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2 Brainwave Connections Spring 2006

Text Box: One senses that incrementally we are approaching the time of general acceptance of neurofeedback. It is something we’ve been looking forward to, but just as it is difficult to picture any kind of heaven where one might wish to spend eternity, we have difficulty picturing that blissful future. The goal has been an abstraction, and as we think about it, we realize that even the greatest success for the field that one might imagine may still not represent a state of bliss—except possibly in the hearts of those who helped to bring it about. Our complex human natures assure that as new turf opens up on which proprietorship can be asserted, there will inevitably be contentions about the new real estate, the intellectual property, the scientific pecking order, and the codification of right belief about the new discipline. We have already seen this at every point in the development of the field, and this tendency may only get worse for a time as economic enticements increase. If we cast about for examples from the past that might help us here in the projection into the future, there are some breakthroughs that are epochal and singular, and there are other scientific breakthroughs that are also epochal, but they are more universal and diffuse. An example of the former is the Salk vaccine, where we can identify a moment in time when our society transitioned from polio being a scourge for which there was no remedy to one that could be readily prevented. The breakthrough will always be attached to the man that produced it. An example of the second is the recognition of the importance of personal hygiene and sanitation in public health. No single factor was as

Text Box: significant in the improved health prospects of our citizenship during the past century than the movement toward sanitation, clean water, proper sewage treatment, etc. There is no famous name like Salk attached to this far more significant, but mundane development. At this point, we can no longer assign paternity. Neurofeedback emerges out of an understanding of the brain that is going to become universal, much like the “chemical deficiency” model of mental illness is now, and this understanding will underpin so many new developments that it will rival the revolution of public sanitation in terms of overall impact. And just like with the earlier example, the idea will become so universal that paternity will become obscure. Our grandchildren will be unable to imagine a time when these ideas were not understood. Given the universality of the concepts that we are appealing to in neurofeedback, it seems like a huge waste of effort, and a hindrance to progress, to keep putting up “No trespassing” signs on aspects of this emerging reality. Jonas Salk even thought that way about his own breakthrough. He saw himself as the fortunate scientist who had come along at the right time to meet this opportunity. “To patent the vaccine would be like patenting sunshine,” he said. Even I would disagree with him on that count when it comes to the Salk vaccine, but when it comes to neurofeedback, the sunshine analogy holds. As a society, we would not dream of limiting sanitation only to those who can afford it. It is a public good, for the benefit of everyone alike. Similarly, education is a public good, and

Text Box: one’s entitlement to it is not in question. Neurofeedback should be seen as a public good much like education. If there is a simple and accessible means by which people can make the central nervous systems more stable, functional, competent and serviceable, then this should not simply be dispensed to the elite on the basis of affordability. We have a situation in which the need for neurofeedback is not at all correlated with the capacity to afford it. In fact, an inverse relationship more nearly applies. That is where the society must step in to meet the need of the population at large. There is still a role here for the private sector. The school system is a case in point. We still have private companies serving the needs of the schools---book publishers, etc. But our society guarantees free access to education, and it should at some point also assure access to neurofeedback.

Our complex human natures assure that as new turf opens up on which proprietorship can be asserted, there will inevitably be contentions...

Article by:

Siegfried Othmer, Ph.D., BCIAC

Dr. Othmer is Chief Scientist of the EEG Institute at the Brian Othmer Foundation

Neurofeedback emerges out of an understanding of the brain that is going to become universal, much like the”chemical deficiency” model of mental illness is now...