisms described above explain how neurofeedback operates by focusing on individual brain sites. This mechanism measures and feeds back information about a single (monopolar) signal. Neurofeedback training that uses a monopolar amplitude-based approach is encouraging the brain to generate greater and more consistent amplitudes at selected frequencies. This approach generally disregards phase because it addresses brain activity at selected sites.
Phase training, however, involves training the phase relationship between two sites in order to promote phase differences. This procedure trains the brain’s ability to meet challenges, become more flexible, and problem solve automatically and without conscious reasoning. This is because the timing relationship between different brain sites is the most critical variable when it comes to the brain’s internal communication in connection with state management.
Here’s how it works:
Electrodes are placed at two scalp sites during each training period, and the rewards (moments when the video game progresses) are set to occur when the two sites show phase differences in activity. Let’s explain this mathematically and then relate it to improvements in brain activity and daily life.
Signals from two sites are said to be in phase when their amplitudes reach peak (+1) and nadir (-1) simultaneously. They are out of phase when one signal approaches +1 and the other approaches -1 simultaneously. (When two signals are perfectly in phase, they are said to be synchronous.) As you train by playing the video game, your brain is intermittently rewarded for “figuring out” how to make the frequency cycles from each site occur at slightly different times. (“You” think you are piloting a spaceship on the screen, while your brain is in the control room, working furiously to figure out the timing codes to keep things moving.) In phase-based training, the reward is not based on the amplitude, but rather on the timing differences between when each of the two signals reaches that amplitude. Mathematically, the rewards occur when the differences become greater (i.e., move away from zero toward an absolute value of one, either positive or negative).
You can think of this as similar to teaching instrumentalists in an orchestra to play different notes at the same time (or teaching your hands to play different notes on the piano at staggered time intervals). The effects of this kind of flexibility are staggering and infinite. When you can master playing different notes in varying combinations of time synchrony, you are becoming a master, perhaps eventually a virtuoso.
Taking the musical analogy a step further, phase training is like teaching your brain to sing in harmony, in choral rounds, and in synchrony, as needed.
Phase training tunes and trains your brain modules to coordinate among themselves and to communicate with the outside world like a practiced and well-timed group of musicians. Perhaps you are familiar with singing in staggered choral rounds. Remember the song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”? When two groups sing it together, they are in phase, and the timing code looks like this:
However, when they sing in choral rounds, they are out of phase, and it looks like this:
Notice that singing in rounds and transitioning back to unison requires careful attention, as well as the ability to focus narrowly and then expand that focus to incorporate the context and its sequence and timing. In order to do this properly, you must be able to shift as necessary. This is a complex task, yet most elementary school students are able to do it (provided that their brains are functioning well). When your brain can shift time codes and integrate and adapt different timing mechanisms, you can pay attention, screen out distractions, maintain continuity, sift and shift to accommodate salient details, and follow a task through to its conclusion.
Infra-low neurofeedback training utilizes the phase method. Your neural networks are encouraged and rewarded for maximizing the proportion of phase differences—asynchronous EEG activity—between specified cortical sites. The infra-low dimension refers to the EEG frequencies targeted at those sites. Bearing in mind that frequency is the number of cycles per second of the waveform, consider that we train at frequencies as low as .0001 (one ten thousandth of a Hz) per second! This means that it takes approximately one week for the neural firing to complete one cycle at that frequency. It’s hard to wrap your (conscious) mind around this concept. What, then, is going on in this type of training, where the brain is observing the process whereby it takes a “long” time to complete one cycle? The answer is not intuitive or necessarily logical (in terms of our typical models of cognitive analysis).
At completion cycles near .0001 Hz, it’s difficult to assume that the brain is waiting a week to be rewarded for a particular activity. Rather, we are rewarding the brain for observing its own activity (at multiple levels, but particularly at specified infra-low frequencies). Because the system rewards maximizing phase differences along the way, the brain is learning how to detect and correct sensitivity, erratic departures, and the flow of asynchronous activity. The effective ingredient is in the brain’s uncanny ability to observe, detect, and naturalize the flexibility of neuronal self-regulation. It’s a difficult and elusive concept to grasp (even for experienced practitioners). However, the brain (even the brains of disturbed or abnormal people) is exquisitely capable of normalizing this self-regulation process—when allowed to observe the relevant internal information. Such is the wonder of EEG neurofeedback!
Many people are so intimately attuned and sensitive to infinitesimal differences that we have to adjust the reward frequency by as little as one thousandth of a Hz to find a sweet spot that allows the brain maximal optimization. We are working with the brain’s inner biological wisdom in helping it to find the right series of balances and flexibility.
It’s as if the brain has “taste buds” that can detect a difference in a single grain of salt in a meal for thousands.
Training the brain to maximize phase differences at the suitable infra-low frequencies promotes self-regulated asynchronous activity (the normal preponderance of EEG activity) that, in turn, fosters flexibility—the capacity and habit of shifting state appropriately to meet internal and external demands—in effect, driving at the right speed under changing conditions.
Infra-low EEG training has been a great advance and boon for multitudes. It allows us to provide greater and quicker progress for a high percentage of patients. However, in my experience, infra-low protocols are not for everyone. They do work exceedingly well for the vast majority. But some people are overly sensitive, and infra-low protocols are too intense for them, even with meticulous optimization. Some folks do better with neurofeedback training in the traditional EEG range; and some do well with a blend of infra-low and EEG scale protocols. This is where clinical experience plays a vital role.
Given the present era, the varied approaches there are to neurofeedback, and the differences of opinion among neurofeedback practitioners, there are many who will disagree with me. Converts to infra-low practice tend to be die-hard: they believe that infra-low is the only way to go. Many practitioners rely on QEEG brain maps to dictate the proper training protocols. Their approach typically prefers quantitative digital data over clinical assessment and experiential practice; and, they typically employ protocols in the EEG range, since brain maps are not typically associated with infra-low predictions.
To get the best results for patients, I examine the overall picture, not only at initial evaluation, but also by supervision and formative assessment as people go through the training. As the brain gets better, the person gets better, and is often ready for new protocols and stages of training that would not have been appropriate at the beginning.
In order to function well, to roll with the punches, and to adapt effectively to changing conditions, we need to be flexible. Brain-wise, this requires being self-regulated, able to readily and comfortably shift across multiple states, and to bring a spectrum of asynchronous neural activity to the demands and challenges we face. However, we also need regular doses and well-established brain patterns of harmony: those intermittent states of synchronous brain activity that allow us to feel good and to heal and recharge. The brain needs a mix of exertion, rest, review, recharge, observe, and modify.
A combination of synchronous and asynchronous EEG activity is at work in well-functioning brains. Why not follow the brain’s biological foundation in training it to recuperate and function more optimally?
In my experience, infra-low training is usually the default method (carefully optimized by assessment and frequency during clinical sessions), used as a starting point to regulate and rehabilitate people whose brains have difficulty maintaining self-regulation. Sometimes, training in the EEG range (4-20 Hz) is more useful, and, sometimes, a combination of infra-low and EEG range protocols provides the better mix to attain satisfying results.
Whereas infra-low phase training develops brain flexibility powerfully (by augmenting and generalizing phase modulation), synchronous training protocols often balance out the brain’s need for inner harmony and peace.
There are many ways to implement EEG neurofeedback. Most of them get decent results (even the methods I disavow). My experience over three decades affirms that the protocols and training regimen need to fit the patient. This requires a combination of collective clinical experience, astute assessment, supervision, and listening to patients as they observe and listen to their own brains.
When your brain learns to differentiate its timing mechanisms, you progressively achieve the following:
For decades, EEG neurofeedback utilized the training of brainwaves in the frequency ranges (bandwidths) recognized to incorporate common waking and sleeping neurophysiology. Technically, this refers to the frequency range between 1 Hz and approximately 60 Hz (cycles per second). Actually, the functional range for training has been more stringently between 1–30 Hz, and the focus of reward and inhibition has typically been between 4-20 Hz.
As discussed, more recent advances in neurofeedback implement new software and treatment training protocols that utilize infra-low frequencies (ILF). These are brainwave frequencies below 1 Hz. Training with these protocols may concern itself with brain activity as low as .0001 Hz, training phase relationships in the same manner described above. The effects of these ILF training protocols are powerful and rather rapid. The results for many people—including people with previously intractable conditions—have often been amazing.
From a neurobiological and electrophysiological perspective, brainwave signals below 1 Hz represent biological phenomena that are fundamental to self-regulation, but which occur well beneath any radar of consciousness. Whereas frequency bandwidths in the 4–20 Hz range are associated with mental activities ranging from creative imagining to debating, studying, planning and calculation, frequencies below 0.1 Hz are associated with longer-term biological encoding. At the extremely low frequencies, we are most likely paying selective attention to those brain mechanisms involved in organizing our persistent states. These ILFs relate to cycles of mood and of physiology correlated with mood, such as the state of the autonomic nervous system. They also relate to issues of maturation and aging and the recording and encoding of primitive memories by brain substructures. These encodings often carry information about traumatic events the brain has experienced throughout a person’s lifetime.
From a metaphorical standpoint, one might compare the relationships and continuum of traditional brainwave frequencies and infra-low brainwave frequencies with the life-forms on land and beneath the surface of the sea. Yes, there is a vast and only partially explored world down there, teeming with life energy and the potential to teach and nourish us. We concern ourselves for the most part with the visible and tangible phenomena that we can access and to which we can relate. In perspective, however, that which is above sea level is, quite literally, the tip of the iceberg. So it is with the new frontier of infra-low brainwave frequencies.
By training at these ILFs, the brain can nonverbally and subconsciously “figure out” how to meet self-regulation challenges that affect conscious perceptions, experiences, and behavior. ILF neurofeedback training has opened a new world of healing and growth possibilities for populations ranging from the severely impaired to high-functioning individuals in all walks of life who want to break through barriers and perform at the top of their capacities.
Not surprisingly, the empirical findings with regard to ILF training find support in the latest research in the neurosciences, where brain-imaging studies are revealing the existence of distinct, well-organized “resting states,” to which the brain returns after mastering a challenge. It is the quality of organization of our resting state networks that determines how well we function. Neurofeedback applied in the ILF ranges seems to most effectively challenge the brain to organize its resting state networks.
I have described the benefits, efficacy, and some of the mechanisms of how neurofeedback works to relieve symptoms, promote self-regulation and self-control, and develop brain function and capacities. By explaining some technical aspects of how neurofeedback engages the brain, I’ve attempted to shed light on how neurofeedback is really a vehicle for teaching the brain to meet challenges. Indeed, neurofeedback is a very expedient and efficient means of doing this, since it reinforces the brain about three thousand times per hour; it is an observational and operant conditioning method that exercises and conditions the brain and nervous system safely, subtly, and continually.
In its manifestation of wisdom, nature recapitulates itself in so many ways. The essential organizing principles and patterns that pervade the natural world, art, science, and mathematics generate countless variations that express fundamental themes in familiar yet diverse iterations. This is also true in the matter of timing mechanisms. The themes of the universe are writ large and small, from the vastness of astronomy, the wonder of the speed of light, to the smallest microorganisms and the infinitesimal wavelengths and speed of evolutionary change.
As humans, we are wired into this natural fabric. Neurofeedback helps us to modify and align our timing mechanisms in adaptive ways. Using the same principles that govern the universe, we can influence patterns that have shaped us neurobiologically and neuropsychologically, even historical and genetic contributions, by using technology to teach our brains to function better.
Just as exercising on a treadmill or Stairmaster can recapitulate its specific challenges and result in better fitness for your everyday activities, so, too, can neurofeedback exercise and train your brain timing mechanisms for better responses to the challenges you face, the ways you handle them, and the narrative in your mind that interprets what’s going on and how you fit into it.
— Mark Steinberg, PhD
