by Peter Van Deusen

I Use HEG First

nIR HEG training is my first approach with nearly every client I train, because:

•HEG has a very short learning curve. People who buy from brain-trainer can set up a free online meeting with us, get everything installed and actually run their first session with us coaching. At the end of that, they pretty much know everything they need to train.

•HEG trains the brain's executive center. The one area of the brain that EEG really can’t do very well because of electrical artifacts is the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC is the brain’s executive center, responsible for attention, focus, motivation, organization/planning, working memory, emotional regulation, control of behavior and mood, understanding what things mean, etc.

•HEG requires no assessment. HEG is more like aerobic exercise than Physical Therapy. Anyone can use it, and anyone can benefit, and everyone does the same thing.

•HEG is highly time efficient. It takes about a minute to prepare for an HEG session, a minute to clean up afterwards, so optimum training time is usually 15-30 minutes 2-3 times a week. There is no extended electrode preparation, placement or cleanup.

•HEG uses BioExplorer software. So if a client decides, at time of purchase or later, that they want to add EEG, they already have and are accustomed to the training software.

How the nIR Headband Works

An area of the brain that is more active will have greater blood flow and blood oxygenation than a brain area that is less active. The nIR (near infrared) headband, developed by Hershel Toomin, utilizes the fact that more highly oxygenated blood is redder in color.

The headband sends pulses of red and infrared light through the skull to the cortex beneath. (The skull itself is not opaque but translucent.) The ratio of red to infrared light reflected back by the cortex to the headband sensor indicates how much oxygen there is in the blood. The more oxygenated the blood is, and the greater the metabolic activity in the PFC, the higher the readings—and the more effectively the PFC will be able to work. (Because the light pulses take battery energy, the nIR headband will consume battery power fairly quickly. Always be sure to have a charged battery handy.)

What HEG Training Does

We know that if you work out and improve aerobic function in your cardiopulmonary system, that doesn't mean you HAVE to race around all the time. You just improve the ability to increase activity levels and maintain them for longer periods. You can still sit quietly and relax as well as you could before getting in better shape. And we know that just because a person DOES run around in circles all the time doesn’t mean they are in good shape.

The fact that a person has a brain dominated by high frequencies doesn't necessarily mean that they are in good shape in terms of perfusion—the supply system for getting blood out into the neighborhoods where neurons work and live. In fact, since the PFC is the center of a good deal of the brain’s crucial inhibitory control systems—and one could argue fairly effectively that any brain that is producing lots of beta and high-beta for no functional reason is lacking in control—improving prefrontal function could actually reduce excess fast activity.

Some interesting facts about the cardiovascular system that may surprise you:
1. The average human body contains about 60,000 MILES of arteries/capillaries and veins.
2. There are only 10 pints—about 5 quarts—of blood in your body.
3. Only about 40% of the system is in use at any given time.

Think of the cardiovascular system like a highway system: There are multi-lane limited-access highways, other large multi-lane roads, smaller 2-lane roads connecting points, etc. on down to the little neighborhood block-or-two-long streets. At any given point in time, most of the square feet of streets/roads/highways DON'T have any cars on them! But there are times when each of those square feet of paving ARE needed to carry traffic. And if they are not there, you have a problem.

The first few times I do HEG with a client, I show them how good the distribution system is in their PFC. Some people spike up 8-10% almost immediately and then crash just as fast, stumble along a little, then spike and crash again. Others run up more slowly and are able to sustain a level for a minute or two before starting to see their ratios fall. Those patterns in the ratio tend to mirror pretty accurately their attention capabilities.

But each time we train—as long as we are doing so 2-3 times a week—the brain calls on the body for more blood, and the body tries to increase the traffic. After a while, the body begins to build some new capillary beds—or make the ones we have denser—so the blood can get out into the tissue faster and more efficiently.

That's what HEG does (the same thing that happens in your heart and lungs when you do aerobic exercise). You stress the system, then give the highway department some time to work on improvements. Then you stress it again, and further improvements are made. Eventually I look for a client to be able to raise her ratio by 7-12% (more or less) within 30-60 seconds (quick uptake) and to sustain the plateau (perhaps with some additional rises as it goes along) for 8-10 minutes. When the client can do that, he/she has optimized the distribution system, so these neurons, which should be the most active in the brain, have all the resources and services they need to work at their peak.