As presented at the 2011 AAPB conference: Resilience, Flexibility, and Neurotechnology Training (AAPB_2011_Keynote.pdf)
Self-regulation, stress management, neurotherapies. Is there a common factor among the many pathways to resilience? Different interventions draw from a wide range of sources from ancient techniques and longstanding theories, to the latest discoveries of contemporary neuroscience. One approach may focus more on mind, another on body, and yet another on spirit. But no matter how apparently diverse, they all share one important factor that is indispensable to the change process: The Self-Organizing Wisdom of the Central Nervous System (CNS). This intrinsic capability allows each of these pathways to facilitate a return to the resilience that we all enjoy at birth. Resilience, flexibility, and information processing are inherently entangled in the CNS. They are the basis for the self-organizing function of the brain revealed in moment-to-moment functioning. So how can we best understand the living, dynamical structure of the CNS? Moving away from a static, mechanistic model, it is becoming clear that the CNS is a non-linear dynamical system. Currently, this dynamical structure is best understood with concepts like Self-Organized Criticality, homeodynamics, and networks of complex feedback loops. These critically important ideas will be explored in the context of a unique neurotechnology that goes beyond traditional biofeedback and neurofeedback. In contrast to externally imposed CNS organization (operant conditioning, differential diagnosis, and z-score training), this technology provides a self-adjusting, fully-automated training process that relies explicitly upon the brains own intrinsic self-organizing wisdom.
