Updated: April, 2021
By: Eve Coberly, M.S., M.A.
Reviewed: Zack Butterfield, CMHC, BCN
Life is an adventure full of twists and turns, joys and sorrows, ups and downs. Although everybody encounters difficult and stressful times, some people end up with life experiences that are so emotionally, physically, and spiritually overwhelming that it drastically changes who they are. One mental health disorder that can develop after experiencing such extreme negative life event(s) like sexual abuse, physical abuse, or combat is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Nicholson et al. 2018; Nicholson et al., 2021). PTSD is a mental illness that effects “roughly 25% of individuals” who are either “exposed to” or “have witnessed a traumatic event” (Nicholson et al., 2018, p. 4259; American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Although PTSD symptoms can differ from person to person, it is generally characterized by the following: 1) vividly “re-experiencing the “traumatic event(s)”, 2) displaying avoidant-type behaviors (i.e., avoiding things/people that remind the person of the event), 3) negative changes in thought and/or mood (i.e., an increase in negative thoughts, can go from feeling “flat to furious”), and 4) excessive hyper vigilance (i.e., feeling like they are constantly on guard) (For official DSM-5 PTSD diagnostic criteria click here) (Nicholson et al., 2018, p. 4259; American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Doc Snipes, 2020a; Doc Snipes, 2020b).
There is no doubt that PTSD can be extremely difficult to live with, but the good news is that it doesn’t have to be a life sentence. The following article briefly explores the impact of traumatic stress on the brain, and how neurofeedback can help create new positive brain connections.
PTSD & The Brain
In PTSD, the brain’s overall connectivity and functioning has been negatively altered by chronic stress (Snipes, 2019). For instance, both the thinking part of a person’s brain (prefrontal cortex), and their fear/emotional parts (limbic system), are supposed to work in concert. However, in PTSD the emotional/fear parts of the brain, more often then not, have become extremely overactive, and the thinking parts of the brain usually becomes either under active, or in some cases, hyper active, all of which contributes to PTSD symptomology (i.e., hypervigilence, impulsivity, cognitive dissonance, bias towards negative thoughts/emotions, anxiety, etc.) (Villalpando et al. 2020; Nicholson et al., 2018; Nicholson et al, 2021;Nicholson et al., 2020; Butt et al., 2019).
Although negative brain changes accompany PTSD, the good news is that the brain is an amazing organ, and can rewire itself back into more healthy ways through something called functional neuroplasticity (Cabib et al., 2020; World Science Festival, 2019). Functional neuroplasticity is the ability of the human brain to rewire itself into more adaptive ways through “active coping”, “goal-directed instrumental learning”, and positive life experiences (i.e., paying attention the body i.e., heart rate/breathing, learning about mental health, etc.) (Cabib et al., 2020, p.2).
Neurofeedback
One modern treatment strategy that harnesses functional neuroplasticity via “goal-directed learning” is Neurofeedback (NF) (Balt et al., 2020; Nicholson et al. 2018; Nicholson et al. 2020; Van der Kolk, 2014, Cabib, 2020, p.2). NF is a scientifically proven, noninvasive form of biofeedback that can help a person rebalance parts of their brain into more healthy patterns by retraining it via operant conditioning (i.e., having a person watch a movie, listens to music, or play a video game and rewarding optimal brain patterns) (Koberda et al. 2014; Altan et al. 2016; Demos, 2019).
To help restore proper brain connectivity in PTSD, NFT sessions would try to retrain the brain to work much more efficiently, or what is known in neurofeedback as the brain working at “perfect processing speed” (Nicholson et al. 2018; Nicholson et al. 2020; Dr. Trish Leigh, Brain Rewire, 2020, 1:00-1:05). For instance, NFT sessions for PTSD would try to: 1) increase regulatory neural activity in the prefrontal cortex/thinking part of the brain, 2) work directly with the emotional/fear parts by helping it properly regulate in times of stress, and/or 3) retrain multiple brain areas simultaneously so that the brain can process various sensory input much more effectively (i.e, helping the brain process incoming sounds, sights, smells, etc. in a more appropriate way by training both the thinking and emotional parts together) (Nicholson et al., 2017; Villalpando et al., 2020; Butt et al., 2019).
No matter the training protocol, neurofeedback can aide in restoring healthy brain connections for people with PTSD; thus, helping them increase positive emotional regulation skills and overall quality of life (Nicholson et al., 2017; Villalpando et al., 2020).
References
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Balt, K., Toit, P. D., Smith, M., van Rosenburg, C. J., (2020). The effect of infraslow frequency neurofeedback on autonomic nervous system function in adults with anxiety and related diseases. Neuroregulaton, 7 (20), 63-74. doi:10.15540/nr.7.2.64
Butt, M., Espinal, E., Aupperle, R. L., Nikulina, V., & Stewart, J. L. (2019). The Electrical Aftermath: Brain Signals of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Filtered Through a Clinical Lens. Frontiers In Psychiatry, 10 (368), 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00368
Cabib, S., Campus, P., Conversi, D., Orsini, C., & Puglisi-Allegra, S. (2020). Functional and dysfunctional neuroplasticity in learning to cope with stress. Brain Sciences, 10 (2), 1-13. 10.3390/ brainsci10020127
Demos, J. N. (2019). Getting Started with EEG Neurofeedback (2nd ed). W. W. & Norton & Company Doc Snipes (Producer). (2020). Cortisols impact on health and mood: PACER Integrative Behavioral Health [Video]. Youtube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/-QOLW08a39o
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Nicholson AA, Rabellino D, Densmore M, Frewen PA, Paret C, Kluetsch R, Schmahl C, Théberge J, Neufeld RW, McKinnon MC, Reiss J, Jetly R, & Lanius .R. A. (2017). The neurobiology of emotion regulation in posttraumatic stress disorder: Amygdala downregulation via real-time fMRI neurofeedback. Human Brain Mapping. 38(1), 541-560. 10.1002/hbm.23402.
Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York: Viking
Villalpando, S. L., McReynolds, C. J., Lee, G., Montgomery, S., & Vermeersch, D. (2020). Neurofeedback: An Examination of Attentional Processes in Adults with Self-Reported PTSD Symptoms. Neuroregulation, 7 (4), 142-155. 10.15540/nr.7.4.142
World Science Festival. (Producer). (2019). The Nuts and Bolts of Better Brains: Harnessing the Power of Neuroplasticity [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ODYOaUbX4&t=987s
