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What is Brain Mapping ?

Physical injury to the brain, such as concussion, disrupts normal flow of electrical impulses in the brain tissue. Similarly, toxic injury, seizure disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, anoxia and brain infection (e.g., chronic Lyme encephalitis) alter brainwave activity. ADD, OCD, anxiety, depression and Learning Disability have distinct brainwave “signatures.”

EEG (or electroencephalogram) is a recording of brainwave activity. QEEG (Quantitative EEG), popularly known as brain mapping, refers to a comprehensive analysis of brainwave frequency bandwidths that make up the raw EEG. QEEG is recorded the same way as EEG, but the data acquired in the recording are used to create topographic color-coded maps that show electrical activity of the cerebral cortex.

While other brain imaging techniques (e.g., CT, MRI, PET, SPECT) measure such properties as cerebral blood flow, metabolism or structural integrity, QEEG measures electrical activity of the brain. It provides complex analysis of such brainwave characteristics as symmetry, phase, coherence, amplitude, power and dominant frequency. In fact, subtle disruptions of electrical connectivity and flow in the brain sometimes may be the only or the early signs of a problem.

The QEEG findings are then compared to a normative database. This database consists of brain map recordings of several hundred healthy individuals. Comparisons are displayed as Z scores, which represent standard deviations from the norm.

The primary use of QEEG is to examine patterns of brainwaves and help determine whether a person is an appropriate candidate for Neurofeedback, a treatment that normalizes brainwaves. QEEG does not render a diagnosis, but is designed to help the clinician to make a diagnosis. QEEG is not a substitute for EEG; it is a different process than that carried out by the neurologist when he or she performs an EEG assessment. Medical illness of the brain, such as seizure disorder, dementia, encephalopathy, brain tumor, lesion, haematoma and aneurysm should be diagnosed by a physician.

http://www.northeastcenter.com/information_bulletin_what_is_brain_mapping.htm