Research › Practitioner Perspectives
Uncovering the Belief Behind the Action
STS Instructor Authored by Thomas Collura
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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 It was not peer reviewed or controlled, so it can be subjective.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
- Bonnstetter RJ, Collura T, Hebets D, Bonnstetter BJ
- Journal
- NeuroConnections (Winter 2012)
- Year
- 2012
- Participants
- Over 50 assessed; 2 cases described
- Population
- Adults
- Protocol
- Event-related potentials to self-report survey words; prefrontal gamma asymmetry analysed with sLORETA
- Sessions
- 1 one-hour EEG session per person
- Equipment
- BrainMaster BrainAvatar (19-channel EEG); E-Prime stimulus software
Key findings
- Words from a self-report survey were shown during 19-channel EEG, with prefrontal asymmetry read as approach or avoidance
- More than 50 people assessed; the article reports two illustrative debriefings, not group results
- The authors conclude that people are better at registering what they dislike than what they like
- A proprietary, patent-pending process; no controls or statistics are reported
Describes an event-related potential method that a consulting firm's research lab developed to compare what people say about themselves with how their brains react. Volunteers first completed a wellness survey that asked how much they liked or disliked words and phrases. Then, during a one-hour 19-channel EEG session, they saw the same words on screen for about a second each. The method reads left versus right prefrontal activation, especially gamma bursts, as a sign of approach or avoidance. After more than 50 people had been assessed, the authors describe two debriefings. A fit nutrition coach showed strong avoidance to "obese people" and then disclosed a history of anorexia. A woman with depression reacted strongly to "smoking" and then spoke about a recent lung scan she had not told her family about. The authors argue that seeing these images helps clients talk openly. The process is patent-pending and the article reports no group statistics or controls.
Read it in NeuroConnections, Winter 2012 (ISNR archive), p. 20 →