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Appendix 2

™

The mission statement of The BrainTek Institute (“BrainTek™”) is “to advance the development, improvement and repair of intellectual and cognitive processing brain functions.”

Dr. Dennis Maness has researched and developed signals, called protocols, resulting from analyses and evaluations using brain mapping (electronic analysis produced from a variety of diagnostic machines such as qEEG and other software) and determining what they mean in relation to the brain’s neural processing.  As we, will show in attachments, these signals have proven effective in brain injury, MS, stroke, memory and education including fetal learning and infant education as well as memory and education.   We are also preparing for a clinical trial managed by military doctors within the Veterans Administration regarding Trauma, Stress, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Suicide.

The protocols are produced at various calibrations which affect the brain's neural network to better connect, reconnect or reroute information through other parts of the network when there is an interruption in the firing or misfiring of the synaptic gap or other malfunction in the neural network of the brain.  This method of “working around” impaired nerve cells has been researched for over 50 years with projects and studies to gain knowledge of the physical processes that underlie human brain activity, attention awareness and cognition.

BrainTek's Unique Technology   

Our objective at BrainTek is to provide a non-invasive brain entrainment method through administration of the protocols, which are delivered to zip code specific areas of the brain. This may include the utilization of lobe specific exercises and other neuro plasticity technologies. The protocols adjust brain activities to desired levels. The games are utilized as a method to teach the patient to feel with and manage activities in their brain.  The combination of the protocols and games enable the person to manage their brain’s new homeostasis.

Patients with depression, brain injuries, autism, ADHD, cognitive processing, PTSD, traumatic stress related illnesses, stroke, sleeping disorders and other memory related issues have reported a remarkable improvement from their ailment.

BrainTek’s proprietary sound envelopes are embedded into music which is pleasing to the patient / client and then streamed to the patient / client. There are over 4,500 different protocols which have been developed so far.  These protocols are precise and directional sound frequencies therapies that affect particular areas of the brain.  Previous programs and therapies could only deliver packets to the entire brain.  BrainTek’s therapeutic envelopes are sent to specific sites, similar to that of a post office delivering mail to specific zip codes instead of an entire state or city.  BrainTek’s protocols currently stream up to three signals simultaneously to different parts of the brain, which makes each treatment more effective. 

Most of the analysis work is done by creating a brain map, which is a diagnostic tool used to interpret brain signals.  Many clinics and hospitals have some form of brain mapping equipment. What makes BrainTek unique is that BrainTek’s years of research have identified specific neural pathways and their behavior to provide a benchmark and utilizing said benchmark to determine measureable results. Our proven analyses and software measure, analyze and produce the correct signals to trigger the neural pathways at the right place within the brain or body.  BrainTek Institute calls this therapy Relationship Behavioral Therapy (RBT).

An integral part of the BrainTek RBT is that once the entrainment protocols are produced, a series of games are utilized that teach the patient / client how to manage the new behavior of their brain.  This form of Brain Entrainment is the most effective measurable program on the market.

One of the major advantages of this system is the ability of the health care practitioner to identify changes in the brain in real time.  An MRI or a CAT scan is a picture of the brain at one specific point in time.  This is effective for finding structural abnormalities.  However, the brain neural network is constantly changing and adapting.   The Brain Map, coupled with the RBT treatments, can be modified as the treatments improve the condition.  This process stimulates or relaxes or inhibits (or any combination thereof) brain functions to develop other neuro-pathways to improve cognition and neuro-processing more effectively than previous processes.

BrainTek's Method Of Delivery Of The Protocols   

The software produces frequencies as described below.  The Entrainment frequencies (also called sounds or protocols) are played into each ear and this can be during games utilizing right, left and dual right and left headphone or speakers.  The sounds are played in non-pure tones utilizing conflicting and non-conflicting frequencies at specified timings. The frequencies are enveloped within a sound envelope containing the directional or dominant brain wave frequency. NeuroPlasticity Brain Entrainment is a combination of sound, frequencies, harmonics, tonal, EQ control, vibration, sound pulsation, circadian, ultradian and infradian rhythms, that track at particular defining moments of brain activity.  Each ingredient has its specified role in relaxation, stimulation and / or inhibiting right side entry, left side or visual entry or any combination thereof.  This flexibility gives us the ability to relax a particular part of the brain while stimulating another simultaneously.

Games As One Method Of Therapy

BrainTek has created games that teach you exercises which then help you develop lobe to lobe communications, the result is that you read faster and multi-task math and application processes simultaneously to expand your neural abilities. The games are designed to build lobe and region specific communications utilizing a combination of NeuroPlasticity Brain Entrainment and physical and mental exercises simultaneously.

Clinical Studies   

This process has high success rate in reducing paralysis and ridged frozen limbs due to brain injuries from a stroke or other injury.  This success includes reducing affects with conditions in certain types of Parkinson’s and other brain injury (see Scripps Hospital documentation attached as well as MRI, CAT and other scans used to track our work.  Two cases, an accident survivor from 1967, in a coma for over six months, paralyzed right hand and arm obtained full rotation of arm and hand movement following ten hours of custom protocols.  A current MS study in San Diego shows numbness in right arm eliminated following four hours of custom protocols.  A past study shows in pre and post MRI’s, the elimination of multiple brain lesions in a MS patient including recovery of neuropathy in both feet.  The effects have lasted for over three years.  The BrainTek Protocols are compatible and blend easily with other brain related medical therapies to the treat psychological and psychiatric disorders.

What makes this company unique in relationship to other frequency and light and / or sound treatments is that the years of research have identified specific neural pathways by a frequency / behavior that provides measurable results using current electronic readings produced from a variety of diagnostic machines used for this process.

Conclusions From Research Tests

Dr. Maness has tested this procedure on over 2,000 students and over 9,500 individuals from the United States Department of Labor rehabilitation programs, special education programs including the Oxnard and Los Angeles Unified School Districts, Toyota Training Center and other locations including hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and lock down environments. 

Dr. Maness’ programs have been featured on ABC, CBS and Fox news programs and talk shows throughout the United States and Canada.  These games teach you a process called Lobe Specific Learning.  Lobe specific learning was created by neuro scientist Dr. Maness. 

He has designed these games to exercise particular parts of the brain and help develop neuro pathways to accelerate anyone’s cognitive and comprehension resulting in academic success for students and adults.  Learn more, in less time and remember it through Accelerated Learning Skills playing these games.

The following is some the positive results of this technology:

• Read faster with greater retention and comprehension

• Learn visual techniques that help improve your reading speed and comprehension

• Learn three ways to read for speed, comprehension and memory.

• Reading for Classroom Assignments

• Reading for fun and relaxation

• Speed Reading Techniques

• Improve logic and reasoning skills

• Learn to process from your brain’s executive centers

• Learn thinking and application skills

• Learn critical thinking activities

• Learn memory techniques

• Learn cognitive processing techniques that help you process thought to memory the way the brain was designed.

Improve Listening / Attention and Focus Skills

• Over the past nine years, Dr. Maness has utilized this technology with government centers, educational programs in clinics, rehabilitation centers, job training centers, corporate training centers, athletics, martial arts and corporate environments to affect change and improvement in productivity, drug recovery and mental health.

• This program enhances learning and productivity through a series of video games he developed.  These games entrain the brain through lobe specific / area specific communications from the frontal lobes to the cerebellum.  They teach you to think at the speed of the brain.

• Students in one government program recovered one to five grade levels in math and reading in as little as thirty one hour sessions utilizing these video games (2002 - 2003).  These video games improve comprehension and cognitive ability.  These games have had a profound affect on memory, math and reading ability and productivity with major improvements with special education programs.

• Video games and Brain Games in double blind studies using a placebo have been shown to result in lower grades.  However, when utilizing our lobe specific games, improvement in cognitive function, attention and focus is achieved and grades and productivity have improved¹⁶.

• We sell these games through internet membership, wholesale to schools and institutions and retail stores as well as utilization in clinics, private training programs and in location workshops.

Benefits

You will be able to complete assignments faster, enjoy more hours in your day for fun and relaxation. We have used the Learning System at a U.S. Department of Labor rehabilitation center and had the same measurable success as over 200 students recovered one to five grade levels in as little as 30 hours. Today, the Learning System has been used at several major corporations to improve productivity. It is used in special education programs, rehabilitation centers, learning centers, clinics that assist learning disabled, ADD / ADHD, children on the Autism spectrum and now, it is being made available on the Internet.

The Learning System is not a hand – eye game.  It teaches lobe specific communications. It is a brain development concept which has helped almost 2,000 students recover one to five grade levels in as few as 30 hours.

Definitions

Neuroplasticity (also referred to as brain plasticity, cortical plasticity or cortical re-mapping) is the changing of neurons, the organization of their networks, and their function via new experiences. 

This idea was first proposed in 1890 by William James in The Principles of Psychology, though the idea was largely neglected for the next fifty years.^[1] The first person to use the term neural plasticity appears to have been the Polish neuroscientist Jerzy Konorski.^[2]

The brain consists of nerve cells (or "neurons") and glial cells which are interconnected, and learning may happen through change in the strength of the connections, by adding or removing connections, or by adding new cells.

"Plasticity" relates to learning by adding or removing connections, or adding cells.  During the 20th century, the consensus was that lower brain and neocortical areas were immutable in structure after childhood, meaning learning only happens by changing of connection strength, whereas areas related to memory formation, such as the hippocampus and dentate gyrus, where new neurons continue to be produced into adulthood, were highly plastic.  This belief is being challenged by new findings, suggesting all areas of the brain are plastic even after childhood. ^[3] Hubel and Wiesel had demonstrated that ocular dominance columns in the lowest neocortical visual area, V1, were largely immutable after the critical period in development.^[4] Critical periods also were studied with respect to language; the resulting data suggested that sensory pathways were fixed after the critical period.  However, studies determined that environmental changes could alter behavior and cognition by modifying connections between existing neurons and via neurogenesis in the hippocampus and other parts of the brain, including the cerebellum.^[5]

Decades of research have now shown that substantial changes occur in the lowest neocortical processing areas, and that these changes can profoundly alter the pattern of neuronal activation in response to experience.  According to the theory of neuroplasticity, thinking, learning, and acting actually change both the brain's physical structure (anatomy) and functional organization (physiology) from top to bottom.  Neuroscientists are presently engaged in a reconciliation of critical period studies demonstrating the immutability of the brain after development with the new findings on neuroplasticity, which reveal the mutability of both structural and functional aspects.

One of the fundamental principles of how neuroplasticity functions is linked to the concept of synaptic pruning, the idea that individual connections within the brain are constantly being removed or recreated, largely dependent upon how they are used.  This concept is captured in the aphorism, "neurons that fire together, wire together"/"neurons that fire apart, wire apart." If there are two nearby neurons that often produce an impulse simultaneously, their cortical maps may become one.  This idea also works in the opposite way, i.e. that neurons which do not regularly produce simultaneous impulses will form different maps.

Cortical Maps

Cortical organization, especially for the sensory systems, is often described in terms of maps.^[6] For example, sensory information from the foot projects to one cortical site and the projections from the hand target in another site.  As the result of this somatotopic organization of sensory inputs to the cortex, cortical representation of the body resembles a map (or homunculus).

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, several groups began exploring the impacts of removing portions of the sensory inputs. Michael Merzenich and Jon Kaas and Doug Rasmusson used the cortical map as their dependent variable. They found—and this has been since corroborated by a wide range of labs—that if the cortical map is deprived of its input it will become activated at a later time in response to other, usually adjacent inputs.  At least in the somatic sensory system, in which this phenomenon has been most thoroughly investigated, JT Wall and J Xu have traced the mechanisms underlying this plasticity. Re-organization is not cortically emergent, but occurs at every level in the processing hierarchy; this produces the map changes observed in the cerebral cortex.^[7].

Merzenich and William Jenkins (1990) initiated studies relating sensory experience, without pathological perturbation, to cortically observed plasticity in the primate somatosensory system, with the finding that sensory sites activated in an attended operant behavior increase in their cortical representation. Shortly thereafter, Ford Ebner and colleagues (1994) made similar efforts in the rodent whisker barrel cortex (also somatic sensory system). These two groups largely diverged over the years. The rodent whisker barrel efforts became a focus for Ebner, Matthew Diamond, Michael Armstrong-James, Robert Sachdev, Kevin Fox and great inroads were made in identifying the locus of change as being at cortical synapses expressing NMDA receptors, and in implicating cholinergic inputs as necessary for normal expression.  However, the rodent studies were poorly focused on the behavioral end, and Ron Frostig and Daniel Polley (1999, 2004) identified behavioral manipulations as causing a substantial impact on the cortical plasticity in that system.

Merzenich and DT Blake (2002, 2005, 2006) went on to use cortical implants to study the evolution of plasticity in both the somatosensory and auditory systems.  Both systems show similar changes with respect to behavior.  When a stimulus is cognitively associated with reinforcement, its cortical representation is strengthened and enlarged.  In some cases, cortical representations can increase two to threefold in 1–2 days at the time at which a new sensory motor behavior is first acquired, and changes are largely finished within at most a few weeks. Control studies show that these changes are not caused by sensory experience alone: they require learning about the sensory experience, and are strongest for the stimuli that are associated with reward, and occur with equal ease in operant and classical conditioning behaviors.

An interesting phenomenon involving cortical maps is the incidence of phantom limbs (see Ramachandran for review).  This is most commonly described in people that have undergone amputations in hands, arms, and legs, but it is not limited to extremities.  The phantom limb feeling, which is thought^[8] to result from disorganization in the brain map and the inability to receive input from the targeted area, may be annoying or painful.  Incidentally, it is more common after unexpected losses than planned amputations.  There is a high correlation with the extent of physical remapping and the extent of phantom pain.  As it fades, it is a fascinating functional example of new neural connections in the human adult brain.

The concept of plasticity can be applied to molecular as well as to environmental events^{[9]HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity" \l "cite_note-9" [10]} The phenomenon itself is complex and can involve many levels of organization. To some extent the term itself has lost its explanatory value because almost any changes in brain activity can be attributed to some sort of "plasticity".  For example, the term is used prevalently in studies of axon guidance during development, short-term visual adaptation to motion or contours, maturation of cortical maps, recovery after amputation or stroke, and changes that occur in normal learning in the adult.  Plasticity in more recent writing is frequently described as a property of the central nervous system with the term reorganization used to introduce the specific types of changes observed including axonal sprouting, long-term potentiation or the expression of plasticity related genomic responses Pinaud.

Norman Doidge, following the lead of Michael Merzenich, separates manifestations of neuroplasticity into adaptations that have positive or negative behavioral consequences. For example, if an organism can recover after a stroke to normal levels of performance, that adaptiveness could be considered an example of "positive plasticity". An excessive level of neuronal growth leading to spasticity or tonic paralysis, or an excessive release of neurotransmitters in response to injury which could kill nerve cells; this would have to be considered a "negative" plasticity. In addition, drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder are deemed examples of "negative plasticity" by Dr. Doidge, as the synaptic rewiring resulting in these behaviors is also highly maladaptive^{[8]HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity" \l "cite_note-10" [11]}.

Another study in  2005 study found that the effects of neuroplasticity occur even more rapidly than previously expected.  Medical students' brains were imaged during the period when they were studying for their exams. In a matter of months, the students' gray matter increased significantly in the posterior and lateral parietal cortex.^[12]. 

References

1.         ^ ^{a b} "The Principles of Psychology", William James 1890, Chapter IV, Habits http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin4.htm

2.         ^ LeDoux, Joseph E. (2002). Synaptic self: how our brains become who we are. New York: Viking. p. 137. ISBN 0670030287. 

3.         ^ ^{a b} "Neurogenesis in adult primate neocortex: an evaluation of the evidence" Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3, 65-71 January 2002

4.         ^ Hubel, D.H.; Wiesel, T.N. (February 1, 1970). "The period of susceptibility to the physiological effects of unilateral eye closure in kittens". The Journal of Physiology 206 (2): 419–436. 

5.         ^ ^{a b} Ponti, Giovanna; Peretto, Paolo; Bonfanti, Luca (2008). "Genesis of Neuronal and Glial Progenitors in the Cerebellar Cortex of Peripuberal and Adult Rabbits". PLoS ONE 3 (6). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002366. 

6.         ^ Buonomano, Dean V.; Merzenich, Michael M. (March 1998). "CORTICAL PLASTICITY: From Synapses to Maps". Annual Review of Neuroscience 21: 149–186. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.21.1.149. 

7.         ^ Wall, J.T.; Xu, J.; Wang, X. (September 2002). "Human brain plasticity: an emerging view of the multiple substrates and mechanisms that cause cortical changes and related sensory dysfunctions after injuries of sensory inputs from the body". Brain Research Reviews (Elsevier Science B.V.) 39 (2-3): 181–215. doi:10.1016/S0165-0173(02)00192-3. PMID 12423766. 

8.         ^ ^{a b} Doidge, Norman. The Brain that Changes Itself. Viking, 2007

9.         ^ Georgetown University Medical Center (2008, July 12). Learning Suffers If Brain Transcript Isn't Transported Far Out To End Of Neurons. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 13, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/07/080710120503.htm

10.       ^ Harvard University (2004, July 26). Scientists Pinpoint Molecules That Generate Synapses. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 13, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2004/07/040726084801.htm

11.       ^ [1] Interview with Merzenich in 2004

12.       ^ Draganski et al. "Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Brain Structure Changes during Extensive Learning" The Journal of Neuroscience, June 7, 2006, 26(23):6314-6317

13.       ^ ^{a b} Meghan O'Rourke Train Your Brain April 25, 2007

14.       ^ Brain Science Podcast Episode #10, "Neuroplasticity"

15.       ^ Colotla, Victor A.; Bach-y-Rita, Paul (2002). "Shepherd Ivory Franz: His contributions to neuropsychology and rehabilitation". Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 2 (2): 141–148. http://htpprints.yorku.ca/archive/00000236/01/Colotla_Bach-y-Rita_2002.pdf. 

16.       ^ Cutler, Sarah M.; Cekic, Milos; Miller, Darren M.; Wali, Bushra; VanLandingham, Jacob W.; Stein, Donald G. (September 24, 2007). "Progesterone Improves Acute Recovery after Traumatic Brain Injury in the Aged Rats". Journal of Neurotrauma 24 (9): 1475–1486. doi:10.1089/neu.2007.0294. 

17.       ^ Ramachandran, Vilayanur S.; Hirstein, William (1998). "The perception of phantom limbs. The D. O. Hebb lecture" (PDF). Brain 121: 1603–1630. PMID 9762952. http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/121/9/1603.pdf. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 

18.       ^ Lutz, A.; Greischar, L.L.; Rawlings, N.B.; Ricard, M.; Davidson, R. J. (2004-11-16), "Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice", PNAS 101 (46): 16369–73, doi:10.1073/pnas.0407401101, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/101/46/16369, retrieved 2007-07-08 

19.       ^ Sharon Begley (20 Jan 2007). "How Thinking Can Change the Brain". Wall Street Journal. http://www.dalailama.com/news.112.htm. 

20.       ^ Davidson, Richard; Lutz, Antoine (January 2008), "Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation", IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/publications/2008/DavidsonBuddhaIEEE.pdf 

21.       ^ Chris Firth (17 February 2007). "Stop meditating, start interacting". New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19325912.400-stop-meditating-start-interacting.html. 

REFERS TO SECTION ON APPLICATIONS OF NEUROPLASTICITY

3. Cohen, Wendy; Hodson, Ann; O'Hare, Anne; Boyle, James; Durrani, Tariq; McCartney, Elspeth; Mattey, Mike; Naftalin, Lionel et al. (June 2005). "Effects of Computer-Based Intervention Through Acoustically Modified Speech (Fast ForWord) in Severe Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Impairment: Outcomes From a Randomized Controlled Trial". Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48: 715–729. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2005/049). 

4. Cutler, Sarah M.; Hoffman, Stuart W.; Pettus, Edward H.; Stein, Donald G. (October 2005). "Tapered progesterone withdrawal enhances behavioral and molecular recovery after traumatic brain injury". Experimental Neurology (Elsevier) 195 (2): 423–429. doi:10.1016/j.expneurol.2005.06.003. 

5. Doidge, Norman (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the frontiers of brain science. New York: Viking. ISBN 9780670038305. 

6. Frost, S.B.; Barbay, S.; Friel, K.M.; Plautz, E.J.; Nudo, R.J. (2003). "Reorganization of Remote Cortical Regions After Ischemic Brain Injury: A Potential Substrate for Stroke Recovery". Journal of Neurophysiology 89: 3205–3214. doi:10.1152/jn.01143.2002. http://jn.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/89/6/3205.pdf. 

7. Giszter, Simon F. (January 2008). "Spinal Cord Injury: Present and Future Therapeutic Devices and Prostheses". Neurotherapeutics (Elsevier) 5 (1): 147–162. doi:10.1016/j.nurt.2007.10.062. 

8. Kaas, Jon H. (October 22, 2008). "Large-Scale Reorganization in the Somatosensory Cortex and Thalamus after Sensory Loss in Macaque Monkeys". The Journal of Neuroscience 28 (43): 11042–11060. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2334-08.2008. 

9. Mahncke, Henry W.; Connor, Bonnie B.; Appelman, Jed; Ahsanuddin, Omar N.; Hardy, Joseph L.; Wood, Richard A.; Joyce, Nicholas M.; Boniske, Tania et al. (August 15, 2006). "Memory enhancement in healthy older adults using a brain plasticity-based training program: a randomized, controlled study". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 103 (33): 12523–12528. doi:10.1073/pnas.0605194103. PMID 16888038. 

10. Nudo, Randolph J., and Garrett W. Milliken. "Reorganization of Movement Representations in Primary Motor Cortex Following Focal Ischemic Infarct in Adult Squirrel Monkeys." Journal of Neurophysiology 75 (1996): 2144-149.

12. "Remembering Leaders in the Field of Blindness and Visual Impairment." National Center for Leadership in Visual Impairment. Salus University. 20 Nov. 2008 <http://www.salus.edu/nclvi/honoring/bach_y_rita.htm>.

13. Stein, Donald G.; Hoffman, Stuart W. (July/August 2003). "Concepts of CNS Plasticity in the Context of Brain Damage and Repair". Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation 18 (4): 317–341. http://journals.lww.com/headtraumarehab/Fulltext/2003/07000/Concepts_of_CNS_Plasticity_in_the_Context_of_Brain.4.aspx. 

14. Stein, Donald. "Plasticity." Personal interview. Alyssa Walz. 19 Nov. 2008.

15. Wieloch, Tadeusz; Nikolich, Karoly (June 2006). "Mechanisms of neural plasticity following brain injury". Current Opinion in Neurobiology 16 (3): 258–264. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2006.05.011. PMID 16713245

16. Most video games are primarily hand eye coordination games that require little communication between lobes of the brain.  This behavior becomes like a hypnotic trance.  This trance entrains the brain to a new homeostasis that is far removed from reality.  It is known to desensitize the brain to violence as noted in the article published in Endeavors magazine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Videos

^Limb Syndrome (a talk given by Ramachandran about consciousness, mirror neurons, and phantom limb syndrome)

^^Traumatic Brain Injury (a story of TBI and the results of ProTECT using progesterone treatments) Emory University News Archives

Addendums:             Dr. Dennis Maness papers