BrainAvatar: Flexible Individualization for Treating Autism, a Complex Disorder

STS Instructor Authored by Dick Genardi

Article at a glance

Practitioner perspective. This article describes a clinician's own experience, cases or methods. It was not peer reviewed or controlled, so it can be subjective. Read it as practical insight, not as evidence that a treatment works.

Area: Practitioner Perspectives
Authors: Genardi D
Journal: NeuroConnections (Winter 2012)
Year: 2012
Participants: 1 (case illustration)
Population: Adults
Protocol: 19-channel PZOK z-score training combined with sLORETA network training (default mode network)
Sessions: 8, then 1 session on a second target
Equipment: BrainMaster Discovery; BrainAvatar

Key findings

Reviews EEG connectivity patterns reported in autism, such as frontal-posterior under-connectivity and frontotemporal over-connectivity
Explains how BrainAvatar trains a chosen Brodmann area, region or network with sLORETA alongside 19-channel z-score training
Single case: a 50-year-old man with autism, trained on the default mode network over 8 sessions
Reported gains were behavioural and observed by the clinician; there was no control condition

A practitioner's how-to article on using BrainMaster's BrainAvatar software to target neurofeedback at the brain networks most often reported as atypical in autism. It reviews connectivity findings from the autism literature, explains how live sLORETA and 19-channel z-score training can be combined to train a chosen Brodmann area, region or network, and walks through setting up a training file. It ends with one case: a 50-year-old man with autism whose default mode network was trained over eight sessions, followed by one session targeting the anterior cingulate and precuneus. The author reports less leg-bouncing, less gaze aversion and easier redirection in conversation, with no change in his ability to put information in context.

Read it in NeuroConnections, Winter 2012 (ISNR archive), p. 13 →