Mind-Body Training Tools Biofeedback & Neurofeedback Software

Mind-Body Training Tools is a suite of biofeedback and neurofeedback applications, tools for training and developing the skill-set of self-regulation:

• Effective stress management: calming restlessness and agitation
• Emotional resilience: quickly and easily recovering from set-backs & and accessing positive emotion
• Optimal mental / cognitive performance, especially focus and concentration

Mind-Body Training Tools users are both:

• Professional coaches and therapists looking for better client outcomes
• Committed home self-trainers looking for optimal well-being and performance.

There is a free trial version of the software. Session duration is limited, but otherwise it's the same as the full version, and you can check out the software even if you don't have a biofeedback device yet, by using simulator mode (which plays a recorded session).

A Wide Range of Biofeedback Parameters

Mind-Body Training Tools is a modular product

• HRV Module: Heart Coherence, Blood Volume Amplitude
• EEG Assessment Module: record from sites simultaneously or in sequence (depending on your hardware) and combine data into reports drawing out key patterns
• EEG Training Module: a large set of preconfigured (but editable) protocols, plus feedback screens
• Peripheral Biofeedback: EMG (muscle tension), Skin Conductance (GSR), Skin Temperature
• Capnometry (End-Tidal CO2): applications combining ET CO2 with e.g. EMG or Heart Coherence
• Hemoencaphalography or HEG: a range of feedback options include "shadow" feedback where a e.g. steaming video can be brightened or darkened.

Learn More at the Mind-Body Training Tools Product Home Page

• The MBTT apps are built using BioEra, the industry-leading graphical designer for biofeedback and neurofeedback.
• This means MBTT can work with a range of devices that BioEra supports. These devices, such as the GP8 from PhysioCom, The Optima+ from Neurobit, or the Q-Wiz from Pocket Neurobics, are typically much cheaper than top-of-the-range professional biofeedback systems (which work with their own software) while offering comparable capabililties.
• MBTT differs from other BioEra-based products in having a separate manager program called the platform - it serves as a front-end and manager for the biofeedback apps, making it easy to find & launch the one you want
• The platform can generate session reports based on the data it collects and manages, also application and protocol reports so that you can track progress over time.

• MBTT's EEG Assessment module apps can record 1 to 8 channels of EEG using various "protocols" e.g. Eyes-close, then eyes-open, then eyes-closed again.
• You can then generate various reports from the recorded data, as a basis for selecting an appropriate training protocol.
• The main summary report combines data, recorded either simultaneously or sequentially, to present a more global view of the brain.
• Single-site reports and two-site comparison reports are also available.
• Reports are designed to draw out and make clear patterns in the EEG known to be significant to mental and emotional functioning, such as:
  • Left-Right balance
  • Front-Back balance
  • Alpha response and alpha blocking
  • Theta-to-beta ratio.

• Reports also allow you to see how EEG evolves over time - information which can be significant and which is often lacking in more expensive EEG assessment reports such as QEEG maps.

• MBTT's EEG Neurofeedback Training module offers a broad set of preconfigured (but adjustable) protocols, e.g. SMR up, Alpha up, Theta-to-beta ratio training, alpha Coherence, Squash and Alpha Synchrony, in 1-, 2- and 4- channel versions.
• The software is designed to balance:
  • Enough range and flexibility to open up the full power and potential of neurofeedback
  • With Simplicity and ease-of-use in the interface.

• (That said, MBTT is not intended as an off-the-shelf consumer product - you will need to invest some time in training and learning about neurofeedback - e.g. see our neurofeedback practitioner training course.)
• Besides the standard protocols, more advanced and specialist protocols are included such as alpha-theta crossover training, three- and four-band squash, and two-phase training (with distinct training parameters for each phase).
• Each standard protocol can work with any of a set of feedback screens / modalities which you can select from.
• Feedback can be proportional (varying smoothly between a maximum and minimum) e.g. soundtrack volume, video speed or "shadow" (see below).
• Alternatively feedback can be points-based (contingent) or dichotomous (stop-go).
• Feedback is governed by fully-customizable thresholds, having two levels (which set the max and min feedback in the case of proportional).
• Threshold levels can be updated either manually, or automatically calculated, and in the latter case either continuously updated or on the user's command.
• (This will make more sense after some practitioner training!)
• Shadow feedback is available: a window whose opacity varies smoothly with the feedback parameter can be placed over e.g. a video streaming service like Netflix or YouTube, meaning that the picture grays out as the EEG moves away from the desired state.
• Sountrack feedback: you can select one of several that are included with MBTT or you can use your own (.mp3 or .wav files).
• Coming soon: innovative, cutting-edge and experimental protocols such as brain complexity training and nested alpha.

One of MBTT's strength is its application in optimal breathing training. At the heart of this is the capnometry module.

A capnometer measures the carbon dioxide content of exhaled air. End-tidal CO2 is the best indicator of over-breathing (hyperventilation), which is the biggest obstacle to optimal breathing. Over-breathing limits oxygen delivery to brain cells - conversely optimal breathing training with capnometry biofeedback is a way to optimize oxygen delivery.

The Basic Capnometry application can accurately track ET CO2 and breathing rate over time. Other apps in the module add more parameters relevant to breathing.

• The Capnometry & EMG App adds muscle tension, to highlight chest-based breathing by detecting muscle activity in the shoulders and upper chest
• Capnometry & HRV App: heart coherence represents a different aspect of breathing phsyiology, namely parasympathetic nervous system activation
• Capnometry & BVA App: like the above heart coherence app, this app enables exercise of the parasympathetic nervous system, also the baroreceptor reflex (which influences blood pressure)
• Capnometry & fNIRS App: this experimental app captures aspects of brain blood flow dynamics.