How Is Your Brain Performing? By Adam Breiner, ND I
f you are an athlete and want to make sure that your brain is performing at its best, or you play a sport that has a possibil- ity of concussive injuries, baseline testing at the beginning of the season is a must. At the NeuroEdge Brain Performance Center, we strive to bring athletes, students, executives, and anyone who wants to improve their overall cognitive well-being, the very latest in brain performance enhancement techniques.
Triple Baseline Testing The first step in improving brain performance is to determine
how the brain is currently performing with triple baseline testing. This baseline testing is essential to use as a comparison if an injury occurs during the season, baseline testing helps to guide treatment and provides information about when it is best to return to play.
As awareness of concussions has grown in the past several
years, there are more and more teams and schools that require concussion education, and some form of baseline testing. Over the many years that I have been treating traumatic brain injuries, I have found that functional brain imaging, using EEG is one of the most sensitive tools to assess brain function. I encourage all athletes to have a baseline EEG.
To obtain even more information on how the brain is perform- ing we test cognitive performance using CNS Vital signs, a comput- erized cognitive performance test, as well as measuring vestibular function with computerized balance testing. Using this Triple Baseline Testing approach, we have the most comprehensive and sensitive means of assessing one's brain function and performance.
EEG Baseline
EEG is an acronym for ElectroEncephalogram and it is the mea- surement of the brain's electrical activity. It is indeed a functional assessment of how the brain's neuronal networks communicate. Traditionally, EEGs measure just the outer surface of the brain's activity, but with newer advances, called sLORETA, we can image deeper brain structures electrical activity as well. The cutting-edge sLoreta technology has capabilities to measure, in real-time, electri- cal function deep within the brain’s cortex. By using this advanced EEG sLoreta technology, we can evaluate whether an injury has occurred, as well as whether brain wave patterns associated with metabolic imbalances and overall brain dysregulation are present.
The first thing we do is place electrodes on the patient's scalp using a unique cap. A conductive gel is injected into the cap electrodes so that the subtle electrical signals from the brain can be picked up. These signals are amplified and processed by the com- puter where we see the brain waves projected on the screen. Next,
22 Natural Nutmeg - November/December 2018
we remove all the artifacts created by muscle and eye movements, so we get a clean EEG.
With a sLoreta image, we can see how the brain behaves in real- time, and compare it to a normative database. We can even utilize a patient's past brain wave baseline as a comparison after an injury to see how far their brain has deviated from their pre-injured brain. This sLoreta imaging is a great way to tell if one's brain has healed.
In order to better understand how various brain-wave states relate to the statistical norms in the population, a qEEG, or Quantita- tive EEG is performed. Using the artifact-free raw EEG data, special mathematical calculations are made to calculate the average power (amplitude), frequency, and communications between the networks. These are then seen as standard deviations above or below the nor- mative databases based on the age and gender of the patient. This information is displayed using a brain map.
Quantitative analysis gathered from the qEEG’s are most easily
displayed by using a brain map. Brain maps can visually show where a person may have a dysregulation, where the amplitude, height or power of a brain wave is too high or too low, or whether the absolute frequency or speed of the wave, is at a faster or slower range. We are able to look at how certain areas of the brain communicate. Addition- ally, detailed patient questionnaires help to confirm if these areas of dysregulation are contributing to the patient’s symptoms.
CNS Vital Signs The next baseline test involves taking a computerized neurocog-
nitive test. This neurocognitive test will measure one's overall cogni- tive performance as well as details as to various aspects of memory, psychomotor speed, attention, and social acuity. We utilize CNS Vital Signs, one of the most researched and sophisticated tests currently available. CNS Vital signs is used by the US Military Veterans hospitals and worldwide by the university and the pharmaceutical industry to assess neurocognitive function. A patient takes this test in the office, or if appropriate, at home. It usually takes between 30-45 minutes, depending on the number of areas tested.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
