Traumatic Brain Injury
Of the 1.5 million cases of TBI annually in the United States, 75% are classified as concussions or mild TBI (MTBI) and over 235,000 cases are hospitalized. The presently available intervention approaches to the cognitive problems of the TBI patient include computers, strategy intervention and EEG biofeedback. The diagnostic ability of the QEEG has been demonstrated scientifically in 1989 when R. Thatcher documented a certain QEEG pattern that occurs in the TBI case, which was replicated in three independent samples with about a .90 discriminate function positive hit rate. The pattern was predominantly reflected in decreased alpha activity, increased beta activity and theta activity. When the TBI subject was examined under the activation task conditions with the high frequency analysis a different pattern emerged. The pattern was one of deficits in the coherence values in the gamma frequency (32-64 Hertz). The figure below represents a fairly typical pattern of the TBI patient under the high frequency activation procedure.
In the head figure above where there is one location with no circle, the empty location represents the origin of a "flashlight" which "sends" out its beam to the other locations. When the beam arrives at a particular location a coherence value is calculated. The colors of the circle indicated the standard deviation (SD) difference from the normative reference group. The white color indicates that the subject was within the range between +.50 and -.50 standard deviations. The light blue indicates the subject was between -.50 and -1.50 SD. The dark blue indicates the subject's value was below -1.50 SD. Light orange indicates the subject was between +.50 SD and +1.50 SD while the dark orange indicates a value above +1.50 SD. The number in the circle is the SD value.
The following example presents the results of the treatment approach on the coherence values in a TBI patient. The figures present the flashlight effects from the right frontal during a problem solving task. The subject's initial average to below average values were in the above average range after the treatment (as indicated by the orange color). There were also significant improvements on the cognitive measures administered.
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