Neurofeedback and Virtual Reality Training

ADD/ADHD Childen

Some of the first therapeutic work with neurofeedback training was done with ADD/ADHD children. Neurofeedback training is a type of biofeedback that commonly uses EKG real-time display of brain activity.

Initially when working with these children, sensors were placed on their head and they watched a monitor displaying their brain waves. They were instructed how to shift into a target brain wave. Not a captivating task, especially for kids with ADHD.

In the next generation of ADD/ADHD neurofeedback training, the child wears a headset with EKG sensors and plays a video game. Studies suggest that brains of children with ADHD generate too many lower-frequency theta waves of daydreaming or drowsiness.

You can watch a Youtube video showing a boy with ADD flying a plane through all kinds of obstacles. The child plays the game and the brain adjusts to the target brain waves. The brain figures this out, without alerting the conscious mind. Here is a short video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViiJBrdPpkY

Theta versus Beta Brain Waves

If the EKG records a higher percentage of theta brain waves, the computer program lowers the top speed the car can travel in an auto-racing game.

To increase the speed of the car, the player’s brain must decrease theta brain waves and increase beta brain waves. The task is embedded in the game and the child’s brain becomes the player.

The EKG sensors record her/his brainwaves. She/he doesn’t have to do anything other than play the game. The brain computes what to do to succeed. When her/his brain waves are in the target range, the car travels at top speed. When the brain waves slip out of target range, the car slows down. The brain learns to remain longer and longer within target brain waves.

Goal of Training

The goal of the training is for increased attentiveness and focus playing the game to carry over into daily life activities such as paying attention in class and focusing on homework. After a child goes through forty hours or so of these sessions, there is documentation of carryover. There is a need for more need, though, of random, double blind studies.

EKG Neurofeedback is Operant Conditioning

Neurofeedback rewards the brain as it fires within target brain waves and withholds reward when the brain fires outside this range. This method of training the brain to make adjustments in brain waves is much the same as the operant conditioning with rats pressing a lever for food or monkeys learning a trick for a squirt of juice. When neurofeedback is effective, improved attention and reduced hyperactive/impulsive behavior is reported.

Unlike with medications, improvement is likely to endure beyond treatment, because the brain has learned to function more effectively. EKG neurofeedback is safer than medications which have side effects and long-term unknowns.

During the first couple of treatments with ADD/ADHD clients, the theta-beta ratio will tend to shift in favor of beta waves, but this may be due more to the novelty effect when the brain is experiencing something new and exciting. Since it doesn’t stay new and exciting, the trend may not look as good on the eighth or ninth session. It usually takes twenty or so sessions for real improvement and forty sessions for lasting change.

Works Even with Cognitively Impaired Infants

Neurofeedback works even with cognitively impaired infants who have absolutely no inclination of what the objective of the training is all about. The brain is attracted to anything that engages it. It quickly figures out without conscious interpretation that it is part of an interactive system in which it is playing an active role. The brain plays the game on its own.without conscious perception.

Neurofeedback and Virtual Reality

http://learningworksforkids.com/2018/01/virtual-reality-tool-treat-adhd-children/

VR opens a new world to work with ADD/HDD students as if they are actually in a real-world environment. Children’s brains conclude that they are in the real-world surroundings. They respond in a realistic fashion and can benefit from immediate and multi-sensory feedback with point-of-performance consequences.

One of the most difficult tasks with ADD/HDD kids is to sustain their attention. The immersive environment of VR can promote sustained focus and attention. They get repeated practice of new skills in an engaging and motivating world. They get near real-world practice at delaying gratification and moderating hyperactivity. And they experience all this in a totally safe virtual world.

Self-help books that help:

Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus

The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body