School system will soon examine brain waves
Students with attention, learning and behavior problems may soon benefit from the use of neurofeedback training equipment recently acquired by Warren County schools through grants made available through the state and the local Eagles Club.
Neurofeedback training, also known as EEG biofeedback, uses computerized equipment to record and “feed back” a person’s brain waves so he or she can learn to regulate them. This form of therapy, said school system special education direction Linda Wilson, is just another form of treatment to help with behavior modification.
Officials say it is particularly effective in treating Attention Deficit Disorder with and without hyperactivity (which affects between 6 and 10 percent of children), which is what the school system will use it for primarily.
Neurofeedback training works by first placing small electrodes to the scalp in order to make a “brain map” or to measure and record electrical activity. The information on brain wave activity is then transmitted to a computer which, in turn, converts the brain waves into a graphic display the user can see on the screen.
Dr. Glen Barnes, a psychologist assisting the school system with the neurofeedback technique, said the user can use the information gained from the graphic display to re-train his or her brain by either increasing or decreasing brain waves needed for any given activity. After the initial brain map is made, the user will continue using the equipment up to several times a week for a period of a few months. Sessions last one hour.
Once trained, Dr. Barnes said, the brain will normally maintain its new level of functioning. As a result, the need for medication usually disappears.
Both Wilson and Dr. Barnes stressed no electrical current is delivered into the brain through neurofeedback training as the equipment is not capable of doing that. Rather, it merely reads the information on what the brain is doing and provides that information to the user.
The use of the neurofeedback training equipment will begin in the next few weeks, Wilson said. At first it will only be used with a handful of children, and after an evaluation process will be expanded pending positive results.