Device capable of alpha theta neurofeedback / meditation?
bfranz
California
Hello,
I'm new to the world of EEG biofeedback and have only experienced neurofeedback as a patient. I have completed approximately 40 sessions of infra low frequency training (Othmer protocol) which was incredibly helpful, but I've found alpha theta neurofeedback to be the most beneficial and mood boosting overall. I would love to have the capacity to do this on my own at home, as the cost can be exorbitant with frequent in-office sessions. Are any of the OpenBCI devices suitable for meditative practices, and if so, are there affordable software programs that I may use to establish a better meditative practice? Bear in mind that I'm not particularly tech-savvy, so if there is a high likelihood that I may create adverse outcomes for myself by flying solo, I would truly appreciate knowing this beforehand. Thanks in advance!
Comments
A related 4 channel synchrony protocol would be at F3 F4 P3 P4, which would fit on the Ganglion. This is more related to what Hardt does. I have a 4 channel design in BioEra (and Bioexplorer for Q-wiz). The 5 channel BrainBay design I mentioned can be easily edited to work with 4 channels vs. 5.
The single or dual channel alpha-theta we discussed previously should work fine on Ganglion or original OpenBCI.
Hi,
I'm very interested by your brainbay design.
I'd be very grateful if you could send it to me too.
Hi Franck, I suggest you look at this tutorial, which contains a couple BrainBay sample designs.
https://sites.google.com/site/biofeedbackpages/brainbay-openbci
The 5 channel Fehmi / Open Focus design previously mentioned is not a polished or easy to use design. And there are no tutorial instructions. Whereas the tutorial above is at an introductory level for BrainBay. The 5 channel design involves manually 'tuning' or adjusting the weighting of each channel in the total feedback output; as the synchrony training progresses. This is not easy to do. And BrainBay does not have built-in 'slider' adjustment elements; so a less obvious workaround must be employed. The link above is just a one channel alpha reward / beta inhibit design. Which is straightforward to use.
The original subject of this thread was alpha-theta neurofeedback. Which is a completely different neurofeedback than whole brain alpha synchrony. Most of the alpha-theta designs I've seen are somewhat subtle in the way they provide the feedback. The idea being to get simultaneous alpha and theta wave amplitudes to "cross-over" repeatedly. While at the same time using subtle forms of audio feedback that encourage drifting off into a 'twilight' half-awake state. Pete Van Deusen has some good ones in his Brain-Trainer suite.
Regards, William
Pete Van Deusen's Brain-Trainer suite will be released soon for the BioEra app. I estimate within the next couple months. It's currently based on Bioexplorer, which does not support OpenBCI. However BioEra DOES support both Cyton and Ganglion.
Another 'free' VPL app is 'neuromore', which has now been released in open source form. It's possible that there are some existing neuromore alpha-theta designs.
https://www.neuromore.com/open-source
https://github.com/neuromore/studio
The original thread also mentioned 'meditation' neurofeedback, so using the Advanced Search button at upper right:
https://www.google.com/search?as_q=neurofeedback+meditation&as_sitesearch=openbci.com
Thank you.
I'm in the process of learning neurofeedback story and all the "classic" designs before exploring other things not only for meditation or stuff like that. It is very exciting to see how much it seams there still possibilities between QEEG, z-score, synchrony, asynchrony and all that can "shape" the brain. Not a big fan of normalization of the brain and, as a therapist, I'd like to promote other ways...
Check out these two Youtube videos on bands and sites trained for various styles of meditation,
https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/9995/#Comment_9995
Hi, I'm also quite new in NFB and trying to decide between the ganglion and cyton to use with brainbay to do several 2 channel protocols.
Can someone tell me which would be best for picking up .5hz on a channel? I can't tell if the cyton's dc coupling is necessary or at least preferable, or if I'd be able to capture that signal on the ganglion?
Also, does someone know if brainbay allows (O1-O2) alpha coherence protocols?
Thank you
-Dave
Dave, hi.
The spec sheet on Ganglion lists a .3 Hz cutoff point. Although I'm not sure how many dB down is the signal at that point. .5 Hz should be passed, although there might be a slight reduction. See,
https://shop.openbci.com/collections/frontpage/products/ganglion-board?variant=13461804483
https://alexandre.barachant.org/blog/2017/03/02/Hands-on-OpenBCI-Ganglion.html
https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/1257/ganglion-high-pass-filter-problem
All RC high pass filters have a rolloff, as shown in Alexandre's graphs. Note that at the time of his blog in 2017, a circuit correction was made that fixed the issue he noted on all subsequent Ganglion boards.
Cyton has no built in highpass filters. And can record ILF / ISF DC offset fluctuations.
See some references to other VPL apps in this recent thread, including BrainBay considerations. BrainBay can do arbitrary 'synchrony' calculations (by summing filtered channels, say from 8 to 12 Hz). But has no built in 'coherence' calculator. BioEra on the other hand, DOES have a coherence element block. Generally for inter-pair multi-channel biofeedback work, synchrony is adequate. Also you may want to evaluate Pete van Deusen's new BioEra based protocol suite, which should support both Cyton and Ganglion.
https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/2642/implementing-jeff-tarrants-neuromeditation-focus-protocol
Regards, William