Head in the Clouds

QEEG for Diagnosing ADD

Before I started neurofeedback treatment for my ADD (more on that in an upcoming post), I had a qEEG—a quantitative electroencephalogram. It's a noninvasive test—no radiation or dyes or needle sticks required. It just involves some goop in your hair, some electrodes stuck to your scalp, and a shower-cap-like covering  to keep it all in place. The test measures brain waves at a bunch of sites all over your head.

And the qEEG might solve a problem when it comes to diagnosing ADD.  As it stands now, no one test on its own gives you a particularly good idea of whether someone has ADD. But, according to Duke University child clinical psychologist David Rabiner, recent research suggests that the qEEG might give clinicians quite a good idea whether someone has ADD. To read more about it, here's Rabiner's overview of recent research on qEEG as a diagnostic tool for ADD.

Rabiner looks at the research in a bigger context as well. Here's one important caveat that he offers:

It is important to underscore that despite the strong results found for QEEG, this tool is not a substitute for a comprehensive diagnostic exam and should not be used as a stand alone test for ADHD. One essential reason for this is that diagnostic evaluations for ADHD should go beyond simply deciding whether ADHD is present and gather other information that is critical for developing an optimal treatment plan.

My own qEEG found a quirk in my brain that's more common in people with ADD than in the general population—relatively high levels of alpha with my eyes open. It was interesting to me that the study Rabiner discusses used a different criteria—the theta/beta ratio.

Rabiner's piece is on a blog called SharpBrains. I've perused the site, and it looks to be a great place to get info on brain reseach. Check out the blog's ADD/ADHD channel.

Dancing Science

Back in the 1970s, when I was an undergraduate in human biology, a professor showed us a short 1971 film about protein synthesis. A chemist who was later to win the Nobel Prize had directed it—or, should I say, choreographed it. Scruffy, long-haired students, accompanied by rock ’n’ roll music, danced the parts of ribosomes, mRNA, and amino acids out on an athletic field. 

I remembered that movie a few months ago when a friend pointed me to the “Large Hadron Rap,” about CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Switerland. And I’m thinking about science and dance again today after hearing a piece on NPR about an unusual dance contest: Dance Your Ph.D.

So what’s all this got to do with ADD, beside the fact that I got distracted this evening checking it all out on YouTube? Well, dance, music, and other arts can certainly be a great way for those of us with ADD to learn. It keeps things visual, kinesthetic, and interesting.

But I also hypothesize that those of us with ADD have more than the usual tendency to make unusual connections in our brains—and maybe to appreciate those connections.

I choreograph it this way: Two sets of dancers represent the thoughts in two different brains. The dancers in the non-ADD brain sort themselves into groups, each group wearing costumes of the same color. Dancers in pink dance with others in pink, dancers in black dance together, and so on. They dance to Mozart chamber music, their movements flowing and harmonious. But it gets a bit repetitive after a while. Maybe even boring.

The dancers in the ADD brain, though, move to a wild fusion of djembe, didgeridoo, and fiddle. They associate freely and chaotically inside the brain. Dancers in different colors collide. Some of those pairs stay together and perform inspired and stirring pas de deux. Teal and rose! Sage and eggplant! It’s exhilarating, albeit a bit exhausting. But think of all the novel connections that occur in that setting!

Like the juxtaposition of dance and science. It’s hilarious and beautiful, creative and instructional. Like the collisions that are likely occurring all the time right there in your own ADD brain.

NPR on ADD in Girls

My ex called me today to tell me that they were talking about ADD in girls on National Public Radio. I ran down to my kitchen and listened to part of the show, a segment on Talk of the Nation. I’m happy to see the topic get this coverage!

 

You can listen to the whole segment online here, which I plan to do as well!

Haunted by Homework

People sometimes repress memories of traumatic events in their lives. I have hardly any memories of doing homework when I was growing up. Was it that traumatic for me?

I do remember trying to write a summary of the Nutcracker one night in fourth or fifth grade. Despite all my mom’s cajoling, I couldn’t combine all those scenes in the Land of Sweets into one concept. It got later and later, and all I could do was laboriously describe each part—the Chinese and Spanish and Arabian dancers, the waltzing flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy. 

I have one other memory—of doing math problems in pencil on blue-lined paper. But that’s about it.

I do remember vividly, however, how much I hated homework, especially as I got into high school. I was particularly scornful of worksheets on which you mindlessly spit back facts.

My dad does have memories of me doing homework. When I was supposedly working, he told me once, he or my mom would sometimes come in to check on me. “It would seem like you’d been daydreaming,” he said. “When we asked how you were coming along, you’d get angry.”

I assume now that my anger was defensiveness. I could spend hours at the piano composing dreamy atonal music. But I suspect I had a pretty hard time getting started and staying focused on work that wasn’t creative and engrossing. Not that I have a great idea of how to do that even now, in my 50s. But I have some strategies beyond just gutting through it. And I have a little less shame.

So, now that my daughter has started fourth grade, homework is back to reactivate the trauma. More on that in an upcoming post. 

Vote!