THE PROBLEM WAS THAT UNTIL THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW
high-powered and incredibly rapid computers, it was difficult merely to make sense of the the constantly changing EEG patterns of a single human's brain, much less to store away somehow the EEG patterns of thousands of subjects, and then compare each of these thousands of EEGs to determine what brain patterns are "normal" in specific situations (e.g., when
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THE VIDEO GAME OF THE BRAIN: CAP SCAN
performing mathematical calculations, when visualizing, when suddenly having a new idea, etc.).
Now, however, a number of scientists have combined breakthroughs in computer science with breakthroughs in electroencephalography and brain science, and come up with several sophisticated brain-mapping devices. Perhaps the CAP scan is the most remarkable of these devices. Psychiatrist Charles Stroebel, Ph.D., M.D., and colleagues at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, put together the first CAP scan in 1983. Stroebel has since become director of the Insti-tute for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Medicine, also in Hartford, and has continued to develop, refine, and explore the capabilities of the machine.
The device is capable of processing information from up to twenty electrodes at once, and by means of enormous comput-erized "number crunching," the CAP scan automatically and instantaneously converts your whole-brain EEG into a multi-color map, and displays it as a cartoonlike image on the televi-sion screen, with each type of brain-wave activity represented by a different color. To do this, it is automatically averaging the minute fluctuations of electrical activity picked up by each electrode, discarding the artifacts, the random background noise, and the electrical energy created by the muscles in the scalp. Incredibly, this is all done instantaneously, in "real time," making it possible for you to observe, and therefore to change, your own brain-wave patterns.
Just the ability to see brain activity in real time opens up an infinity of possibilities for diagnosis and treatment. If you don't like all that red (high-activity beta waves) raging in your right hemisphere, get some of that peaceful light blue (alpha) and dark blue (theta) in there. Like E. Roy John, who has found precise electrophysiological profiles indicative of pre-cise mental functions, Stroebel, through his experiences with the CAP scan, claims that specific brain patterns represent very specific emotions or thoughts, such as obsession, or crea-tivity, or incipient rage. By learning to see these states and alter them, people can not only learn to short-circuit
them-167
MEGABRAIN
night. Says John, "Consciousness is a property of these im-probable distributions of energy in space and time, just as gravity is a property of matter. The neurons are essential to creating the energy pattern, but subjective experience is gen-erated by the pattern itself, not by the individual neurons."198
Recall the research proving that words with similar conno-tations (such as "good" words) give rise to remarkably similar brain-wave patterns (or hyperneurons), and that these patterns are consistent in virtually all normal human subjects: this sug-gests that causing or creating one such pervasive pattern of flowing electromagnetic fields in the brain could, by means of
"resonance," call up closely related brainwave configurations.
This has a tremendous significance, since if we could some-how learn to evoke a "good" brain-wave pattern in someone who is in a neutral or negative state of mind, the resonance effect could activate similar stored brain patterns, in turn trig-gering more resonances in a chain of associations, leading to a series of subjective experiences of things, ideas, memories, or emotions that are all associated with and resonate to the idea of "good." And this brings us back to that colored image of your brain on the television screen of the CAP scan. For those multicolored configurations actually represent brain waves, and it is possible that those changing patterns of colors sweep-ing across your brain are actual representations of hyper-neurons, pictures of universal thought processes in action. In this, the CAP scan is something truly new.
PAC-MAN WITH A CAP SCAN
THE PROBLEM WAS THAT UNTIL THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW
high-powered and incredibly rapid computers, it was difficult merely to make sense of the the constantly changing EEG patterns of a single human's brain, much less to store away somehow the EEG patterns of thousands of subjects, and then compare each of these thousands of EEGs to determine what brain patterns are "normal" in specific situations (e.g., when
166
THE VIDEO GAME OF THE BRAIN: CAP SCAN
performing mathematical calculations, when visualizing, when suddenly having a new idea, etc.).
Now, however, a number of scientists have combined breakthroughs in computer science with breakthroughs in electroencephalography and brain science, and come up with several sophisticated brain-mapping devices. Perhaps the CAP scan is the most remarkable of these devices. Psychiatrist Charles Stroebel, Ph.D., M.D., and colleagues at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, put together the first CAP scan in 1983. Stroebel has since become director of the Insti-tute for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Medicine, also in Hartford, and has continued to develop, refine, and explore the capabilities of the machine.
The device is capable of processing information from up to twenty electrodes at once, and by means of enormous comput-erized "number crunching," the CAP scan automatically and instantaneously converts your whole-brain EEG into a multi-color map, and displays it as a cartoonlike image on the televi-sion screen, with each type of brain-wave activity represented by a different color. To do this, it is automatically averaging the minute fluctuations of electrical activity picked up by each electrode, discarding the artifacts, the random background noise, and the electrical energy created by the muscles in the scalp. Incredibly, this is all done instantaneously, in "real time," making it possible for you to observe, and therefore to change, your own brain-wave patterns.
Just the ability to see brain activity in real time opens up an infinity of possibilities for diagnosis and treatment. If you don't like all that red (high-activity beta waves) raging in your right hemisphere, get some of that peaceful light blue (alpha) and dark blue (theta) in there. Like E. Roy John, who has found precise electrophysiological profiles indicative of pre-cise mental functions, Stroebel, through his experiences with the CAP scan, claims that specific brain patterns represent very specific emotions or thoughts, such as obsession, or crea-tivity, or incipient rage. By learning to see these states and alter them, people can not only learn to short-circuit
them-167
MEGABRAIN
selves out of unwanted thoughts or emotions but also learn to enter desired states - whether intense logical thinking or tran-scendent states - at will, by simply altering the colors of the pattern on the television screen; and it can be done with al-most the same ease as sending Pac-Man zooming through a maze.
In essence, Stroebel explained to me, the CAP scan has the unique capability of immediately revealing to the user three variables:
BRAIN-WAVE FREQUENCY. The user has an instant visual image of what type of brain waves and what brain-wave patterns.he is producing throughout the entire brain. The elec-trodes, each placed over a particular part of the skull, combine to provide an indication of EEG activity through the whole brain. Each frequency is indicated by a different color: rapid beta waves show up as patches of bright red; slower beta waves are orange; alpha waves are light blue; theta waves appear dark blue; delta waves are deep green. Thus, at a glance, the user can see which areas of his brain are highly active and which are placid, or simply not operating well.
While the values of cultivating the relaxing alpha waves and the memory- and creativity-enhancing theta waves have been frequently pointed out, recent research in brain laterali-zation suggests that it can also be a valuable talent to be able to alter hemispheric dominance at will. In most people, the left brain is superior in processing verbal material while the right brain shows clear superiority in handling visual/spatial information. Now, studies by neuroscientist David Shanna-hoff-Khalsa of Salk Institute for Biological Sciences indicate that hemispheric dominance is constantly shifting. Says Shan-nahoff-Khalsa, "We used the electroencephalograph (EEG) to measure brain waves simultaneously on both right and left sides of the brain. When the brain waves were carefully com-pared, it became quite clear that one hemisphere dominates for a while then gives way to the other, with each dominating for periods ranging anywhere from twenty-five minutes to two hundred minutes, with an average of about two hours."
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THE VIDEO GAME OF THE BRAIN: CAP SCAN
Similar conclusions have been reached by other scientists who "tested subjects at regular intervals on verbal (left-hemisphere) and spatial (right-(left-hemisphere) tasks for periods of eight hours and found that when the performance of ver-bal ability was high, the spatial was low, and vice versa, indi-cating that the two hemispheres operated out of phase." This discovery, Shannahoff-Khalsa points out, "suggests we can exert more control over our day-to-day mental functioning.
For example, certain cognitive functions, such as language skills, mathematics and other rational processes that are thought to be primarily localized in the left hemisphere" might be augmented by "forcibly altering" our cerebral dominance, and in the same way we might "accentuate the creativity that is thought to be characteristic of right-hemisphere domi-nance," through similar forcible altering.52
The problem is that most of us have little idea of which hemisphere is dominant at any given time, and less idea of how to go about "forcibly altering" cerebral dominance. The CAP scan seems to solve this problem, providing us with a clear color image of our brains, so we can instantaneously see which hemisphere is dominant at that time. If the CAP scan reveals that our right hemisphere is bright red or highly aroused while the left is deep blue and green, we know imme-diately the right hemisphere is dominant. We can then pay attention to all our psychophysiological cues, and get a "gut"
feeling for what we feel like, how our minds and bodies func-tion, when the right hemisphere is dominant. Stroebel is con-vinced that with sufficient CAP-scan practice, the user can actually learn to shift hemispheric dominance virtually instan-taneously in order to deal with the task or situation at hand with the most appropriate hemisphere. It would be a power-ful leap in the brain power if we were able, for example, to enter an important conference in which we knew all our left-hemisphere talents would be needed and, sensing that we were in a right-hemisphere phase, be able to shift forcefully and quickly into a state of left-hemisphere dominance.
BRAIN SYNCHRONIZATION. The second variable the 169
MEGABRAIN
selves out of unwanted thoughts or emotions but also learn to enter desired states - whether intense logical thinking or tran-scendent states - at will, by simply altering the colors of the pattern on the television screen; and it can be done with al-most the same ease as sending Pac-Man zooming through a maze.
In essence, Stroebel explained to me, the CAP scan has the unique capability of immediately revealing to the user three variables:
BRAIN-WAVE FREQUENCY. The user has an instant visual image of what type of brain waves and what brain-wave patterns.he is producing throughout the entire brain. The elec-trodes, each placed over a particular part of the skull, combine to provide an indication of EEG activity through the whole brain. Each frequency is indicated by a different color: rapid beta waves show up as patches of bright red; slower beta waves are orange; alpha waves are light blue; theta waves appear dark blue; delta waves are deep green. Thus, at a glance, the user can see which areas of his brain are highly active and which are placid, or simply not operating well.
While the values of cultivating the relaxing alpha waves and the memory- and creativity-enhancing theta waves have been frequently pointed out, recent research in brain laterali-zation suggests that it can also be a valuable talent to be able to alter hemispheric dominance at will. In most people, the left brain is superior in processing verbal material while the right brain shows clear superiority in handling visual/spatial information. Now, studies by neuroscientist David Shanna-hoff-Khalsa of Salk Institute for Biological Sciences indicate that hemispheric dominance is constantly shifting. Says Shan-nahoff-Khalsa, "We used the electroencephalograph (EEG) to measure brain waves simultaneously on both right and left sides of the brain. When the brain waves were carefully com-pared, it became quite clear that one hemisphere dominates for a while then gives way to the other, with each dominating for periods ranging anywhere from twenty-five minutes to two hundred minutes, with an average of about two hours."
168
THE VIDEO GAME OF THE BRAIN: CAP SCAN
Similar conclusions have been reached by other scientists who "tested subjects at regular intervals on verbal (left-hemisphere) and spatial (right-(left-hemisphere) tasks for periods of eight hours and found that when the performance of ver-bal ability was high, the spatial was low, and vice versa, indi-cating that the two hemispheres operated out of phase." This discovery, Shannahoff-Khalsa points out, "suggests we can exert more control over our day-to-day mental functioning.
For example, certain cognitive functions, such as language skills, mathematics and other rational processes that are thought to be primarily localized in the left hemisphere" might be augmented by "forcibly altering" our cerebral dominance, and in the same way we might "accentuate the creativity that is thought to be characteristic of right-hemisphere domi-nance," through similar forcible altering.52
The problem is that most of us have little idea of which hemisphere is dominant at any given time, and less idea of how to go about "forcibly altering" cerebral dominance. The CAP scan seems to solve this problem, providing us with a clear color image of our brains, so we can instantaneously see which hemisphere is dominant at that time. If the CAP scan reveals that our right hemisphere is bright red or highly aroused while the left is deep blue and green, we know imme-diately the right hemisphere is dominant. We can then pay attention to all our psychophysiological cues, and get a "gut"
feeling for what we feel like, how our minds and bodies func-tion, when the right hemisphere is dominant. Stroebel is con-vinced that with sufficient CAP-scan practice, the user can actually learn to shift hemispheric dominance virtually instan-taneously in order to deal with the task or situation at hand with the most appropriate hemisphere. It would be a power-ful leap in the brain power if we were able, for example, to enter an important conference in which we knew all our left-hemisphere talents would be needed and, sensing that we were in a right-hemisphere phase, be able to shift forcefully and quickly into a state of left-hemisphere dominance.
BRAIN SYNCHRONIZATION. The second variable the 169
MEGABRAIN
CAP scan reveals instantaneously is the "synchrony" of the brain, i.e., whether both hemispheres are operating together in harmony. In the early 1970s, Stroebel and associates per-formed a classic series of experiments with large numbers of skilled meditators. They noticed that as the most skilled medi-tators reached the deepest meditative states, the electrical waves of both hemispheres, usually unrelated, operating at different frequencies and amplitudes, shifted into a single syn-chronous rhythm. This synsyn-chronous rhythm had two compo-nents: coherence, and identical phase angle. As Stroebel explained it to me, coherence between the two hemispheres is when both sides of the brain are generating waves of the same frequency. In coherence, he said, "the waves are moving to-gether, but they could be moving exactly out of phase, so you would have two 10-Hz waves, but they could be going posi-tive and negaposi-tive - one wave at its peak while the other wave is at its lowest point. So you have to calculate the 'phase angle.' When both 10-Hz waves are 'in phase' they are rising and falling together. Coherence plus phase angle permits you then to calculate another index, synchrony."
Stroebel's study of brain synchrony convinced him that it is an extremely beneficial state, found only when deep physical relaxation is combined with serenity and mental clarity. Per-haps this rare state, thought the researchers, could explain many of the well-documented beneficial effects of meditation:
decreased stress-related hormones in the body, increased phys-ical and mental health, increased ability to deal with stress, increased ability to concentrate, enhanced learning rates.
Stroebel found that there was a definite relation between the subjects' experience as meditators and the increase in brain synchrony: the more experienced and skillful the meditators, the more quickly and consistently was brain synchronization produced. But what could be so beneficial about brain synchrony? One answer seemed to be that these meditators were thinking with their whole brains. Unlike most of us, who use only half our brain at a time, activity flickering back and forth between hemispheres, these synchronous thinkers were able to use all their brain power simultaneously.
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THE VIDEO GAME OF THE BRAIN: CAP SCAN
Since Stroebel's discovery of synchrony, or whole-brain thinking, in the early 1970s a number of other studies have produced evidence that not only is this type of brain activity beneficial, it may well be the natural human brain state. For example, neuropathologist Edward Bird of McLean Hospital's Mailman Research Center, near Boston, has spent years col-lecting and minutely analyzing human brains donated to his Brain Tissue Resource Center. One study has been to analyze the difference in chemical composition between left and right hemispheres. He cites research indicating that right-handed people with depression have a dramatically lower level of glu-cose uptake in the left side of their brains (when undergoing PET scans, which measure glucose uptake in the brain). When the depression is treated and disappears, the glucose uptake balances out. Says Bird, "It may be that differences between the two sides of the brain are involved in a number of mental disorders. Maybe in some areas it's normal to have a balance on both sides - maybe that's what makes us balanced human
Since Stroebel's discovery of synchrony, or whole-brain thinking, in the early 1970s a number of other studies have produced evidence that not only is this type of brain activity beneficial, it may well be the natural human brain state. For example, neuropathologist Edward Bird of McLean Hospital's Mailman Research Center, near Boston, has spent years col-lecting and minutely analyzing human brains donated to his Brain Tissue Resource Center. One study has been to analyze the difference in chemical composition between left and right hemispheres. He cites research indicating that right-handed people with depression have a dramatically lower level of glu-cose uptake in the left side of their brains (when undergoing PET scans, which measure glucose uptake in the brain). When the depression is treated and disappears, the glucose uptake balances out. Says Bird, "It may be that differences between the two sides of the brain are involved in a number of mental disorders. Maybe in some areas it's normal to have a balance on both sides - maybe that's what makes us balanced human