New York Times

BOOKS ON HEALTH

By JOHN LANGONE

 Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave

Biofeedback," by Jim Robbins, Atlantic Monthly Press, $24.

 When the author of this book first heard of a technique known

variously as brain-wave biofeedback, neurofeedback and neuro

therapy, he was battling chronic fatigue syndrome and had exhausted

traditional therapies.

 Though it "had a New Age whiff about it," he nonetheless traveled

to a weekend symposium, got his scalp hooked up to a computer

display via electroencephalogram sensors and began a session of

brain-training.

 "After a half hour," he recalls, "my mind was tired, my thoughts

muddled. But an hour or so after I finished, I experienced what is

known as the clean windshield effect. The world looked sharp and

crystalline, and I had a quiet, energetic feeling that lasted a

couple of hours. It was the first time I had felt that way in

years."

 Biofeedback, which has been around for some 30 years, harnesses

the body's natural rhythms — brain waves and autonomic functions —

to monitors that allow one to see, for example, amplified

electrical frequencies of the brain or usually unconscious

occurrences like blood pressure and heart and lung action.

 By watching these events on a computer screen, participants are

able to influence their physical and mental well-being. In

neurofeedback, patients can be trained to operate in brain

frequencies they do not generally use, an exercise designed to

enable one to strengthen the brain.

 Mr. Robbins, a journalist whose articles occasionally appear in

The New York Times, focuses on the brain-strengthening aspects of

the technique, making a decent case through interviews with

clinicians, researchers and patients for its value in a variety of

disorders, including autism, epilepsy, attention deficit disorder,

learning disabilities, head injuries, post traumatic stress

disorder, addictions and depression.

 He argues that though the medical profession is generally

dismissive of the therapy, the effects of neurofeedback are "not

subtle but extremely robust."

 It may not be either miracle or panacea, he writes, but it is

science, albeit science that is still young and relatively unknown.

The big question about neurofeedback, he concludes, is not whether

it works, but "why it is as effective as it is, for whom,

precisely, and how it can be made more powerful."