Kasina and Neurofeedback

Greetings,

I am the director of a "neuro-enhancement" program at a non-profit residential mental health facility. We use a variety of technologies and techniques, including qEEG and various forms of neuro- and bio-feedback (I personally usually administer "full-cap" 19-channel LORETA neurofeedback), as well as CES, tDCS and AVS, among other things. We've been getting excellent results with a very difficult population.

I've been a fan of EEG-driven AVS for some time, and have been using the Procyon with MWS. I've been wanting to amp up that part of the program even more, and have been designing some protocols with GSR and HRV, combined with EEG-driven AVS + NFB. I hadn't been on this site for a while and was excited to read about the Kasina, especially because I love fooling around with MWS. Before I take the plunge, I'd like to get a better idea of how much better suited the Kasina is for what we're doing.

Am I correct in assuming that the Kasina's levels can be more fully controlled from MWS? One of the frustrations I've had with the procyon/mws setup is the inability to control the light intensity from MWS...at least I could never do it.

Also, I'm wondering what else may be available with the Kasina. If one were to set the various color channels to be controlled by something in MWS/bioexplorer (like SMR amplitude for instance), would this be a viable neurofeedback stimulus? In other words, with eyes closed could you easily tell you're producing more "blue" than you were a second ago? I don't have much experience with colors, as I mainly use white glasses/lights.

I'm also curious about how much more of a "wow" factor there is with the Kasina. Are the visuals substantially more compelling or interesting than with the procyon with the RGB glasses?

Thanks in advance for any input anyone might have or any ideas of how we may employ these great technologies.

Steve

Hello Steve,
Thank you for your questions. Your work sounds very interesting. We are honored that you include our products in the mix.

We try to temper the hype around here a bit, actually probably more than we should, however the answer to your questions are absolutely yes.

The Kasina and Mind Workstation were made for each other. We had this pairing in mind from the earliest design phases. For use in software and in conjuction with sensor control, the new light encoding system in the Kasina, SpectraStrobe, is a definitive solution. SpectraStrobe alllows full light control spread across 6 channels: RGB in the left and right eyes. This means nearly unlimited potential with the right software. Luckily, for professional use, Mind Workstation is that software.

SpectraStrobe and Kasina support in MWS is seamless. New buttons are added to the MWS interface when the Kasina is connected. These allow you to preview sessions and edits on the Kasina directly and also to compile and upload finished sessions directly to the SD card when finished. The Kasina is a USB audio device so all sounds (and thus SS lights) from MWS are digital. There is no more level setup mess as with AudioStrobe. In fact, SpectraStrobe has an additional reference channel that tracks the level of the incoming audio and insures a full dynamic range regardless of level changes.

All of the power of MWS engines, actions, and external software links is unleashed with SpectraStrobe tracks. Color levels, brightness, light phase, panning, waveforms, chaining by formulas... everything... fully enabled. The limits are skill and imagination. The best part of that is that we are MWS experts and more than willing to help if the need arises.

Color mixing takes a bit of learning. The main issue is how to balance red against other colors. But yes, absolutely, you can map and use color fully now as feedback.

The 'wow' factor is more of a grey area depending on one's preferences. The Procyon stands up well with its own unique style of crisp, shifting, 'hard-edged' visuals. The Kasina sessions focus on organic, silky, smooth color and deep immersive media. Side by side though the modern features of the Kasina push it far ahead of our past offerings in most all, especially professional, settings.

There are many more features and reasons that the Kasina shines. I can elaborate more if you desire.

For now, I hope this information helps you. If you have any more question pre or post purchase, we are here to support you and your endeavors.

Best,
Scott

I wanted to mention a couple more things as I assume you are a MWS Enterprise user, having mentioned BioExplorer. SpectraStrobe, like AudioStrobe, is audio, so all of the advanced feature that are useful in a therapeutic setting are supported. This includes Consoles, parameter reports by Graphs, and realtime recording of SpectraStrobe output for analysis or inclusion in new sessions.

Thanks Scott. I am very excited by this. I wonder if it is possible at some point in the future to have direct skype contact as we get up and running with Kasina and MWS (I do, in fact, have the enterprise version).

Sure. Please send a private message to me when you are ready and we can set something up. If want a pre-sale walkthrough as well, I'm happy to do that.

Best,
Scott