Neurofeedback, OpenBCI Boards, and general getting started Questions & Thoughts
MitchM
Appleton, WI, USA
Preface: I am new to the field, I am a programmer by trade and an autistic. The following are questions and thoughts by someone from that mindset. I am also hear to learn and give back with what skills and exp I have since most places where i can go to get training as a neuroscience or psychologist either wont work with an autistic or don't offer any support that is of use and assume I have piles and piles of money lying around. I am barely able to afford this hardware but it seems like the best investment for the cost.
Hey all,
I picked up the Cyton Board recently with the WIFI Board (eventually plan to get the Daisy module to extend it to 16 channels) and am looking to eventually use it to do neurofeedback training. However searching around on the web and this forum, leads to lots of questions and things that are confusing to someone from the outside of psychology &/or Neuroscience. I figured id ask my questions here so others can benefit from the answers.
Can you do Neurofeedback with any of the OpenBCI Boards? Why or Why not?
IT seems that there is a common comment being repeated: "You need a minimum of 19 channels to do neurofeedback" ... why?
I did nerufeedback with Gib Koula, MS, LCSW BCIA-EEG (who is now retired) and only ever used it 2 times, the initial intake, and then the scan done after about 50+ sessions. All other times I had AT MOST, 4 channels on me at any one given time, (which could be done on the Cyton without the Daisy module). Doing a search on this forum yields some interesting posts, I also see something related to this in this thread but that just leads to my next question.
Why do you need expensive brain databases to do Neurofeedback?
my first thought on this is because your doing QEEG (Quantitative EEG) and therefor its the only way to get the info you need to train the brain/do nerofeedback... that said, while it makes sense to look at what the entire brain is doing not just one section, it seems like a rather bazaar approach since everyone's brain is different (but there are obvious similarities amusing there is no physical damage) and saying it must be a minimum of 19 channels to do neurofeedback training, its seems to be similar to approaching maintaining a mile x mile garden by doing it all at once whenever you work on it (yes you need to know what the entire garden looks like and how the crops interact with each other) rather then dividing the garden into 7 segments and focusing on a segment a day. I am guessing that you don't do all 19 channels at once, but if that is the case, then why is it required outside of getting a good map of the brain to see what all regions are doing? Do we know so little about how the brain interacts that the only way to fix a problem is to make all brains attempt to confirm to an average? What if someone like my self wants to do it (which I have) how does coralling my brain to a standardized mapping help me (spoiler: it kind of did, but it wasn't the practitioners fault.. it was done back in 2008 things have changed since then.) To assume that my Autistic, Dyslexic, ADHD effected brain should be made the same, seems ignorant and counter intuitive... but then I don't have an understanding of the field. I get the impression this isnt the best way... but its the *Safest* way to do this.
Aside from going to a four year university for neuroscience or psychology (I have tried but its hard to get started when your on the spectrum) what resources like http://learn.neurotechedu.com/, & https://github.com/NeurotechBerkeley/bci-course would people recommend? just googling or wikipida-ing it is dangerous when you are new and i love reading but besides these few locations, there is not much i can find that is good for referencing or helping understand why my brain puts out delta waves when I'm awake playing a video game and its known to us outside the field to be used in sleep (see example screenshot of readings from my Cyton while playing a video game I played as a teenager)
all that said, I am just leaning and asking questions with my thoughts unfiltered (sorry for any negativity that may come across, its confusion from lack of understanding and people to ask and basically seeing that there is no financially viable way to help my self that is not less then 100$/hr or the cost of a small house in equipment costs and subscriptions). Thanks also to those who respond. you are also welcome to ask questions of me as I'm just posing my own questions and attempting to move foreword.
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