The attached design and document show how to downtrain the variability of variability in a manner that is motivated by some considerations of the approach used by NCP. It is not intended to replicate NCP in any specific way, it is merely an example.
My impression from observing NCP is that it is teaching the brain to find a comfortable location within which to move around. It does not train down the variability itself, since the size of the working box does not seem to change. Rather, its location moves about, to accomodate where the EEG is at any instant.
So it seems that NCP is teaching the brain to work with a given amount of variability, but to limit how much that range is allowed to move about.
It sounds a lot like what you say Val said. (see below) But again, this is my impression only.
We can implement something related to that, by setting up two dynamic thresholds an equal distance apart, and teach the EEG values to stay within the band that they define as they move about. You can use the standard dynamic thresholding as a guide using regular amplitude training (not the variability metric), and train the amplitude to stay within a fixed sized range, whose center is defined as the mean of the signal.
The attached files show an example protocol that performs this type of training for alpha waves.
Please note that this is an example of one way to train variability, and we do not claim that this replicates NCP in any specific way.
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Thank you for your response, and yes, I would be interested in participating in a future webinar. I would like to say a bit more about my interest in variability training.
In my experience, NeuroCARE was very good at helping certain clients with anxiety, insomnia, and certain types of PTSD. The big problem with NCP (it is now know as "ZIN", but whatever) is/was it is a black box that cannot be modified or tailored to the clinical presentation at hand. There are times when you don't want to train down variability across the entire 1-42 or 64 Hz spectrum.
Val Brown makes a big point out of the idea that he is not training down variability of amplitudes, but rather, the variability of the variability or the rate of change in the change in variabilites. Do you have any thoughts on that now or can we discuss that later?
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To look at simple variability training with dynamic thresholding, load the following
settings file into the "test" folder and run it:
"Demo alpha variability downtraining with dynamic threshold"
You will see a simulation of alpha variability downtraining using the
Event Wizard, which you can use as a start for other designs.
If there is sufficient interest, I could cover this on an upcoming webinar.
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Does anybody train down amplitude variability (I.e., it's standard deviation) in separate bands and/or across the spectrum, using autothresholding?
If not, is there a way to do so?