Siegfried Othmer | Sue Othmer | Kurt Othmer

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Siegfried Othmer, Ph.D., is a physicist by training and an engaging speaker by nature. In recent lectures, Siegfried has brought his audience the excitement of learning about the advances in our knowledge about the rhythms of the brain. He will show the crowd a slide of brainwaves of a normal person and someone who is experiencing severe pain.

The key to understanding these advances – and the implications for understanding neurofeedback – is to view the brain as a dynamic system. Conventional perspectives, of neurologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists, are structural. Anatomical parts of the brain are seen as the source of behavioral control. Drugs which mimic or act upon neurotransmitters or other chemicals are the focal point of research and treatment. But, these structural models are limiting. They make it hard to see the brain as a population of networks that act collectively. The structural models ignore the plasticity of the brain, the flow of information measured by EEG, and the metaphor of the brain as a symphony orchestra that may or may not be playing harmonious music.

Siegfried, who loves opera and reading, delights in showing the proof for neurofeedback in both scientific and musical terms. Ensembles of neurons dancing with other ensembles; a conductor in thalamus where rhythms are established, amplified, and inhibited; the enhancement of high frequency (soprano) music for some and increasing the low frequency (alto) for others. Siegfried will show the group the evidence that brain training results in improvements in IQ, calms the anxious mind, and returns people to their friends and family – by helping people find the rhythms in their own brains.

Once the brain is seen as organic, dynamic, and shapeable, the validity of neurofeedback becomes so very easy to see. Once he has provided the foundation about brainwaves and rhythms, Siegfried will talk about theories of self-regulation and disregulation. Life, from birth to adulthood, can inflict traumas and the brain can fall out of rhythm. Elegant brain mechanisms for self-regulation of the entire body can chronically misfire and a state of disregulation can become the status quo. Neurofeedback allows the brain to rediscover natural self-regulation.

Finally, Siegfried has experienced the frustration of someone who presents a new idea. There was a long period in which drug therapies were all the rage, and non-drug modalities such as neurofeedback fell to the margins. But, the recent advances in understanding of networks, the mathematics of dynamic systems, and the similarities between what were formerly thought to be discrete disorders have given new energy to the growth of this field. Siegfried is out at the edge urging people to move forward with élan.