TINNITUS AND NEUROFEEDBACK CLASS RECORDING

Presenter: Linda Walker, MHR, LCP

Enjoy and benefit from the 6-hours of instruction divided into four 90-minute easy-to-digest lesson recordings. Experienced neurofeedback practitioners and other health professionals can benefit an introduction to the applicability of neurofeedback and biofeedback to the treatment of tinnitus. Included is a review of the work of Dirk DeRidder, Winifred Schlee, Nathan Weiss, Kaitlyn Dorhman and her research group in Universität Konstanz, and others. The class considers the complexity of Tinnitus, which is a neuroplasticity disorder with differing and diverse etiologies. Tinnitus is not a single disorder.  Rather, it can be a common outcome of damage to the auditory system due to loud noise, a symptom in disorders such as depression or anxiety, or it can be part of a larger problem, such as traumatic brain injury.

Understanding the complexity of the disorder and properly assessing its etiology is key to understanding what interventions may be useful in treatment. In published research, neuromodulation treatments have shown promise in the treatment of some forms of Tinnitus.   The class gives an overview of neuromodulation as a treatment avenue, but focuses specifically on the research in neurofeedback, based upon the work of Kaitlyn Dohrmann, Winefred Schlee and others.  In addition, the class considers applicable biofeedback interventions that may be useful either in combination with neurofeedback or used alone to treat co-occurring symptoms.

The class covers the equipment setup and recording of an assessment session using the Infiniti system. Material shown in the recordings focuses on how  certain physical processes (EEG, brain activity) can be changed voluntarily, when Neurofeedback instruments are used as "substitute sensory organ".  Two types of waves play an important role: Delta (slower) waves show relatively higher amplitudes and Alpha (faster) waves show relatively reduced amplitudes in tinnitus. This class is well suited for experienced neurofeedback practitioners that want to use Dr. Dohrmann’s methods in their practice. The class covers the equipment setup and recording of an assessment session using the Infiniti system. At the end of the class participants will have a basic understanding of the Tinnitus software, created by the BFE Tinnitus team.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Recordings of the hands-on virtual classroom demonstrations include examples taken from the BFE Limited Edition "Tinnitus" and BioGraph Infiniti software with Thought Technology Infiniti hardware. If you do NOT own or have access to this equipment, the class will still be of value to you.