Transcript John G

Conjunct COST B27 and SAN
Scientific Meeting,
Swansea, UK, 16-18 September 2006
Peak Performance
& Theta Circuitry.
John Gruzelier
Department of Psychology
Goldsmiths College
University of London
New Cross
[email protected]
1
EVIDENCE
Egner, T. and Gruzelier, J.H. (2003). Ecological
validity of neurofeedback: Modulation of slow
wave EEG enhances musical performance.
Neuroreport, 14, 1225-1228.
2
Neurofeedback group improved on all the main categories.
.8
.6
.4
.2
Overall Qualit y
0.0
Instrumental
Competence
-.2
Mus icality
Communicatio n
-.4
"Combined"
NFT only
Cont rol
Training Group
3
Neurofeedback &
Performance Enhancement
Theta/Alpha Learning and Performance

Overall Quality
r .47, p .038

Perceived Instrumental Competence
 Level of Technical Security
 Rhythmic Accuracy
 Tonal Quality and Spectrum
r .50, p .029
r .39, p .086
r .65, p .003
r .39, p .140

Musicality
 Stylistic Accuracy
 Interpretive Imagination
 Expressive Range
r .54, p .017
r .58, p .007
r .48, p .037
r .53, p .016

Communication
 Deportment
 Communication of Emotional Commitment
and Conviction
 Ability to Cope with the Stress of the
Situation
r .55, p .013
r .45, p .052
r .51, p .021
r .44, p .052 4
Music
performance
assessment 1
SMR
training
Beta1
training
Alpha/
Theta
training
Mental
Skills
Exercise
Alexander
Technique
Music
performance
assessment 2
5
Neurofeedback & Performance Enhancement.
The a/t group displayed musical improvements in Overall Quality (+ 14.4
%, p = .06), Musical Understanding (+ 16.4 %, p < .01), Stylistic Accuracy
(+ 13.5 %, p < .01), and Interpretative Imagination (+ 17 %, p < .01)
1.0
.8
.6
.4
.2
Overall Qualit y
Mus ical
-.0
Unde rstandin g
-.2
Stylistic Accu racy
-.4
Interpretative
Imag ination
-.6
Exerc ise
Beta 1
MST
Trai ning gr oups
Alph a/Theta
SMR
Alexander
6
Origin of Alpha/Theta Training:
Hypnogogia
• Hypno - sleep; gogia - induce.
• The drowsy interval between waking and sleeping when
there is a slowing of the EEG frequency.
• Spontaneous visual, auditory & kinaesthetic images.
• Qualitatively unusual thought processes & verbal
constructions.
• Tendencies towards extreme suggestibility.
• Symbolic representations of ongoing mental &
physiological processes.
Schacter, 1976, Psychological Bulletin
7
Hypnogogia & Creativity
• Koestler, The Act of Creation, 1964.
– Chemist: Frederick Kukule, 1896, and the benzene ring. “Let us
learn to dream gentlemen.”
– Writers: William Blake, Samuel Colleridge, Mark Twain, John
Milton, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson
– Scientist: Varendenck, 1921, “The few original ideas I imagine
myself to have conceived as my original contribution to science
have come just before sleep.”
– Playwrite: Jean Cocteau, 1951, “The poet is at the disposal of his
night. He must clean his house and await its visitation.”
– Mathematician: Poincare - ideas arising in clouds, colliding and
combining into what became the first set of Fuchsian Functions
and a solution to a longstanding problem.
8
Inducing Hypnogogia:
Psychotherapy
• Kubie, 1943, fed back sounds of breathing.
”hypnogogic reverie, a dream without distortion; represents unfinished
business of a lifetime; significant information about the past can be
made accessible without the interpretation of dreams.”
• Bertini, 1964, ganzfield sensory isolation plus white noise, with
continuous free associations.
• Green, Green, Walters, 1973, relaxation breathing exercises, 15 mins
alpha and theta feedback, 30 mins theta feedback, with 50 sessions
could report phenomena without interruption.
9
Creativity the Impetus for Alpha/Theta
Training.
Green & Green, Beyond Biofeedback, 1977.
Green, Green, Walters, J Transpersonal Psychology, 1971.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“reverie, hypnogogic imagery, dreaming and creativity are closely related.”
p127.
Improvement in difficult relationships.
Rewards in school work.
Increased ability to concentrate.
Archetypal images.
Reports of increased dreaming.
Recall of earlier events.
Calm but more energy.
Integrative experiences in 20/26 leading to feelings of physical and
psychological wellbeing
No obvious impact on creativity - but did not assess?
10
Cassie Yukawa
graduated with 1st Class Honours,
2003 (participant 1999/2000)
2004 international piano duo
•
“During the training sessions I feel extremely relaxed and as though my mind
is able to freely glide with my creative ideas bringing a new kind of
spontaneity and energy to my thought processes.
•
The extraction of this specific mode of performance gives me the opportunity
to explore other areas of creativity that were previously unavailable to me as
I'm free from the physical act of playing the piano whilst mentally being in the
state of a performance.
•
It¹s an extremely satisfying state to be in as it's almost as though I've been
introduced to thinking of nothing, which then takes me to a place where
creative possibilities seem boundless.”
11
Addiction & PTSD.
• Alpha-theta training with alcoholics as part of a mixed treatment
package with temperature biofeedback, reduced depression (BDI), and
had positive effects on personality (Peniston & Kulkovsky, 1989,
1991).
• Extended to PTSD (Peniston et al, 1993; Saxby & Peniston, 1995;
Peniston & Kulkovsky, 1999),
– with the goal the crossover to theta from alpha.
– “It is as though the patient was capable of integrating past traumatic
experiences by coping with previously unresolved conflicts represented in
the essentially anxiety-free images and memories generated during the
theta state of consciousness.”
• Successful treatment of crack and cocaine addicts in controlled study
(Othmer et al, 2005).
12
EVIDENCE
Dance Performance Enhancement:
Parallelled with HR Coherence Training:
Beyond Creativity.
Raymond, J., Sajid, I., Parkinson, L.A.
Gruzelier, J H. (2005) Biofeedback and dance
performance: Preliminary investigation.
Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 30,
65-73.
13
Both Biofeedback Methods Improved Dance
Performance Ratings.
There was a clear and significant advantage (p<0.05)
to the biofeedback groups over the control group.
Control group practised more.
14
EVIDENCE
Mood Enhancement (25%)
Raymond, J. Varney, C. Gruzelier J.H.
(2005) The effects of alpha/theta
neurofeedback on personality and mood.
Cognitive Brain Research, 23, 287-292.
15
Compassionate, agreeable, elated, confident, energetic,
clear headed.
Mean POMS scores Real group
Mean POMS scores (Mock group) pre- and post-training
65
65
1 - Composure
Pre
60
2 - Aggreeableness
Post
Pre
55
Post
50
Score
Score
60
3 - Elation
55
4 - Confidence
50
45
Co
m
Ag
r
po
s
ur
e
ee
ab
Co
El
Cl
En
ev
ea
nf
er
at
i
rh
gy
de
ion
ed
n
len
ce
ed
es
ne
s
ss
5 - Energy
45
6 - Clearheadedness
1
2
3
4
5
6
POMS subscale
POMS subscale
16
EVIDENCE
Music Performance, Attention,
Working Memory, Creativity.
• Controlled study of neurofeedback with novice singers.
Joe Leach, Kate Bulpin, Shama Rahman, Alex Rass, Claire
Mera-Nelson, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, John Gruzelier.
SAN (2006) poster.
17
Protocol
A/T
SMR
10.00
0.80
]
]
]
]
]
]
0.00
0.40
]
5.00
-10.00
0.00
]
]
]
0.00
]
-20.00
]
-0.40
confidence
expressivity
Music performance
stage_presence
dprime
Working memory/reasoning
rtv
Attention
18
SUMMARY Alpha/Theta Training:
Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience.
• Music Performance: overall quality, musicality, stylistic
accuracy, interpretative imagination, expressive range,
emotional communication/ commitment, instrumental
competence, stage presence, confidence.
• Dance Performance: overall execution, timing.
• Attention: sustained attention (TOVA d’, RTV).
• Working Memory/Reasoning: Baddeley sentence checking.
• Creativity: flexibility (Guilford Alternative Uses), rule
breaking (Adaptor/Innovator test).
• Well-being: Compassionate, agreeable, elated, confident,
energetic.
• Parallels with HR coherence/breathing training.
19
EVIDENCE
2 Underlying Themes
Cognition: Creativity, Memory,
Attention
Mood: Enhancement/Empowerment
20
Cognitive Significance of Human Theta
Rhythm.
– Working memory (Klimesch, 1996;
Sarnthein et al, 1998)
– Conscious awareness (Klimesch et al., 2001)
– Mental calculation (Fernandez et al., 1995)
– Recognition memory (Burgess & Gruzelier,
1997)
– Spatial navagation (Kahana et al, 1999)
21
Conative/Affective Significance of
Human Theta Rhythm.
• Waking to sleep transition (Broughton &
Hasan, 1995)
• Meditative concentration (Anand et al, 1961;
Aftanas & Golocheikine, 2001)
• Well being and bliss (Aftanas & Golocheikine,
2001)
• Relief from anxiety (Mizuki et al, 1983)
• Reduced sympathetic autonomic activation
(Kubota et al, 2001)
22
Medial Septal Theta Pacemaker for
‘Hippocampal’ Theta
• Theta frequency was thought to be determined
solely by intensity of relatively undifferentiated
tonic activity ascending from the reticular
formation, reflecting ‘arousal’ state.
• Discovery of ‘Hippocampal theta’ generated by a
medial septal pacemaker as shown by lesion and
stimulation studies (reviews - O’Keefe & Nadel,
1978; Gray, 1982).
23
Theta & Rodent Behaviour
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
REM sleep (Vanderwolf, 1969)
Moving within an environment (Vanderwolf, 1969)
Orienting (Gray, 1972; Gavrilov et al, 1995)
Conditioning (Adey et al, 1960; Grastyan et al, 1959)
Memory performance (Winson, 1978; Landfield, 1977)
Speed of learning (Berry & Thompson, 1978)
Degree of learning an environment (Pan & McNaughton, 1997)
Phase within theta cycle related to memory, motor behaviour, firing of
hippocampal place cells, with reset during working memory tasks
• BOTH THE PRESENCE & PROPERTIES OF THETA ARE
INTIMATELY INVOLVED IN BOTH SPATIAL AND NONSPATIAL
MEMORY.
• Influences long term potentiation, a windowing mechanism for
synaptic plasticity.
24
Theta, dreams, survival
Jonathan Winson (2002)
• Hippocampal theta in awake animals is related to different
behaviour across species (predatory, exploratory, etc)
• This is characterised as crucial for survival and is a
response to changing environmental information (Winson,
1972)
• Yet all animals have in common hippocampal theta in
REM sleep (Vanderwolf, 1969)
• Viewed as making available threatening information to
memory control processes for survival
• [Alpha/theta training subjectively involves entering and
reentering transient dream-like states]
• Stage performance and theat.
25
THETA & SENSORIMOTOR PERFORMANCE
Olfactory sniffing in rats: Kay(2005) PNAS
COGNITIVE EFFORT
• Demonstrates relation between task performance and theta
coherence during odor sniffing in olfactory bulb and dorsal
hippocampus.
• “This coherence may represent a mechanism whereby
sensory, motor, and cognitive structures participate
cooperatively in sensory discrimination.”
• “OB-HPC coupling at the sniffing frequency is proposed
as a mechanism underlying olfactory sensorimotor effort as
a cognitive process.”
26
THETA & SENSORIMOTOR PERFORMANCE
Olfactory sniffing in rats: Kay(2005) PNAS
COGNITIVE EFFORT
• The entire basal forebrain contains neurons that fire rhythmically
with the respiratory cycle, particularly during periods of high
respiratory drive.
• Changes in hippocampal theta rhythm have been correlated in
respiratory state changes.
• OB-HPC are both driven by a common respiratory process from
brainstem- limbic projections.
• Sniffing becomes more than respiration, and is a major component
in cognitive effort in sensorimotor tasks.
• “This is in keeping with human studies of increases in theta
associated with recall and peak performance.”
27
Cognitive Effort (?) in Human Maze Learning
Caplan et al (2001) J Neurophysiol.
• Intracranial recording in epileptic patients during virtual
maze learning.
• Most virtual maze learning occurs within theta band.
• Theta/alpha more prevalent with manipulation of maze
length.
• Delta, beta, gamma, but not theta, covary with decision
time (indexing encoding and retrieval).
• “Theta oscillations are invoked by the general demands of
the task at hand.”
• “Theta oscillations may be a physiological state that is
conducive to certain types of encoding.”
28
ORIGINS OR THETA
• BRAIN-STEM RETICULAR/THALAMOCORTICAL THETA
• “HIPPOCAMPAL THETA”
29
2 TYPES OF THETA:
Thalamo-cortical; Limbic
E. Roy John (2002)
30
SupraMammillary Hypothamamic Nucleus
& Theta Frequency Coding
INDEPENDENT of the Hippocampus
• Kirk & Mackay (2003) developed work by Vertes (1986)
showing that the supramammillary nucleus (SuM) of the
hypothalamus acts as a relay in the ascending theta
synchronising system.
• Importantly they demonstrated that theta-rhythmic SuM
cell activity occurred independently of HC theta.
• They demonstrated that transduction of the intensity of
reticular activation to the frequency of theta (modulation)
arises in the SuM, not the medial septal region.
31
Theta’s Role in Synchronising &
Integrating Activity in Distributed Memory
Networks.
• Frequency coded information from SuM is fed into at least
2 recurrent memory networks
– anterior thalamic - HC system
– perirhinal- mediodorsal thalamic system
• The first is the neural substrate for encoding and recall of
episodic memory and spatial memory in animals.
• The second is involved in recognition and familiarity
judgements. (Aggleton & Brown,1999)
32
33
Theta and the Papez Circuit:
Memory meets Emotion
• Neurons in the mammillary nuclei discharge rhythmically at theta
frequencies, driven by descending inputs from the HC.
• The mammillary bodies form part of the Papez circuit (1937), enabling
transmission of theta around the circuit.
34
Alpha/Theta Training & Reward
• The mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system mediates
Alpha/theta training activates the mesocortical substrates
of incentive salience.
• motivational incentive function of reward.
• This involves neural networks
– ventral tegmental area projecting to the nucleus accumbens
– amygdala projecting to orbitofrontal cortex
– prefrontal cortex
• Gating of nucleus accumbens occurs via PFC HC AM
inputs.
35
Theta & Long Range Functional
Interaction in Working Memory
Von Stein & Sarntheim (2000)
• Experimental evidence from working memory tasks in cats
showing increased coupling of theta oscillations between
frontal and parietal cortices during the retention interval.
• Experiments extended to human subjects by Klimesch and
collaborators (Sauseng et al, 2002, 2004).
• Theta and alpha frequencies reflect top-down attentional
processes mediating the interaction of distant and relatively
distributed neural populations during the processing of
internal information.(von Stein & Sarntheim, 2000)
36
Theta, Creativity & Long Range
Functional Interaction in Working
Memory
• Creativity inter alia is the ability to retrieve, understand
and express novel orderly relationships.
• Studies of creative thought demonstrate an increase of
anatomically distributed coherence of EEG oscillations
(Petsche et al, 1996).
• Alpha and theta carry information over long distance
distributed connections (von Stein & Sarntheim, 2000).
• Theta therefore will facilitate co-activation across
networks and the conjunction of atypical, creative
associations/connections.
37
Theta & Long Range Functional
Interaction in Meditative Bliss :
short v long term meditators (SvLTM)
[Aftanas & Golocheikine, 2001, Neurosc Lett]
38
Theoretical Perspectives on Psychological
Significance of Theta
No single role.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Working memory.
Sensory-Motor integration.
Spatial navigation.
Survival
Long distance connectivity and retrieval.
Cognitive effort.
Reward.
Consciousness and altered states.
39
SUMMARY Alpha/Theta Training:
Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience.
• Music Performance: overall quality, musicality, stylistic
accuracy, interpretative imagination, expressive range,
emotional communication/ commitment, instrumental
competence, stage presence, confidence.
• Dance Performance: overall execution, timing.
• Attention: sustained attention (TOVA d’, RTV).
• Working Memory/Reasoning: Baddeley sentence checking.
• Creativity: flexibility (Guilford Alternative Uses), rule
breaking (Adaptor/Innovator test).
• Well-being: Compassionate, agreeable, elated, confident,
energetic.
• Parallels with HR coherence/breathing training.
40