Autism (Music Bundle)

Autism Spectrum Disorder

The CNR Neuro-Integration clinical approach for dealing with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) views these conditions as having a possible history of birthing trauma, a Caesarean Section delivery, forceps delivery, early infant closed head injury, early concussion and / or allergic reactions of the cerebral cortex to environmental factors. These various factors can lead to a desynchronization of the brain’s hemispheres and the deep brain regions of the Default Mode Network (DMN), with a weakening of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) stress handling centers. A weakening of the body’s physical stress handling ability and the desynchronizing of the DMN, which coordinates sense of self and sense of surroundings with emotional control centers of the hippocampus and amygdala regions of the brain, can possibly lead directly to childhood neurological disorders, aberrant behavior and learning disabilities. Many of these conditions have similar underlying functional imbalances in brainwave function – and these imbalanced can possibly be re-trained. Therefore, we are not treating the medical disorder, but the underlying imbalance in the brain which leads to many of these disorders.

With ASD, there are specific brainwave deficiencies that are clearly associated and it is these brainwave imbalances we work on with brainwave entrainment re-training:

MU: (8-13 Hz)

This brainwave frequency tends to spike at 8-13 Hz and is often referred to as the “Wicket Rhythm”, because of its appearance on EEG. Firing of neurons in the brain’s motor cortex, which send signals to the body to contract a muscle, inhibit MU waves in the brain. If a person watches someone else contract a muscle, MU waves are also suppressed. It is as if they where contracting that same muscle in their own body. This is due to what is called “mirror” neuron activity. I believe this is a neurological coupled oscillator function.  (See Appendix B)

Children with Autism show no suppression of MU-wave activity when watching someone else contract a muscle. This means there is a deficiency in their mirror neuron activity. With no or deficient MU activity, they would have an impaired ability to connect socially with others; the mechanism to mirror and learn these behaviors being decreased or missing. Without this brain function, it is not possible to learn what body gestures or facial expressions mean. 

Brainwave entrainment of MU activity in Autistic children may be a valuable approach to normalize their brain function, re-establishing the missing coupled oscillator function.  I am currently using this approach and hope to show the validity of this theory through research. I am greatly encouraged to-date by the results I’ve seen with patients clinically.

GAMMA: (40 Hz)

In addition, I believe these children have a deficiency of Gamma brainwave activity as well. 

Gamma Brainwave function has a range of around 40 Hz and represents a continuous “hum” of activity in the background activity of the brain. Gamma brainwaves link to cognitive consciousness, since the only time they disappear is when one is under general anesthesia.

Gamma has been called the “binding” frequency, as it seems to gather sensory information from the various regions of the cortex and bind them together. Without this binding together of the information from seeing, hearing, touch, smell, taste, etc, into a coherent whole, the world would seem completely chaotic to us. It seems to me that an imbalance in Gamma activity in the brain could lead to the symptoms associated with Autism or even Schizophrenia. Autistic individuals seem to exhibit the kind of symptoms you would expect to see if a person was having trouble integrating sensory information. This would lead to a sensory experience of the world being jumbled and not making sense, resulting in difficulty reacting normally to social activities and hyper-responsiveness to sensory overload. I have had preliminary promising results with Gamma brainwave entrainment with autistic children over the past 6 years. In addition, Autistic children exhibit similar problems with how the right / left hemispheres communicate with one another, the same finding I see as a major component of ADD and ADHD.  Gamma brain activity is required for the “binding” of information from all our senses so the world around us “hangs together” and makes sense. Without this binding function, the world would be fractured and incoherent. As a result, I use a combination of Gamma and MU brainwave entrainment protocols with good clinical results. Once these two brain patterns begin to get exercised and functional again the world begins to come together and make sense, and the mirroring ability of the emerging MU patterns allow a coupled oscillator connection with other people socially.  I’ve seen children get excited when they report they can have friends now.

The DEFAULT MODE NETWORK (DMN)

Researchers are calling this brain network the physical place where the mind, emotions and body actually come together neurologically, the physical place in the body where real "Mind-Body" meet and reside.

The Default Mode Network consists of four specific zones of the brain that form a functional network that is highly synchronized together with an extremely slow brainwave pulse of 0.1 Hz - 0.2 Hz. That is one brainwave pulse every 10-20 seconds. Normal "awake" brainwave frequencies are in Beta at about 18 Hz or 18 brainwave firings per second. In deepest sleep, the brainwaves are in very low Delta at 0.5 Hz.

The four brain zones of the DMN are as follows:
1) Medial Prefrontal Cortex - located at the front of the brain and down between the hemispheres. This zone is associated with imagining and thinking about oneself. This is where my sense of inner self resides.
2) Posterior Cingulate Cortex / Precuneus area - located at the back of the brain and down between the hemispheres. This zone is associated with pulling personal memories from the brain's archives. This is where I get a sense of myself in context of the outer world of which I am a part....my sense of my outer world self, my context with the whole.
3 & 4) Right & Left Inferior Temporal Lobes - located to either side of the brain diagonally up behind our ears. These zones are associated with my sense of myself in the past leading to the present and my anticipation of where I might be going in the future.
These four regions have direct neural wiring with deeper structures in the brain which process and handle emotions: the Hippocampus and the Amygdala.

When the brain is not actively engaged in an external task, it automatically "defaults" to an inner functional activity in which the mind wanders and the four DMN Zones are synchronized with this very powerful 0.1-0.2 Hz brainwave pulse. Thus far, researchers have identified a whole series of debilitating conditions associated with a de-synchronized Default Mode Network, which can arise from brain trauma, closed head injury, concussion, etc. These conditions include schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, depression, PTSD, Parkinson's, Alzheimer’s disease, Autism, classic psychiatric dissociative disorders, etc.  At CNR, we have been researching brainwave entrainment therapies with entrainment speeds at 0.1 - 0.2 Hz since 1989. We have seen remarkable results with these types of conditions and others, most through work with the below Delta brainwave band which I discovered in 1989 and which I called "Epsilon". With these more recent discoveries using sophisticated fMRI imaging studies and discovering this Default Mode Network with a synchronized pulse of brain activity also at 0.1 Hz - 0.2 Hz, we have refined our brainwave entrainment techniques to more perfectly be able to re-synchronize the DMN. This has given us new, more powerful tools to offer for possible treatments for these many conditions.  (See Appendix E)

We have seen a de-synchronization of the DMN to be one of the key factors involved in the Autism Spectrum Disorder, as well as ADD, ADHD and dyslexia disorders.

Delta (0.5-3.5 Hz)

Delta brainwave activity is associated with the deepest stage of sleep with lowest heart-rate, blood pressure, respiration, body temperature and cell metabolism. This is the stage of sleep where physical recuperation takes place. Since ASD tends to have troubled sleep symptoms, we have included this track to address this problem and make sure that the deep stage sleep physical recuperation is maximized.

Epsilon (0.25-0.5 Hz)

This slower-than-Delta brainwave activity was discovered in 1989 by Dr Jeffrey Thompson in a 2-year study of all patients in his clinic. It is associated with a deeper integration with non-physical aspects of brainwave function and is essential to re-integrate brain function.

Beta/Alpha (around 13 Hz): 

Mention of this borderline state showed up in a paper on genius, prodigy children with extremely high IQ (160 and above). One thing they all had in common: high levels of brainwave activity at the borderline between Beta and Alpha. Beta governs external, single focus, linear thinking, mental ability. Alpha governs internal, multi-focus (peripheral vision), holographic (non-linear) mind state, mental ability. For the majority of people, the brain can do only one of these activities at a time, high IQ individuals seem to have more brain processing power and can do both activities at the Same Time. By using brainwave entrainment to this borderline state, it may be possible to train the brain’s ability to increase it IQ to process both of these brain states at the same time. Many children with ASD are also prodigy children with very high intelligence of narrow focus. This track is to expand this focus.

Directions for use:

Listen to each soundtrack for one week, once a day, with headphones and eyes closed, then move on to the next soundtrack for one week. At the conclusion of this sequence of all track, begin again the same way and repeat this three times…then you can use them less frequently at your discretion.

Many ASD children cannot tolerate or will not cooperate with headphones, therefore it may be necessary for them to be asleep first, before you place the headphones on them for the session. Compliance improves using headphone as time goes on and the condition improves in most cases.

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