Viewed through the prism of neurotherapy, human beings do not suffer an epidemic of depression, chronic pain, immune system dysfunction, addictions, anxiety, or any one of a laundry list of other afflictions. Instead, the epidemic is in hyperactive or worn-out nervous systems—buffeted by birth perhaps, infancy and childhood certainly, by a culture that encourages overwork and has created some of the most stressful places on earth: modern cities. There are only three diagnoses under the Othmer model: One, a person is so chronically overaroused he or she cannot relax, resulting in, for example, anxiety, agitation, impulsivity, and anger. Two, a person may be chronically under-aroused, resulting in some types of depression, lack of motivation, and spaciness. The third principal diagnosis is brain instability. Using an automobile analogy, the lug nuts on the wheels are loose and the front end is wobbly. The driver can sometimes drive quite well, but suddenly the car veers off in one direction or another, and there is little the driver can do. Bipolar disorder (manic depression), migraines, PMS, panic attacks, motor and vocal tics, vertigo, bruxism (teeth grinding), epilepsy, and many others are all considered stability problems. In a sense, the model is a move back to a much simpler pre-molecular time in neuroscience and to a much simpler time in psychology. (The notion of an under- or overaroused nervous system was first proposed by Walter Rudolf Hess in the 1950s.) The Othmers have essentially thrown out most of the hundreds of diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the encyclopedia of all the psychological dysfunctions, and replaced them with just three. Nearly all health problems, this model holds, flow from over-arousal, underarousal, or instability in the central nervous system. With any of the three conditions, the stressed-out brain and the rest of the central nervous system are not robust enough to manage the body appropriately and so render people susceptible to any condition to which they may be predisposed: Joint pain flares up. They can't sleep. Or they sleep too much. They get headaches. Panic attacks. Manic depression. Pain. Depression. They are anxious. Nervous. Have panic attacks. Can't pay attention. Simply treating a person for one of the three conditions can alleviate hundreds of different and seemingly disparate problems. That is why with twenty sessions of neurofeedback in the same two sites, a patient often reports that four or five symptoms diminish or disappear. The hundreds of traditional diagnoses are simply farther downstream from the diagnosis of a stressed-out central nervous system. This iconoclastic view of mental illness received scientific support in October 1999, when Dr. Rodolfo Llinas, an eminent neuroscientist at New York University, proposed a revolutionary new theory about seemingly unrelated disorders. Speaking at a Society for Neuroscience meeting, Dr. Llinas said that there are six layers of cells in the cortex, divided into specialized regions, that allow movement, planning, speech, and response to emotions. According to a description of his talk in The New York Times, the sixth layer of
cells provides connection to the thalamus, which is the part of the brain that takes sensory information and passes it on to the cortex. But the thalamus is more than a relay—it is a generator with special cells that set the pace for the cortical cells. They in turn feed information back to the thalamus. This loop creates the symphony of the brain, coordinating actions, perceptions, movements, and even consciousness. Dr. Llinas studied patients with brain disorders and found that parts of their thalamus seemed to be abnormally slow, even asleep. The critical parts of the cortex that govern many aspects of a person are misfiring, because there is no thalamic conductor to set their pace. Without proper control by the thalamus, the cells in the cortex become overly excited. Because the thalamus has many highly specialized regions a whole host of things can go wrong in a very small area. If one small area—perhaps no bigger than a pinhead—of the thalamus is suffering a “brown out,” for example, then because it connects to the motor area of the brain it causes the tremor of Parkinson's disease. Another small area which is very close by connects to a different area of the cortex and it causes the cells that govern pain to become excited, and so the patient is in chronic pain. Dr. Llinas also cited some types of depression, tinnitus, and obsessive compulsive disorder as problems that may be caused by a thalamus and cortex that are out of phase. The Othmers believe Llinas's model sheds light on the mechanism of neurofeedback. They believe that when people train with neurofeedback they are training one end of that loop between thalamus and the cortex. The changes made on the cortical end project back on the thalamus, which is deep in the brain. “Changing the cortical rhythm changes the rhythm of the thalamus,” said Sue. “If the cortex slows down the whole system slows down. The lower parts of the brain get involved because the system is interconnected.” The most critical variable in the Othmers’ model of higher-range training is frequency. The general approach is the 12-to-15-hertz, or SMR, training on the right side, which calms and enhances the emotional aspects and relaxes physical tension, while 15-to-18-hertz training on the left side helps improve attention and alertness. In 70 percent of the patients the Othmers and their affiliates see, the approach is the same: the left side needs to be brought up to the 15-to-18-hertz frequency, while the right side needs to be calmed to 12 to 15 hertz. The reason, says Sue Othmer, is that the left hemisphere organizes more localized function, which requires higher frequencies, whereas the right hemisphere organizes function more globally, which happens with lower frequencies. While this is the general approach, each brain is different, and frequencies are tailored to each individual's response. A change in the Othmers’ approach is where the electrode is placed on the brain. For years neurotherapists used only C-3 and C-4 sites, which are midway between the top of the head and the ear on each side, and some still insist that those tried-and-true sites are best. But the Othmers and others have experimented with sites on the temporal lobe, an inch above the ear on each side, for problems of stability, and they have proven to be very effective. And they have combined their training on the central parts of the brain with prefrontal and parietal sites to enhance specific effects related to the function of those parts of the brain. In other words, training right brain might bring up emotional aspects, while adding FP-1 helps coordinate the emotional well-being with thinking and planning, since FP-1 is over the prefrontal cortex, which governs those issues.
Robbins, Jim. A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback (p. 201). Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. Kindle Edition