I think there's something to just training 10-14 Hz alpha at Pz. I find that I can get pretty distinct feelings of prana/qi/piti-sukha very quickly using this method, and it seems to clarify some of the mechanics of attention for me. For example, a very consistent and relaxed attention seems to always increase the amplitude in this band the most, and 'mind wandering' causes the amplitude to fall into the low to medium range, and trying to establish my attention on the object will actually cause it to fall below that low to medium range. Initially that last point confused me, but the word I italicized seems to be at the root of it. When I'm trying to establish attention, I'm really bumping my mind into the object and trying to find a foothold, I'm not really locked into a state of attentiveness yet, rather what I am doing is looking for it or trying to establish it. Therefore I think the frequency band taking a very sharp fall in these moments might be a kind of phase-reset phenomenon, or my brain trying to 'lock on' to a mode of attention, by briefly resetting oscillatory activity in this frequency band, and thus causing the reduction in amplitude. That is just a fairly unscientific theory I formed after exploring this kind of training over a few sessions, though.
But I think this modality might be a way of monitoring 'mindfulness' (or heedfulness, or recollection), which is basically just a balanced and relatively ubiquitous/fluid mode of attention that acts contrary inattention (or heedlessness). Mindfulness (or sati) is ostensibly a mode of attention, it isn't actually the 'noticing' faculty we commonly see it as (that's actually a separate mental factor, sampajanna). Mindfulness is crucial not just because we need to be 'not inattentive' in order to implement any changes in our life (that's why the Buddha talked about mindfulness so much), but in Buddhist phenomenology it is also the faculty that naturally shades over into samadhi and jhana. So taking the most essential or basic approach, you work on simply being 'not inattentive', and then that naturally flows into light jhana, and then you just work with light jhana as a stronger basis for training attention, developing progressively stronger jhana and attention, etc, etc. And all of this proceeds from a mode of attention that is relatively effortless (because it is so moderate), all you're doing is simply resolving to not fall into a state of heedlessness or inattention. A conservative and relatively attainable priority like that seems a lot more realistic to me, and consequently more useful. I think viewing it that way basically locates the crux of the problem, or the fundamental approach to mental training/discipline.
The FAQ on the brain-trainer website mentions training 10-14 Hz in parietal regions as kind of an alternative to training alpha peak frequency, with the rationale being that alpha peak frequency can exceed 12 Hz in parietal regions in healthy individuals. Both alpha and SMR training seem implicated in 'flow states', and 10-14 Hz at Pz serves as kind of a casual median between these two kinds of training. Alpha and SMR are also the easiest, safest, and simplest kinds of brainwave training we can do, and they're basically right in the dead centre of the trainable spectrum. I think this kind of reflects the point I just made about mindfulness being relatively effortless and accessible. It seems, at least intuitively, that we shouldn't have to resort to any extreme or esoteric modes of training to access it, because mindfulness is anything but extreme or esoteric.
About 10-14 Hz at Pz being 'inbetween' alpha and SMR training, Pete Van Deusen claims that SMR is basically just a different morphology of thalamic/high alpha that is endogenous to the sensorimotor strip. Pz is also positioned roughly over the thalamus, so training SMR at Cz and 'high alpha' at Pz should be roughly functionally equivalent. But there are reasons to think training over Pz might be preferable, one is that the posterior cingulate cortex seems to be implicated in 'effortless attention' in some studies, which from my premises is exactly the kind of attention that we're targeting. And more on the note of 'effortless' attention, other modes of attentional training like HEG or beta over the frontal lobes I find to be too effortful to be very useful. And this is somewhat contrary to the common knowledge that positions attention in the frontal lobes with the executive control functions. I know in some studies frontal midline theta is associated with attentional processing, and maybe that's more effortless (and located in frontal areas, which is where we're normally inclined to look for attention), but I find that trying to train that kind of activity can make me mentally dull. There are probably different causes and conditions behind a given EEG pattern (frontal midline theta, in this case), so frontal midline theta being found in meditation studies doesn't necessarily mean we should be training it specifically, because we might activate the 'wrong' kind by mistake.
TAGsync does typically involve frontal midline theta, since often the sites are Fz and Pz, but it's different because it's a measure of connectivity between two sites. Training TAGsync certainly doesn't cause mental dullness in my case (quite the opposite!), but it is also a fairly complex measure, and the feedback is more complex as a result. In terms of meditative states I think it's comparatively more advanced, which depending on one's priorities might make it less useful in some ways (because our skills are usually comparatively less advanced!) Like if we're just trying to simply train 'non-inattention' as our specified foundation of practice, it might be a little too complex. 10-14 Hz has some benefits due to being profoundly simple. It's just one active sensor, over one site, training one frequency band, and presented as continuous proportional feedback. No inhibits, no dichotomous rewards, just emphasize developing mindfulness (or 'non-inattention', as I keep calling it) while using the feedback as a window into that process. Some basic experience with meditation is probably a necessity for this, because that's the primary process we're approaching (and not a certain band of brain activity as such), but given that bit of experience, I think this modality can help to clarify that mental process for us... we just need a little bit of familiarity with it first, to have the first idea about what it is that we're doing.
So from a meditative perspective, right now I think TAGsync might be more useful when we can use the jhanas (even very light jhanas) to become more reflexively aware of our own awareness, but that seems like a more advanced and specific problem to tackle, if instead we define our priority as just approaching easeful attention and attentional fluidity. TAGsync still seems extremely useful for trying to train a kind of internalized/self-aware vigilance, for addressing maladaptive patterns in the personality, etc. I think in terms of pure awareness, it can often be seen as an equivalent of those other modes of training attention that I touched on (HEG, beta amplitude), that is to say that it's like strength training for your awareness or noticing capacity. Like HEG/beta training for ADHD, it is likely to be useful in a lot of conditions, TAGsync likely activates our self-awareness in a very strong way when we're lacking in it, etc. It is also extremely useful for familiarizing yourself with more specific or advanced meditative states. But as every day training, I think the better priority overall is emphasizing a more simple/basic, essential, and effortless process, until we have that fully under our control, then we can focus on turning our mind back on itself more fully.
The only thing that is confusing me right now is that peak alpha frequency is supposed to decrease in experienced meditators, which has already been mentioned in this thread. I read somewhere (I can't recall where) that this might be because lower alpha (say 8-10 Hz) is involved more in cortical interactions, so a reduction in thalamic alpha indicates that the cortex is less coupled to the thalamic drivers (and consequently communicating more amongst itself). This might indicate that more choice or volitional processing goes into cognition, and we're not simply stuck listening to our thalamus without our choice. But I don't really know what the cause of reduced alpha peak frequency in experienced meditators might be, there are probably many different causes for these sorts of patterns, and I'm not sure if we have any reason to believe that training higher frequency is in any way counterproductive to a meditative practice. To me it seems somewhat important that it is higher frequency alpha, because lower frequency alpha can suffer from the same problem as basic theta training (it can make me mentally dull).
This is all pretty provisional, though, and it is based entirely on the premise that we make training mindfulness (or 'non-inattention') our core priority. If anyone else is somewhat interested in this, they could maybe try it out too, so my sample size would be a little bigger than one :p
Edited by umop 3pisdn, 13 December 2015 - 08:20 PM.
This topic is locked
.
Right now I'm pretty sure that my optimal window is around 5-8hz, so once I'm sure of that, I plan on trying some other locations to address my localized dysfunctions and instabilities. 
