Slow cortical potential training (Birbaumer)

Domain IX · Biomedical, neuro & digital · Niels Birbaumer, Ute Strehl · 1999 · Tübingen, Germany

What it is

Slow cortical potentials (SCPs) are slow shifts in the EEG baseline. They can go negative or positive. In the Tübingen work, negative shifts are linked to more cortical excitability (getting the brain "ready"), and positive shifts to inhibition or less excitability. In SCP training the client…

Format

• The course moves through six phases. Session counts are those published. Device parameters are omitted.
• Format: Tübingen 2006: 10 daily sessions on school-day afternoons over 2 weeks.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Medication: prescribed medicines stay under the prescriber's control. Parents in the ADHD studies were asked to keep stimulant medication constant during training. In the epilepsy studies, medication was unchanged from baseline until 1 year after treatment ended.
• ADHD: parent and teacher symptom ratings, quality of life, and attention or IQ testing before training, after training and at about 6 months.
• Phase 2 – First training block.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status (attributed).

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• empty practice logs. See Section 5.
• the session turning into tutoring. Keep the focus on cueing.
• fading home practice after the end. Agree a reminder routine with the family.
• strategies that rely on movement or breath-holding. Steer towards mental strategies.
• drifting from the manual or working beyond your training; take cases to supervision.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.