The science is in. Exposure to trauma can be a life changing event in terms of how it can physically change our brains. This is according to research done at the ZVR Lab at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester. The research team was led by assistant professor Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, Ph.D.
“We are learning more about how people exposed to trauma learn to distinguish between what is safe and what is not. Their brain is giving us insight into what may be going awry in specific mechanisms that are impacted by trauma exposure, especially when emotion is involved.”
Their research was published in Communications Biology recently, which showed changes in the salience network of the brain, which is used for survival and learning in those with mental health issues including depression, anxiety and PTSD. They used a fMRI to identify and understand these changes. They found that trauma exposed people made compensations in their brain processes by engaging the executive control network as a coping tool. Those who were not traumatized didn’t have the same amount of activation in these pathways.
When the research team looked into people with PTSD and found they could complete the same tasks as those without trauma exposure, when no emotions were involved. But when emotion was added into the mix, those with the PTSD had a much harder time.
What was ultimately revealed through fMRI findings, was that the hippocampus (area responsible for emotions and memory) and the salience network (learning and survival) had less signaling capability in the PTSD people.
It was also discovered there was less signaling between the amygdala (linked to emotions) and the default mode network (area that is activated when one is not focused on the outside world).
The experiment used patients with and without PTSD looking at different sized circles with one being linked to a threat. In this case, in a form of a shock. Those with the PTSD had a more difficult time making the distinction between the two sizes.
Suarez-Jimenez said, “ This tells us that patients with PTSD have issues discriminating only when there is an emotional component. In this case, aversive; we still need to confirm if this is true for other emotions like sadness, disgust, happiness, etc. So, it might be that in the real world emotions overload their cognitive ability to discriminate between safety, danger, or reward. It overgeneralizes towards danger.”
At this point you’re probably thinking what does all this have to do with LENS neurofeedback?
As a LENS neurofeedback specialist, we look at findings such as this as a way to confirm what we know in how the brain responds differently in everyone with past trauma. We use our experience with this technology to reconnect the traumatized neural networks by disrupting the misfiring signals and allowing the body to reorganize them.
LENS neurofeedback addresses emotional dysregulation through the prism of homeostasis. That the body does know and keeps the score. Its symptoms are nothing more than in outward display of the interior reality. In this case, one that has been severely altered due to traumatic conditions. Our body is designed to prefer homeostasis (sense of balance). Its attempt in finding it often results in being stuck in gear. The old unhealthy brain oscillations that support the problematic behaviors became frozen and rigid over time.
In this example, the salience and default mode networks carry the burden of the past trauma. Harming its ability to communicate with the executive functioning areas of the prefrontal cortex.
As a rule, neurofeedback is rooted in the idea of brain optimization. That all behaviors both good and maladaptive (like those with PTSD), are downstream to brainwaves. Behaviors require brain waves to support their activation. So by rebooting the frozen dysregulated patterns into ones that are more flexible and harmonious. The trauma induced brain regions can relax and perform better.
If the reason for the study is to understand how and what regions of the brain are impacted the most in a traumatized person. Then take this knowledge to come up with better treatment options and medication to treat the impacted areas. This study then has succeeded in what it set out to do.
This study for example, can show us where the poor activity is located. LENS can communicate with these brain regions to help them make the necessary shift into frequency ranges suited for stronger connectivity, resulting in improved performance.
Personally, I like the idea of combining scientific research which broadens our understanding of how trauma effects anatomy. Then using the data to redirect that understanding in how the body is designed to work, naturally. If the body is adapting to stress in order to survive. While leaving clues in the form of symptoms. LENS works to assist the body to reorganize itself back to a more optimal state.
– A Balanced Brain is a Better Brain for a Happier Life-