The Lasting Effects of Neurofeedback
Many people ask us if neurofeedback’s effects are long-lasting or if (like medication) it needs to be used indefinitely, or if (like some forms of psychotherapy) the treatment needs to be sustained for several years. They also ask how treatment for a few hours a week at our center can produce long-lasting carry-over effects in every day life in the outside world.
We think the answer to both questions lies in the results of recent research in neuro-anatomy – especially in the area of what is called Long Term Potentiation (LTP). Long Term Potentiation refers to the finding that once cells or groups of cells within the brain establish lines of communication between each other, further communication becomes easier and easier.
From what we know now, the neurons work like an electrical circuit, or like phone lines. Signals are relayed from cell to cell, brain area to brain area. In telephone calling, you respond to people you know, and you may screen out calls from people you don’t know. But if you are calling about something on the phone to your friend Mary and she gets a call from her friend Sue, and Mary says “All of us should have a conference call about this,” and the three of you talk together a few times, a 3-way network is established. If, later on, Sue should call you on her own, you probably are not going to treat her like an annoying telemarketer. You will talk to her and probably a good 2-way conversation will be established.
Brain cells don’t necessarily respond to every impulse they receive from every cell near them. They tend to respond best to the cells with which they usually “talk.” But if they are talking with a cell they “know” and that cell gets a signal from another cell “friend,” and if that happens several times, the first cell would open up to that third cell, to which it had previously been closed. Then all three cells will be receptive to “talk” from each other. This, by the way, applies at the level of single cells and groups of cells too. This is what is meant by LTP, Long Term Potentiation – that once brain cells that had previously not talked to one another start communicating with each other, they retain that ability to communicate over the long term.
In neurofeedback scans, we usually find that certain areas of the brain are underactive. In cases of ADD/ADHD, certain areas of the cortex whose job it is to promote attention and good behavior are under-aroused, asleep or day dreaming. With people experiencing excesses of pain, stress, anxiety, grief, or depression, certain brain areas are overactive, and are relatively unresponsive to higher brian centers - - centers whose job it is to control these feelings and help the person afflicted to find a reasonable solution to real-world problems. In both kinds of problems, groups of cells aren’t able to communicate effectively with other areas of the brain to tell them the right thing to do. Even when the higher brain centers start waking up and sending the messages, the other brain areas aren’t used to getting that message, so they don’t respond at first. But after a certain number of repetitions (It varies by the person) that phone link starts to get established. This is why it takes a few months for people to start to respond to neurofeedback. But as this linkage is strengthened, what goes on inside our office works on the outside as well. This is also why the communication, once well established, continues long after. This is Long Term Potentiation. 
