Re: white vs. grey matter

[Guest guest]

Dear Tom: I'm awfully sorry about your son -- my daughter is 13 years post injury.

My understanding is that both NF and HEG are operating at the surface of the brain and I don't know enough about brain structure and function to constructively comment on your suggestion. All I can say was that I was disappointed that the NF down-trained theta signals at the injury site was not accompanied by any significant corresponding improvement in her overall condition. If what Pete says about white matter regrowth is true (and I'm not sure that it is) then it's disheartening.

I must tell you I'm skeptical about HEG. The aim is claimed to be to increase capillary blood flow in the brain but how can one be sure that it's only increasing capillary blood flow on the scalp surface -- on the external surface of the cranium?

My daughter's TBI was bad -- "diffuse axonal shearing". She lost much willed motion, speech etc - but has a lot of cognition.. There has been some recovery with extensive therapy (she won a law suit that has provided funds for therapy) and we are hoping that stem-cell therapy will be the answer.

Good luck to your son and your family.

nick

Subject: Re: white vs. grey matterTo: braintrainer Date: Thursday, May 15, 2008, 1:09 PM

Hi Nick,My son suffered a TBI some 20 yrs ago. Our knowledge of it is only recent though. I wonder if the theta amplitude reduction is occuring globally and is a general reduction.I have my own crude interpretation of the frequency situation. Perhaps the lower frequencies emanate from the interior generators and if they arrive at the cortex "unmodulated" then the original unrefined instinctive action rules the day and a raw primitive behavior is the result. Damage to the neocortex denies the brain a place to modulate, or create harmonics of the theta waves, in a sense to refine them.If this is the case, how can we best proceed to re-establish this function ? It seems HEG would be a good start, establishing a "bed" for the training. Any comments?Tom Lennon white vs. grey matter

Dear Pete: I have a couple of about your recent post regarding white matter damage and repair.

1. While the myelin (white matter) sheath does not seem to be reparable once it has been impaired, (as in MS), isn't there evidence out there for axonal "regrowth" so that new pathways between sheared axons (as in brain injury) occur? Doesn't this imply that these "new connections" have new white matter? There should be no genetic bars in to myelin regrowthin a simple TBI as there would be in MS -- isn;t that so?

I also think there's stuff going on in stem cell work that's promising.

2. My daughter has had a TBI -- with resultant "axonal shearing". The expected high theta and delta is seen in the EEG, peaking exactly at the site of the injury. I've done NF sessions training down theta and we have seen remarkable decreases in amplitudes in theta (even though the improvements in her overall condition have not been as encouraging)

Now since the increased theta is associated with white matter damage from sheared axons, doesn't the decreased theta from NF training suggest that something is going on with the white matter -- that perhaps new myelin is appearing somehow, somewhere?

nick mammano

Plan your next roadtrip with MapQuest.com: America's #1 Mapping Site.