Читать книгу A Symphony in the Brain - Jim Robbins - Страница 9

Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition

Ten years after I wrote my first article about neurofeedback for Psychology Today and eight years after the first edition of this book, neurofeedback has not exploded onto the treatment landscape, nor has the number of research projects grown exponentially.

Brain wave training remains a victim of the fact that it is outside mainstream concepts, is far ahead of the science of how it works, has a persistent but undeserved reputation as a softheaded “new age” idea, and is a model that—unlike the drug model—doesn't lend itself to astronomical profits.

The field, however, has gained a great deal of acceptance that it didn't have a decade ago. It has moved out of the small circle of dedicated practitioners who gave birth to it and nurtured it, refusing to let such a powerful technique disappear. Civilization is closing in on the lost tribe of brain wave trainers that I described in the first book. The argument that studies are lacking is becoming irrelevant: first, because there are more studies; second, because modern medicine is failing to deal effectively with emotional stress beyond the use of medication; and third, because a revolution is under way in which people are taking more responsibility for their own health. Many people are no longer passive consumers of health care but are thinking for themselves. They don't trust big medicine and big pharmacology to have their best interests at heart. Health care is being democratized. More people also believe that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”: the fact that there are few rigorous studies of an idea doesn't mean the idea isn't powerful; it may mean that science refuses, for whatever prejudices, to study the concept. That is certainly the case with neurofeedback.

The evolution of the discipline continues. The technique is being used by a growing number of mainstream academics—for example, at UCLA, the University of Utah, and the University of Washington. Neurofeedback research and treatment have taken off in Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and other parts of Europe, where they are unencumbered by “flower child” connotations from the 1960s. The 2006 World Cup champion Italian soccer team, L. A. Clippers center Chris Kaman, and the Olympic gold medal skier Herman Maier are among athletes who have benefited from neurofeedback. There are even “brain hackers"—technophiles who have built their own systems to play with their brain waves. What neurofeedback can do seems even more promising than it did a decade ago, especially in the areas of autism, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, chronic pain, and post-traumatic stress disorder. There is a new generation of faster, more modern, more powerful equipment and techniques. The technology is expanding beyond sensors on the scalp to functional imaging equipment and new sensors that read physiological signals at a distance. Siegfried Othmer, a founder of one of the first neurofeedback businesses, predicted ten years ago, “Someday neurofeedback will be adopted and no one will ever remember that they opposed it.” The day is not quite here, but there is a palpable sense that the time is much closer at hand. I predict that it will not take another decade for the rest of the world to catch up. Neurofeedback is simply too powerful.

The field, a free-for-all of equipment, ideas, and approaches, is still a free-for-all but is at the same time hardening into an orthodoxy of its own, for good and bad. One leading part of the field is solidifying the science, making the approach uniform. At the same time, some critics say, it is making some of the same mistakes as modern medicine. It sees the client's brain as a machine to be tuned up to a normal range, rather than as a human being with complex biological and emotional systems and the capacity for transcendence and transformation.

Neurofeedback is also starting to incorporate other modalities. Many in neurofeedback saw the brain as the way into all of it. Of late, there is ample evidence to show that an integrated approach is vital, and signals from the heart, skin, and breath are being integrated. Nutrition, toxicity, and the emotional environment are a few other factors that some people say need to be part of the approach.

The field is still embryonic. Neurofeedback—or more specifically what it makes possible, the operant conditioning of autonomic function—still has vast untapped potential to help millions of people, many of whom are unaware that they are functioning suboptimally, who think they cannot be helped or who simply maintain themselves on a regimen of drugs.

Prejudices remain. Since this book first came out, Dr. Barry Sterman, whose pioneering research at UCLA on neurofeedback is unimpeachable, and who has published more than 150 papers in top journals, has applied for numerous grants to continue research. “But the National Institutes of Health will not give us grants,” he said. “We've written solid grants but the minute you use the term neurofeedback certain people's minds snap shut. Sometimes I feel like Galileo.”

* * *

This edition of A Symphony in the Brain, just like the first, is not meant as a manual to persuade people to visit a practitioner. It is a journalism study, undertaken without fear or favor, to swing a spotlight onto this remarkable phenomenon and show how much the field has accomplished, which is far more than enough to have science take a serious look at and enhance and explain the approach. There is no reason neurofeedback should not be taken seriously, save the rivalries and prejudices of science. “The literature suggests that EEG Biofeedback Therapy should play a major therapeutic role in many difficult areas,” wrote Frank H. Duffy, MD, a Harvard-trained neurologist and associate editor of Clinical Electroencephalography, a peer reviewed journal not associated with the field. “In my opinion, if any medication had demonstrated such a wide spectrum of efficacy it would be universally accepted and widely used.”

It's amusing and a little frustrating to watch neuroscience beaming over the discovery of “neuroplasticity,” the fact that the brain and central nervous system are malleable—a discovery from the “decade of the brain,” the 1990s—because in fact brain wave biofeedback practitioners discovered and harnessed this trait half a century ago.

It's never been a problem for me that neurofeedback doesn't, according to critics, have enough double-blind controlled randomized studies to show it works. There are plenty of treatments used by mainstream medicine that have no such studies. Instead, what concerns me now is what precisely neurofeedback is doing to the nervous system. It is powerful, often beyond belief; and though I think it is safe—far safer than most prescription medications—I would like to know more about what is taking place. For whom does it work best? For whom doesn't it work at all? What is the downside? And which neurofeedback is best for ADD, for example? Which is best for peak performance? Which is best for autism? Is there a material difference between healing by beta training and the healing that comes from the deep states of alpha?

Moreover, I would like to see the field integrate a more holistic approach to the human condition—body, mind, and environment. I've continued to write about neurofeedback for the last several years. Among other things, I researched and wrote a book with Dr. Les Fehmi on the original neurofeedback, alpha training called The Open Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body. As old as alpha training is, its effects remain fascinating and powerful and are still waiting to be discovered.

Open Focus not only offers life-changing experiences but also offers a new way of thinking about attention, awareness, and the place of human beings in the world. It is not only an alternative to prescription drugs and self-medication but an alternative to the way mainstream neurofeedback is going, the tune-up model.

Still, all neurofeedback takes us in the right direction. Since I wrote the first edition, even more doubt has been cast on the research behind antidepressants and stimulant medication, and suicide warnings are now required on these prescriptions. As biofeedback evolves, the “aha” moment will come when we as a culture realize we have a great deal of control over our nervous system and accept that responsibility. There is no reason for humankind to suffer from widespread anxiety, depression, ADD, ADHD, chronic pain, or a host of other ills. Most human beings—and this may be the most profound lesson of all from neurofeedback—are simply not inherently or irrevocably flawed. Instead, many—perhaps most—of the problems that plague humankind are a case of “operator error.” We “own” our central nervous system to a far greater degree than we imagine. We can get our hands on the steering wheel and deal with anxiety, depression, ADD, and a range of other problems. Neurofeedback shows us how powerful we are.