The activity in your brain affects pretty much everything you think, feel, and do. As a result, when its functioning is impaired and imbalanced, you are impaired and imbalanced. Problems with attention, memory, emotional regulation, learning, relationships, pain, sleep, and a myriad of other ailments all have underlying roots in your brain and nervous system. The good news is, we now have a way to observe these imbalances in your brain and help it balance itself out! At Peak Performance Institute, we utilize three types of neuroimaging to assess where your brain is functioning well and where it could use some improvement: raw electroencephalography (EEG), quantitative EEG (QEEG), and standardized weighted low resolution electromagnetic tomography analysis (swLORETA).
Brain Assessment
WHAT IS QEEG
Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) is a digitally-calculated analysis of recorded EEG that transforms raw EEG line graphs into “brain map” images, thus allowing us to better observe overall brain activity patterns. EEG is known for its ideal temporal resolution (in the millisecond time domain), which surpasses other imaging methods such as fMRI (2-6 seconds) and positron emission tomography (PET; 30-40 seconds). This is important considering that neural changes occur within the millisecond time domain.
Another benefit of qEEG is that it is non-invasive, requiring no intake or injection of radioactive chemicals. As such, it can be used frequently and for longer periods of time with no risk to your health. Furthermore, brain activity can be read from the comfort of a chair with a simple cap on the head as opposed to laying in a large, noisy machine or being put into other uncomfortable positions. Consequently, this method tends to provoke less anxiety and claustrophobia than many other methods. It is also more portable, cost-effective, and tolerant to the effects of movement than many other imaging methods.
A cap with EEG sensors is simply placed on your head to measure the electrical signals being produced by your brain. These sensors only read the activity–they do not send any electrical signals into your brain, so it is completely safe and non-invasive. The brain activity picked up by these sensors then can be compared against a database of “healthy brains” and converted into a brain “map” to more easily identify specific activity patterns that are likely giving rise to your symptoms. Once we have determined the specific areas/patterns of concern, we can create an individualized program to help your brain become the best it can be.