By Dr. Trish Leigh, Ph.D. BCN, Certified Brain Health Coach
First thing first, there is no “normal” but that is how people think of it, hence the name. Moving on… Dr. Trish Leigh shows you what a “typical” brain map looks like if your brain is performing perfectly. Therefore you can take this information and compare your brain map to it to see where your brain could use some help in becoming optimized to perform better. Continue reading to get started making your brain work its best to reach your full potential.
How Does Brain Map Work?
It’s when you go to your Neurofeedback Provider and you have your qEEG BrainMap taken. It’s basically similar to an x-ray of how your brain functions. If you had an x-ray of a broken leg, you could see where it needed to be mended to heal. qEEG Brain Mapping shows how your brain is using the five main speeds for sleep, drowsiness, relaxation, focus, and stress. It works by putting a cap on your head and nothing is done to you. However, that cap simply reads how every area of your brain is operating in its use of speed. Here are a few examples of the speeds that would be analyzed in a qEEG brain map:
Extra Slow: Delta – Sleep Mode /Too much – memory problems, Not enough – Sleep Issues
Slow: Theta – Fall Asleep Mode / Too much – ADHD, ADD, Sensory Processing Issues
Medium: Alpha – Couch Mode / Too much – Depression, Not enough – Anxiety
Fast: Beta – Focus Mode / Not enough – Slow Processing, Too Much Hyperfocus
Extra Fast: High Beta – Anxiety Mode / Too much – stress, hypervigilance, sleep problems
What is an Optimal or Typical Brain Map?
So, once your brain map has been taken it gets uploaded to a very large database with brains of all ages. Then your brain map is compared to people of the same age. That’s how we know if your brain is doing what it should for your age.
Watch the video I made for a quick explanation and keep reading below to learn more about the topic.
How Does a Normative Database Work?
This database is very complex. However, if you think about it our brains are changing across our lifetimes. That’s why we compare it to Age Match Peers or the “norm”.
If you are lucky and your brain map comes back perfect, then your brain is doing exactly what we want it to do for your age. Then your brain map would be all green. I call it the “Green Zone”. If your brain is not using the ideal performance mode, we can see where and why in your brain map.
What do qEEG Brain Maps show?
Your qEEG Brain Map will show how fast or slow your brain is performing based on the speeds explained above. Therefore, different brain patterns are based on certain areas of the brain that are not using speed properly. Some areas may be using too much speed. Like ADHD, which is using too much slow speed, Theta, in the Frontal Lobe of the brain. However, anxiety is the use of too much High Beta extra fast speed. And other diagnoses are using too little of a speed. Such as memory loss or cognitive decline that isn’t enough Beta for perfect processing speed.
Get Your Brain Mapped.
To get your brain back to “the green zone.” Come have your brain mapped at Leigh Brain and Spine today. However, this could be the next step in your life to getting your brain speed back on track.