This study revealed two candidate pathways from cortical receipt of a stimulus to activity of the amygdala. An excitatory pathway was found through the orbito-frontal cortex. Another emotional regulator pathway was found via the right inferior lateral prefrontal cortex.
The relative speeds and strengths of these pathways were expected to determine the anxiety and overly emotional responsiveness of anxiety, PTSD, depressive, and anger prone individuals.-
It was hypothesized that HEG exercise of the regulatory and inhibitory pathways would strengthen them and bring overly emotional sufferers to remission.-
One of two TBI Cases is reported here. Four examples of nine resolved anxiety cases with before and after QEEG or Loreta studies show EEG effects of HEG frontal cortex training-
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Introduction:
Anxiety, resulting from amygdala activation, has evolutionary advantages in rapidly preparing the individual for flight or fight in threatening situations. A brain exceptionally fast excitatory pathway has been found from the striatum that reaches the amygdala via the special branch of Broca. Another inhibitory pathway traverses the cortex before reaching the amygdala and is slower. This second pathway is inhibitory. A third regulator pathway in the right lateral inferior prefrontal cortex has been shown to regulate activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, a common route for pain and emotional activation. (Eisenberger N. et al. 2003). These pathways are illustrated in Fig 1.-
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Fig 2 Striatum from Brain Coloring Book Diamond M. and Scheibel A.-
Some individuals are more prone to anxiety attacks than the average.- Zubieta et al. (2003) studied disparity in pain tolerance. They found a gene, ComptVAL158met, that regulates pain sensitivity. The gene has two alleles, methionine (met) and valine (val). Each allele is a dominant gene with equal opportunity for inheritance. One inherits a copy from each parent. Thus there are four genotypes: met-met (1), met-val (2a), val-met (2b), and val-val (3). The 2a and 2b genes have identical behavioral effects. There are thus three separable genotypes or grades of pain sensitivity 1,2, and 3. Type 1 and 3 each account for 25% of the population. Genotypes 2a and 2b account for 50% of the
population. There are thus a low sensitivity (1) group, a high sensitivity (3) group and an intermediate sensitivity (2) group.-
Aron E. in "The Highly Sensitive Person" (2000) provides a test to distinguish the high sensitivity group 3 members.-
This is the first report using HEG to affect a mental state usually relegated to EEG or- psychotherapy. This experimental result with HEG, a system that has demonstrated its physiological basis (Toomim, H. 2002), suggests that an underlying genetic or acquired physiological complex makes one prone to these devastating experiences. As Richard Davidson says: "Even though we all experience similar emotions, we respond to them in different ways" [Wisconsin University Communications News Release 2/19/2004; Zubieta et al. 2003 Science Feb. 21(299) 1240-1241; Toomim H. Neurofeedback with Hemoencephalography (HEG) Explore for the Professional 4(1) Nov. 2002].
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Hypothesis:
The speed and strength of right and left lateral prefrontal cortical emotion regulators' of the orbito- frontal cortex can be developed to control the response of victims of anxiety and negative emotional experience.-
Method:
