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Brain Training for Life: How Neurofeedback Boosts Performance · Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh

• 0:03
  Hello, everyone, and welcome to yet another episode of Chatting with the
• 0:07
  Experts with me, the host, Paula Okonneh.
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  Every week, I bring to you women from Africa, from the
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  Caribbean, and from the Diaspora.
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  And I sometimes include men.
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  The mission of this show is to empower, educate, and inspire women globally.
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  And that's what I try to do every week.
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  So, today's no exception, but I'll tell you a little bit about this show.
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  Topic today is Wired for Wellness, The Neurofeedback Revolution.
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  And I'll tell you a bit about that, in Wired to Wellness, my
• 0:56
  guests explore how neurofeedback transform mental health and wellness.
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  So we ask that you join us to learn about how brainwave training can
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  enhance wellness, focus, reduce stress, and improve well being.
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  You'll hear from the experts who have experienced the benefits firsthand.
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  And these experts today are Dr.
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  Affie Ben-Edet and Dr.
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  Guy Annunziata.
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  And with that, I want to welcome both of you to Chatting With the Experts.
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  Thank you.
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  Hi, Paula.
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  Hi.
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  Thank you for joining us today to tell us all about the neuro revolution.
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  I mean, this is really exciting for me.
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  Neurofeedback revolution.
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  So with that, would you like to both introduce yourselves to the audience?
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  Yeah.
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  Sure, Dr.
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  Ben-Edet, you can go first.
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  Okay.
• 1:59
  That's fine.
• 2:01
  Hi everyone.
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  Hello, Paula.
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  Thanks for having us.
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  We are happy and excited to be on your show.
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  I'm really, really excited to talk about neurofeedback.
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  It's something I discovered in the last three years.
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  I am Dr Affie Ben-Edet.
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  I am a physician.
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  I'm a public health specialist.
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  And for the last three years, I have You know, being a brain core certified
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  neurofeedback provider, and I'm thrilled to share my passion for this work
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  and how it has transformed lives and how it's still transforming lives.
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  I strongly believe that God has given me this platform, neurofeedback,
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  to be able to train one brain at a time, helping people become the
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  masterpieces that he created them to be.
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  I love it.
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  That's wonderful.
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  Yes.
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  Very nice.
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  My name is Dr.
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  Guy Annunziata.
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  I'm a chiropractor by trade.
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  I've been doing neurofeedback now since 2006.
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  I first got into neural feedback when my nephew was diagnosed with autism, and my
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  sister came to me with tears in her eyes, basically asking, what can we do for him?
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  At the time, he was just two years old.
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  And and so I went on a search, I started searching high and low to figure out
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  what we can do and I learned as much as I could about autism and all the different
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  alternatives that are out there because quite frankly, there really wasn't
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  anything mainstream that could help him.
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  And and that's when I stumbled upon neurofeedback and I read a
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  book called Symphony in the Brain, which I recommend to everyone.
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  It's a wonderful book.
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  If you get interested in neurofeedback.
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  And and from there I I started to realize, you know, what a
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  powerful tool neurofeedback was.
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  And so I went on a mission to learn everything I could about it.
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  And then I went ahead and bought my first machine and I started
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  using it with my patients.
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  And it was miraculous.
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  The things that I was seeing in my office were just amazing.
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  My nephew, unfortunately was too young at the time, but he's done it since.
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  And.
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  I'm pleased to say that he is now an actor.
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  He actually acts and plays.
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  It's amazing.
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  And he's got his first job and he's got his license now, so
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  we're all very proud of him.
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  But from there, I started realizing how beneficial this could be for
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  a lot of chiropractic patients.
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  You know, our chiropractic patients come in with insomnia, anxiety, ADHD you know,
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  all the different mental health conditions that we can address with neurofeedback.
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  So, I went ahead and created BrainCore Neurofeedback which is
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  a company that that I founded.
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  I have two partners as well, Dr.
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  Ken Eagle and Dr.
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  Russell Lamboy.
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  And together we embarked on a journey to basically bring, BrainCore Neurofeedback
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  to as many people as we could.
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  And I'm proud to say we currently have 350 offices throughout the country,
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  and throughout the world, actually.
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  We're in several countries.
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  So we're real excited and you know, anytime I get a chance to
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  speak about neurofeedback and the benefits of neurofeedback I'm there.
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  So thank you for having us, Paula.
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  We appreciate it.
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  Absolutely.
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  So I'm here listening to the two of you talk about this.
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  And, you know, all the people that you've helped.
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  I know Dr.
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  Ben-Edet had mentioned to me, not today, when we spoke about two, three
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  weeks ago, that, you know, she's always wanted to be a physician to help people.
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  And so, when she heard about this, she at first was a bit skeptical,
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  but now she has actually used it on herself and she realizes it works.
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  So what exactly is this neural feedback?
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  Okay.
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  Do you want to take that Dr.
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  Ben-Edet or would you like me to?
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  Yeah, I can start off.
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  Okay.
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  You're going to bring in your wealth of knowledge to whatever I say, but in the
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  last three years, I've learned a lot about neurofeedback and, and just like Dr.
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  Guy, I got involved in neurofeedback because I had terrible insomnia.
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  I was having trouble sleeping.
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  My last job in the corporate world, I was traveling a lot.
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  And so I had a lot of time zone issues and I would wake up and I wouldn't be
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  able to get back to sleep or I wouldn't even be able to get to sleep and I
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  tried neurofeedback and it's amazing.
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  Three days into the therapy, I woke up and I said to my husband,
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  I've never slept like this.
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  I slept like a baby.
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  And since then, I've not needed to use sleep aids, really.
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  I can go to sleep when I want to.
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  And it's amazing.
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  It's a beautiful feeling.
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  And I felt this was something that I should share with others.
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  So neurofeedback really, it's a non-invasive drug free therapy.
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  It's a unique way of addressing mental health issues.
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  It also helps to improve peak performance and brain function.
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  It empowers individuals to take control of their cognitive and emotional function.
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  When neurofeedback, you're actually in the driver's seat.
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  So what neurofeedback does is that it uses feedback tools, real time feedback
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  tools, and teaches the brain to learn how to regulate itself and produce
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  what we call healthy brain waves.
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  You know, your brain activity generates what we call brain waves.
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  And those are the things that help regulate the neural pathway
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  that helps you think and do the things you do as a human being.
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  And so when we have clinical conditions that like ADHD, autism, as Dr.
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  Guy mentioned, those brainwaves are dysregulated.
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  With neurofeedback, you can actually train the brain to regulate itself.
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  And that's what neurofeedback does.
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  It's simply brain training.
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  It's a learning modality.
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  You can think of it as a personal trainer for your brain.
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  It's like going to the gym, just that you're not going to lift weights, you're
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  going to the gym to train your brain.
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  You know, with our company, Masterpiece Brain Core, we always
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  tell our clients, train your body, but also train your brain.
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  You know, there's so much fight about walking out and building muscle.
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  We all need to build our brain muscles.
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  And that's what neurofeedback does.
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  Well, that is so true.
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  Dr.
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  Ben-Edet.
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  We walk into the gym and everyone's there pumping iron and
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  running on bicycles and whatnot.
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  You walk up to someone and say, do you do anything for your brain?
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  Cause it's the most important organ in your body.
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  It controls everything.
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  But that's a great explanation.
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  I'm probably going to get a little more scientific with it.
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  You know, you had mentioned that the brain produces electrical activity.
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  We call those brain waves.
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  There are four main types of brain waves and each type of brain wave is
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  responsible for a different state of mind.
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  So for instance, we have Delta brain waves, which are produced
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  mainly when you're sleeping.
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  So when you're getting that nice restorative sleep where your body
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  is healing from the day's activities you know, you need to have that Delta
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  brain wave being produced in the brain.
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  Theta is the next brain wave.
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  And that's more of your twilight brain wave.
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  That's, you know, just before you're falling asleep you get that
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  sensation that you don't know if you're awake or you're not awake.
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  That's theta.
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  So your brain is producing a lot of theta at that time.
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  It's also the time when, believe it or not, you're the most creative.
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  I don't know how many of you have experienced this, but for me, I
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  actually have a pen and pad next to my bed because when I'm falling
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  asleep a lot of times, just as I fall asleep, I'll have a phenomenal
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  thought and I'll do one of two things.
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  I'll either say, Oh, I remember that in the morning, which I don't
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  or I get up and I write it down.
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  And so there's a very creative aspect to theta.
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  Alpha is your meditative brainwave.
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  So that's when your brain is kind of in an idle state of mind.
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  And then beta is when you're you know, log engaged in logical thought and
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  problem solving and things like that.
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  And your brain produces all these brain waves all the time the thing
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  that's important to understand when you're speaking about neurofeedback
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  is that there are patterns of brain waves, and the patterns can be
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  identified on what we call a brain map.
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  So we actually record the brainwave activity coming from your brain using
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  what's called an EEG, and and then we compare that those patterns in your brain
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  to what's considered normal patterns, and that helps us identify the patterns
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  that need correction, and then we use neurofeedback to make those corrections,
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  and it's a very simple process.
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  We basically have someone sitting in front of a TV screen or computer screen
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  watching a movie or watching a TV show.
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  And the screen is going to actually get dark when their brainwaves
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  are dysregulated, when they're not doing what we want them to do.
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  But when the brainwaves happen to do what we want them to
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  do, the screen gets bright.
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  And like you said, Dr.
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  Ben-Edet, it's a learning modality, so your brain is learning, and it's called
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  implicit learning, which means you're not aware that your brain is even learning.
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  You know, when you think about riding a bike you know, that's
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  kind of implicit learning, right?
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  You're not even sure how you're doing it, right?
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  But you, your brain learns how to do it, and that's what happens with
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  neurofeedback, and when your brain learns how to activate the proper
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  circuitry, the brainwave patterns normalize, and as the brainwave patterns
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  normalize, we see time and time again, the symptoms start to alleviate.
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  And they alleviate to the point where you can get off
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  medications, just like you did, Dr.
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  Ben-Edet, when you got off the sleep aids.
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  You know, I'm sure you've seen this a million times in your office, how many
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  times we get people off of medications and, you know, medications serve a
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  purpose and they're, they're wonderful.
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  Don't get me wrong.
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  I'm not anti-medication, but I think all of us would agree that
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  if we didn't have to be on a med, we'd rather not be on a med, right?
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  So neurofeedback helps us get off those things.
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  So that's how I explain neurofeedback.
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  That's my elevator speech.
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  And I mean, I listened to you and I'm bowled over with both of you
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  actually, because I'm thinking, okay, when you said it's non-invasive,
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  so like, how does it work?
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  Do you put a cap on the person's head?
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  Tell me more about this.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah, so, it works, like Dr.
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  Guy has said it's a learning modality.
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  So, we use audio or video feedback to help train the brain and help the brain learn.
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  And the feedback tool could be you watching a movie.
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  That's the beauty part.
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  You can get to watching any movie you like while training.
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  Ha ha ha.
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  You know, he talked about implicit learning.
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  So your brain is training in the background.
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  Even as you're enjoying your movie you could be playing a
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  game or just listening to sound.
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  So it uses those different feedback tools and the way we conduct
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  neurofeedback, we have training sensors.
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  We've mentioned earlier that it's a computerized process.
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  So we have training sensors that are placed on certain spots.
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  That have been predetermined from your initial assessment that these are the
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  personalized areas that we need to train to help regulate your brainwaves.
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  And so those sensors are placed on there, and as you're watching
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  your movie, enjoying it, your brain is getting the feedback.
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  When your brain is producing the brainwaves that are balanced, the
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  movie is nice and clear, and when it's not, you can hardly see the screen.
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  Or you can hardly hear the audio and that feedback begins to train your brain to
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  know that it needs to keep that screen clear so that you can enjoy your movie.
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  Okay.
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  So
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  the sensors that are there, just like putting a stethoscope
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  to listen to your heartbeat.
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  I was about to ask how because the
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  Sensors just pick up the brainwaves.
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  Okay.
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  They don't put anything into your brain.
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  So it's completely non-invasive.
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  Yeah, that's a question we get all the time.
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  What are you going to do to my brain?
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  What are you putting in my brain?
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  And we always use the stethoscope analogy because and sometimes I'll even
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  take the stethoscope out and I'll put it on their chest and I'll say, am I
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  doing anything to your heart right now?
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  No, I'm just listening to it.
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  That's all the sensors do.
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  They just listen to what your brain is saying.
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  And it does that in the form of electricity coming out of the skull.
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  So yeah, it's non-invasive in that respect that we don't put anything into the brain.
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  All the healing that takes place with neurofeedback is healing that is based
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  in the individual's ability to learn how to normalize their brainwave patterns.
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  So, in that respect, you can't really hurt anyone with neurofeedback.
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  As a matter of fact, the FDA basically says that, you know,
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  there's never been an issue where someone got hurt with neurofeedback.
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  So the non-invasive nature of neurofeedback is very appealing to
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  people because there's no risk involved.
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  They're not going to get hurt by doing it.
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  It's a learning modality.
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  So
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  That's what sounds so exciting about it, you know, and it works
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  on two very well known principles.
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  One is
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  called open conditioning, which is just basically,
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  Oh, we lost you.
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  We're losing Dr.
• 15:24
  Ben-Edet.
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  Yeah, we're losing you.
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  Can you repeat that?
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  You said it.
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  Yeah, you kind of froze for a second there.
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  Yes.
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  I'm sorry.
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  It's okay.
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  I was talking about operant conditioning that it's a way you
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  learn through a reward system.
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  Like when your brain is doing the right thing, it gets to see the screen brighter.
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  It's like when you're training a dog and you say, sit and
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  it sits and you give a treat.
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  That's a reward system.
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  So the dog gets to know that whenever he says sit and he sits, he will get a treat.
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  So operant conditioning is conditioning your brain to know that it gets a reward
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  each time the brainwaves patterns are normalized and what we want to see.
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  And the other principle is a principle of neuroplasticity.
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  We now know that the brain can actually grow and reorganize itself.
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  And that's an amazing principle.
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  And so neurofeedback works with that.
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  And so each time you go through regular training sessions, just like going
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  to the gym and working out regularly to build your muscles, the more
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  consistent you are in training, your brain is getting that reward system
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  is getting to learn that the neural pathways are meant to be in this way.
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  The correct way that would alleviate the symptoms.
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  And so your brain begins to learn.
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  And before you know it, you have improved many symptoms.
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  Beautiful explanation, Dr.
• 16:50
  Ben-Edet.
• 16:51
  Thank you.
• 16:52
  So, okay, so I'm a lay-person and I want to, you know, get some neural
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  feedback on, do I have, okay, so I guess my quick question is that must I be
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  suffering or have a problem with some neural-related disease and, or could I
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  be just like, well, I have migraines.
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  Well, I guess that isn't your related.
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  Oh, I have asthma.
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  So can you use it for something like that?
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  It's pretty much mental conditions.
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  So I the ones that we typically see are going to be...
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  ADHD is a big one.
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  Okay.
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  And a lot of the times with ADHD, the, you know, the child or the adult comes
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  in and they've been misdiagnosed.
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  Because what I found, and I'm sure Dr.
• 17:41
  Ben-Edet would agree, is that most ADHD is actually underlying anxiety.
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  So, you know, we work with ADHD, we work with anxiety, we work with
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  depression, negative moods, we work with sleep disturbances, our specialty.
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  We love sleep.
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  We love when that comes in our office.
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  You know, PTSD is another really, really big one.
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  We've helped many veterans with PTSD.
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  You know, I mentioned autism already but you know, dyslexia,
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  obsessive compulsive disorder.
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  So pretty much anything that's mental.
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  With something like asthma, that's probably more organically
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  related to the lungs.
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  So, and Dr.
• 18:21
  Ben-Edet, you would probably know more about asthma than I do, but
• 18:24
  but that really isn't something we would address with neural feedback.
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  The other thing I wanted to mention about it is that people will ask a
• 18:30
  lot of times, what do I have to do?
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  I'm looking at the screen, but what do I have to do?
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  Do I need to be thinking about something?
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  I had one person ask me, you do I need to, I'm going to do
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  math problems in my head, right?
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  And I was like, no, you don't have to do anything.
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  The only thing I'm asking you to do is pay attention to the movie, because as
• 18:46
  long as your brain wants to see that movie, as long as you have a desire
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  to see that movie, your brain's going to figure out how to play that movie
• 18:54
  in its highest, brightest resolution.
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  So it will rearrange the circuitry in your head so that movie is playing bright.
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  And that's what we want.
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  And at that point, that's where neuroplasticity takes over.
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  And that's where the rearrangement of the nervous system happens.
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  And that's why it's actually long term, permanent change that occurs.
• 19:14
  Yeah.
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  And I know you mentioned PTSD, also women that have gone through domestic violence.
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  So those kind of conditions, trauma...
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  Trauma.
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  Conditions, childhood trauma, all that can be held with neurofeedback.
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  We also have another group of people that are in the wellness
• 19:35
  fire group and they just want to improve their peak performance.
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  And you can use neurofeedback for that.
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  So on the job, on the field, athletes have used this to sharpen their skills.
• 19:45
  Their response time on the field.
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  Managers have used it to improve their meditation and cognitive function at work.
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  So you can actually use neurofeedback for other things.
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  It's like that.
• 19:58
  Okay, so.
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  Performance is a big thing, actually.
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  Yeah.
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  There's right now you're seeing more and more athletes using it.
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  There was just a special on HBO the quarterback for, I think he plays
• 20:08
  for the Falcons Kirk Cousins was actually on TV using neurofeedback.
• 20:12
  And so you're seeing athletes use it more and more.
• 20:15
  CEOs of big companies have been using it forever.
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  That's been something that they've done for a long time.
• 20:21
  So peak performance is one of the wonderful things and one of the
• 20:24
  wonderful benefits of neurofeedback.
• 20:26
  You know, Dr.
• 20:26
  Guy, you say everybody should actually use neurofeedback, you know, it
• 20:31
  all could do with some rewiring.
• 20:35
  Yeah, because I was just about to ask that.
• 20:37
  So that, I mean, you know, you listed some you know, some diseases, you know,
• 20:41
  like, sleep disorder, ADHD, autism.
• 20:45
  But you're now talking about, you also use it for peak performance.
• 20:48
  So one doesn't have to have any of these problems.
• 20:52
  They can just want to be better at whatever they do.
• 20:56
  Yes, absolutely.
• 20:58
  And if your brainwaves are functioning in a normal regulated way, you're
• 21:03
  going to perform at your optimal and if there's any dysregulation there,
• 21:07
  you may not be clinical in the sense of having anxiety or radiation or
• 21:12
  any of that, but you're not optimal.
• 21:14
  And so neurofeedback helps you become that optimal person.
• 21:19
  All right.
• 21:19
  So two quick questions for me, because probably other people in
• 21:21
  the audience are thinking that what is the definition of optimal?
• 21:26
  I mean, what is the norm?
• 21:27
  What are we looking for that we need to normalize, especially for
• 21:31
  people who want peak performance.
• 21:34
  If they don't have any of the underlying problems that we spoke about earlier on,
• 21:38
  the ADHD, autism, and I wrote it down.
• 21:41
  That's why I'm looking to the side.
• 21:43
  What do we consider as normal that you're trying to achieve?
• 21:48
  Does that make sense?
• 21:48
  That's a great question.
• 21:49
  That's a really good question.
• 21:50
  I mean, in my opinion, and Dr.
• 21:52
  Ben-Edet, you can give your opinion as well.
• 21:54
  But in my opinion, optimal is when you are functioning at your potential, your
• 21:58
  maximum potential, who knows what that is.
• 22:02
  I mean, there are people say that we only use 10 percent of our brain, right?
• 22:06
  So, I mean, our maximum potential could be anything, you know, it just
• 22:11
  depends on the physical limitations.
• 22:14
  So, when I say peak performance, what I'm saying basically is, , you
• 22:17
  know, God has given you this body and, you know, are you using it to
• 22:23
  its, you know, fullest potential?
• 22:25
  And when you are using it to its fullest potential, you're performing optimally.
• 22:30
  That's how I see it.
• 22:32
  Yeah, I like that definition.
• 22:34
  I do like that definition.
• 22:36
  Dr Ben-Edet.
• 22:37
  Now I was just going to say that it will look different for everyone
• 22:40
  because everybody has different goals and different ideas of what they
• 22:44
  aspire to achieve and you really want to be your best on the job, you
• 22:49
  want to be your best in school, you want to be your best on the field.
• 22:54
  You could have maybe the quarterback, he wants to improve his speech and response
• 22:59
  time and so he could train just for that.
• 23:02
  Yeah.
• 23:02
  Yep.
• 23:03
  So basically, as you're saying, it's for everyone, whether you have an
• 23:07
  underlying illness or disorder, or you just want to be your best self.
• 23:13
  My kids grew up with neurofeedback.
• 23:15
  There was nothing wrong with him.
• 23:17
  They grew up with neurofeedback.
• 23:18
  You know, my son came to me one day.
• 23:20
  He was playing baseball.
• 23:21
  I think he was like six years old.
• 23:22
  And he was like, Dad, I want to be better at baseball.
• 23:24
  I was like, we got to do neurofeedback.
• 23:25
  And we started doing it.
• 23:26
  He's done it ever since.
• 23:27
  He still does it like five or six times a week.
• 23:29
  He loves neurofeedback.
• 23:31
  He feels like it helps him sleep better.
• 23:33
  He feels like it helps him remember things better, stay focused more, be
• 23:38
  able to communicate better with people.
• 23:40
  You know, so he's always been into it.
• 23:42
  My daughter as well.
• 23:44
  They're two wonderful people.
• 23:45
  And I've had that feedback from clients.
• 23:49
  I mean, I had a mother who said the son writes better since he started
• 23:54
  doing neurofeedback and that he's no longer shy talking to people.
• 23:59
  And he's doing much better in his grades.
• 24:01
  So it's very versatile.
• 24:04
  He can achieve so much.
• 24:06
  When you mentioned handwriting, I did a little experiment a few
• 24:10
  years back with my patients.
• 24:11
  All my patients, I had them write out like three sentences on a piece of paper
• 24:15
  before they started doing neurofeedback.
• 24:18
  After they did neurofeedback for 20 sessions, I had them write out the
• 24:20
  same sentence, and you put them two next to each other, you couldn't even
• 24:23
  tell they were the same person because the handwriting got so much better.
• 24:27
  That's a very common thing with neurofeedback.
• 24:30
  I'm not saying that people are going to do neurofeedback to improve their
• 24:33
  handwriting, but it's a nice side effect.
• 24:36
  That's white people.
• 24:38
  You
• 24:38
  should get some of those medical doctors to do it because we've
• 24:43
  seen him write out prescriptions.
• 24:44
  Don't go there.
• 24:45
  No judgment.
• 24:46
  Don't go there.
• 24:49
  So, another question.
• 24:50
  Well, I have two others, but next one I was going to ask is, okay, so for
• 24:55
  people who have had a stroke, does that help or is that like, I mean, that's
• 25:04
  way beyond what neurofeedback can do?
• 25:07
  The stroke is an interesting one because there's been physical damage
• 25:10
  to the brain so we're not only dealing with you know, the mental and
• 25:14
  emotional aspect of things, but we're dealing with some physical damage.
• 25:18
  I have worked for a lot of stroke patients and I will tell you that
• 25:21
  they will improve with neurofeedback, but it takes a long time.
• 25:25
  So, you know, it's not unusual to go over a hundred sessions with
• 25:30
  a stroke victim and maybe a year.
• 25:33
  You know, so, but, but the improvements in incredible, I mean,
• 25:37
  you can get a lot of things back.
• 25:38
  I've watched people get used to their hands back be able to talk
• 25:42
  where they couldn't talk before.
• 25:43
  We see that a lot with non-verbal autism to where all of a sudden now
• 25:47
  they start talking, which is phenomenal.
• 25:49
  So I would say yes.
• 25:50
  If I knew someone that had a stroke, I would encourage them to do neurofeedback.
• 25:54
  Absolutely.
• 25:54
  You just need to let them know it's going to be a long therapy.
• 25:58
  Yeah.
• 25:58
  It's a long, and they got to be committed because they're, they got
• 26:01
  to train consistently like, you know, two, maybe three times a week even.
• 26:06
  So it's definitely a commitment for sure.
• 26:10
  Now, is this covered by major insurance companies?
• 26:15
  Do you want to take that one, Dr.
• 26:16
  Ben-Edet?
• 26:17
  Unfortunately, no.
• 26:18
  Well, no, actually, it is covered by insurance.
• 26:21
  Not everything.
• 26:23
  Yeah, it's,
• 26:24
  Okay, I'll let you take it.
• 26:27
  Very little coverage.
• 26:28
  Very little.
• 26:29
  Yeah.
• 26:30
  It's not some, I mean, I don't take insurance for it but I do know people
• 26:34
  that do bill it, and you know, it's just not something that insurance companies
• 26:39
  are willing to pay for unfortunately.
• 26:42
  Okay.
• 26:43
  All right.
• 26:44
  So I guess that's probably it becomes more mainstream than that may change.
• 26:50
  It could.
• 26:50
  It could.
• 26:52
  It could be.
• 26:52
  Okay.
• 26:52
  Alright.
• 26:53
  I mean, in one respect, I like the fact that more people would be able to
• 26:56
  get it because, you know, if they have insurance coverage that covered it.
• 27:00
  That would be great.
• 27:02
  But in another respect, you know, insurance companies tend to start
• 27:05
  to dictate our care and that can get a little, you know, a
• 27:08
  little bit of a slippery slope.
• 27:10
  So I prefer not to deal with insurance companies.
• 27:13
  So, okay.
• 27:14
  One other question.
• 27:15
  I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly.
• 27:18
  Oh, wow.
• 27:18
  Look at that.
• 27:19
  Yeah, look at that.
• 27:20
  It's almost 30 minutes.
• 27:22
  Can't believe that.
• 27:23
  But another question is that you mentioned, both of you mentioned that
• 27:26
  you could be watching a movie and that's when, you know, being able to
• 27:31
  see the brainwaves for someone like me that I don't really like movies.
• 27:36
  Is there a way around that?
• 27:38
  I mean, let's say I wanted to start and I wanted to be a patient of yours.
• 27:43
  Dr.
• 27:43
  Ben-Edet, do you want to do that one?
• 27:45
  You can play.
• 27:46
  We have games.
• 27:47
  You can play games.
• 27:48
  Like what?
• 27:50
  Sorry.
• 27:51
  What?
• 27:51
  I was gonna say, what type of games, like, dominoes, I mean like board
• 27:54
  games or must it be something else?
• 27:57
  Computer, computer based games.
• 27:58
  It has to be computer based.
• 27:59
  Okay.
• 27:59
  It has to be computer based games because everything is computerized.
• 28:03
  The sensors are connected to the computer, so you can play games on the computer.
• 28:08
  You can also just listen.
• 28:09
  You can do the audio feedback part of it without the vision.
• 28:13
  Yes.
• 28:13
  Listen to beautiful music.
• 28:14
  To music or listen to an audio book or listen to something and you...
• 28:19
  What happens with the audio is that the music gets lower when your brainwaves are
• 28:24
  dysregulated, and then as your brainwaves become more regulated while you're doing
• 28:27
  the therapy, the music gets louder.
• 28:30
  So if you wanna hear that music, you've gotta activate the right circuitry
• 28:33
  in your brain and you will activate that circuitry as long as you love
• 28:38
  the music that you're listening to.
• 28:41
  And same thing with reading a book.
• 28:42
  If you want to read a book on the TV on the computer screen, you
• 28:45
  could read a book, but the screen's gonna get dark and bright depending
• 28:49
  on your brain wave patterns.
• 28:51
  So yeah, there's a lot of different things and we're building a new game actually
• 28:54
  now it's a tracking game because we're finding that there's a new therapy out
• 28:59
  there called multiple object tracking and I don't want to get off on a tangent here.
• 29:02
  But And Dr.
• 29:04
  Ben-Edet and I don't think you know, we're doing this yet, but
• 29:07
  You mentioned the other day, last week.
• 29:08
  Yeah, and it's amazing, multiple object tracking.
• 29:11
  There's a lot of research on how it improves cognitive abilities such as
• 29:16
  working memory, sustained attention spatial awareness things like that.
• 29:20
  And so, basically there's like eight different little balls on the screen
• 29:25
  and three of them get highlighted.
• 29:26
  And then the highlight goes away and then the ball start to move around
• 29:30
  and then they stop and you have to identify the three balls that
• 29:33
  were highlighted in the beginning.
• 29:35
  So, we are going to be able to do that with neural feedback
• 29:37
  overlaid on top of it.
• 29:39
  So you'll be getting the benefit of multiple object tracking
• 29:42
  along with the neurofeedback.
• 29:43
  Wow.
• 29:45
  Yeah, we're looking forward to that.
• 29:46
  That'll be out this year.
• 29:47
  That'll be exciting.
• 29:49
  Yeah, I like playing those games anyway.
• 29:52
  Yeah, that sounds like fun.
• 29:54
  That's really fun.
• 29:56
  You said that's going to be out this year, Dr.
• 29:58
  Guy.
• 29:58
  We are in November.
• 29:59
  So by December?
• 30:00
  Oh, I'm sorry.
• 30:01
  No, I'm talking about next year.
• 30:03
  Oh, 2025.
• 30:04
  I forgot what we were in November.
• 30:08
  Time goes by too quick.
• 30:10
  Too quickly.
• 30:11
  Talking about time.
• 30:12
  So, almost at 30 minutes.
• 30:14
  How if I wanted to get started just, I mean, this is hypothetical.
• 30:18
  What do I do?
• 30:20
  Well, who do I need to speak with?
• 30:22
  I mean, of course, with you, Dr.
• 30:24
  Guy, and of course, you, Dr.
• 30:26
  Ben-Edet, but how do I get started?
• 30:29
  So, it's basically a two step process.
• 30:32
  Mm-Hmm.
• 30:33
  For initial assessment and then we get you started on therapy if you are eligible.
• 30:37
  At Masterpiece Brain Core, we actually offer you a free 20 minutes introductory
• 30:42
  call just to find out what your needs are and whether you are a candidate
• 30:46
  or you qualify for the neurofeedback.
• 30:48
  So we need to determine whether you really need neurofeedback or not, and
• 30:52
  following that initial discovery call.
• 30:56
  And you can do this anywhere.
• 30:57
  You can go on the web and find a neurofeedback provider, a Brain Core
• 31:03
  neurofeedback provider near you and many of them offer the same thing.
• 31:08
  And you can book this on our website.
• 31:10
  We have booking contacts on our website where you can schedule a call and
• 31:16
  then we send you evaluation forms.
• 31:18
  And that gives a bit more detail about whatever the conditions or the issues
• 31:23
  that you would want to discuss about.
• 31:25
  And then we schedule a virtual interview with our therapist, and I
• 31:30
  would actually do that interview with the individual, and determine if all
• 31:37
  the information I have received is enough to get me to set a protocol
• 31:42
  to start training with neurofeedback, or if he needs further testing.
• 31:46
  And further testing, by that I mean, QEEG, which is the quantitative EEG that we do,
• 31:54
  that actually measures the brain wave.
• 31:57
  And gives us a report that helps determine the protocol
• 32:01
  that we put the individual on.
• 32:03
  And once that is established, we set a personalized protocol.
• 32:08
  So the protocol is not generic.
• 32:10
  It's based on your presentation and based on the evaluation and
• 32:15
  then it's customized to your needs.
• 32:17
  So when we say put sensors on your brain, I mean, on your scalp,
• 32:20
  we are specific on where we want to train based on your report.
• 32:24
  And the beauty of the Brain Core home training units comes into this because
• 32:30
  you can take the units and you can train from the comfort of your home.
• 32:35
  You don't have to go to the office.
• 32:37
  And the beauty of that is many people, you know, can train once or twice a day.
• 32:41
  You can train at your convenience.
• 32:43
  I've had clients who train first thing in the morning and last thing at night,
• 32:47
  and they get very good results with that.
• 32:50
  Yeah, the home training units have revolutionized neurofeedback.
• 32:54
  We started offering them during the COVID pandemic and we've
• 32:58
  really grown with them now.
• 33:00
  So there's a lot of providers such as Dr.
• 33:02
  Ben-Edet that actually will provide a home training unit for an
• 33:06
  individual, a patient or a client.
• 33:08
  And that person can do that training at home.
• 33:11
  And the wonderful thing about it is that Dr.
• 33:12
  Ben-Edet can actually.
• 33:14
  monitor that from her office.
• 33:17
  So it's not just like, here's a machine, go home and do it.
• 33:21
  Dr.
• 33:21
  Ben-Edet is keeping our eye on that.
• 33:23
  She's, you know, making sure that it's being done right and being done correctly.
• 33:27
  So, that's been a phenomenal aspect to neural feedback that's just been
• 33:31
  developed in the last five years or so.
• 33:33
  Wow, this is sounding really good.
• 33:36
  Cool.
• 33:37
  Much cooler than I thought.
• 33:38
  And, you know, just talking with you, the two of you, makes me feel a bit
• 33:43
  more comfortable because, you know, typically when it comes to the brain, most
• 33:48
  people are wary, like, what's going on?
• 33:50
  I mean, as you mentioned, Dr.
• 33:52
  Guy, I mean, the brain controls nearly everything.
• 33:54
  You in the gym, it's your brain that's controlling you being able
• 33:58
  to lift those weights and move.
• 33:59
  Yeah.
• 33:59
  When it comes to the brain.
• 34:01
  People are a bit wary, you know.
• 34:03
  They are.
• 34:04
  Yeah.
• 34:04
  And they're afraid to, but there's nothing to be afraid of with neurofeedback.
• 34:08
  We're not putting anything into your body.
• 34:10
  It's all you learning how to control your brain waves.
• 34:14
  Somebody has asked me, why do you want to monitor my brain?
• 34:16
  I can't see your brain.
• 34:19
  All I see are brain wave patterns.
• 34:21
  Yeah.
• 34:22
  And I can tell whether they are regular or they're not.
• 34:26
  Wow.
• 34:27
  This is really cool.
• 34:28
  So, you know, so what we're going to do is stop for now so that the audience
• 34:34
  who I'm sure have tons of questions for y'all will have that opportunity
• 34:39
  to ask you and hear from you guys directly, as opposed to me just asking
• 34:44
  all the questions that I have, and I assume other people may want to hear.
• 34:49
  So, but before we have the active audience take part in the show,
• 34:55
  how can other people who are listening to the recording with you?
• 35:01
  I know you mentioned it, Dr.
• 35:02
  Ben-Edet, a few minutes ago, but can you again, reiterate how
• 35:06
  they can get in touch with you?
• 35:08
  So we have a website, which is masterpieceneurofeedback.com.
• 35:15
  You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 35:19
  ABC as neurofeedback and you can call our number.
• 35:24
  We have a standard line 281-913-557 call or text that number and you can
• 35:33
  schedule your 20 minutes free call.
• 35:36
  Pretty cool.
• 35:37
  And Dr.
• 35:38
  Guy, I want to make sure I pronounce your last name right.
• 35:41
  This is my challenge, Annunziata.
• 35:44
  Beautiful.
• 35:45
  Perfect.
• 35:46
  How can people get in touch with you?
• 35:49
  Well, if somebody would like to go to braincoretherapy.com, that's
• 35:53
  the website for BrainCoreTherapy.
• 35:55
  And if you want to email me, I'll be glad to answer your questions.
• 35:59
  It's Dr.
• 36:00
  Guy, that's D R G U Y @braincoresystems.com.
• 36:07
  So yours is pretty simple.
• 36:10
  Pretty simple.
• 36:11
  All right.
• 36:11
  And so for me, if any of you listening, I would like to be a guest on the show.
• 36:16
  Like these two awesome people have been, please reach out to me on my website,
• 36:21
  which is chattingwiththeexperts.com.
• 36:23
  I'm also on LinkedIn.
• 36:25
  You can reach out to me there or on Instagram, my handle there is
• 36:30
  at chat_experts_podcast, and I am on Facebook as Paula Okonneh.
• 36:39
  So the two doctors here, this has been amazing.
• 36:42
  And so let's open up the floor now so that other people can ask all the questions
• 36:47
  that they've been jotting down or wanting to talk, ask, and just haven't had a
• 36:51
  chance to as they've been listening to us.
• 36:54
  Thank you again for being guests on Chatting with the Experts TV show.
• 37:00
  Thank you, Paula.
• 37:00
  Thanks
• 37:01
  for having us.
• 37:01
  Thank you, Paula.