ADHD can be broken into attentional or concentration issues, where attention is about your ability to attend to information and concentration is about your ability to make sense of this information. Both of these issues generally show up in the brain as too much slow brainwave activity (alpha/theta) and not enough faster brainwave (low-mid beta) activity in the mid and front brain. Attentional issues exhibit these brain characteristics when the brain is at rest, whereas concentration issues show these brain characteristics when the brain is doing a task (eg planning; doing arithmetic).

It's important to note that ADHD often shows up as part of the symptoms of childhood trauma. When this is the case, training more attention and concentration in the brain is helpful but ultimately the trauma needs to be addressed. Different neurofeedback protocols are helpful for addressing trauma.

Trauma tends to turn on the alarm system in the brain (the amygdala) way beyond what is appropriate. This then activates the fight/flight circuitry in our limbic systems having us hyper vigilant/sensitive to our environment and easily feeling anxious. The nervous system is not designed for period of extended arousal. This consistent over activation of the nervous system leads to brain fog that then makes it harder to make sense of whether there really is danger. A way to spot possible trauma is by looking at how much someone produces slower wave alpha activity in the back brain when they close their eyes. If there isn't a decent increase of alpha activity when you close your eyes, it's a possibly sign of hyper vigilance and an inability to fully relax. A good approach to tackle trauma in the brain is by first sharpening the front brain so you have cognitive resources to tackle issues. And then calming the fear driven back brain with slow wave theta training. This slow wave training will surface unprocessed emotions that need to be worked through. As such, it's important to go at the speed that feels right to you.

Depression tends to emerge when we feel we are helpless and that there's no point making effort anymore because "what's the point?!". This can be a really lonely and challenging place to be. Often underneath depression are challenging emotions such as anger, fear and hurt. These emotions can feel really overwhelming and we can feel helpless in the face of them. To help with depression, it often helps training the front brain. In depression we will often see too much slow wave activity in the left front brain. The left front brain is connected with making choices - something we tend not to do so much of when we are depressed. By reducing slow wave and increasing faster wave activity in the front left brain it prompts us to lean into life more and take action. We can do similar training in the right front brain, more connected to generating options, if we feel like there are no options available to us. To tackle underlying emotions of depression, we can do training as you would to treat trauma.

Peak performance is really contextual to what kinds of tasks we are performing. You could be:
- An executives wanting to really see the big picture while also being decisive, personable and super productive.
- An athlete wanting to having deep embodied awareness and easily get into the zone
- A parent wanting less reactivity and more presence with your children
- Etc

Generally we want to train the optimal arousal level for the task at hand, and an ability to intentionally shift arousal. Some of the things we could train in the brain around peak performance are:
- Alpha and low beta training to more easily access flow states and get into the zone.
- Train gamma frequencies in the front brain for rapid thinking and peak concentration
- Train the front right brain for increased divergent thinking or the left front brain for better convergent thinking and decision making
- Train theta states for enhanced creativity.
- Train the insula in the right mid brain for more embodied awareness
- Train the right ratio of beta frequencies in the front brain for good ability to context shift.

A lot of the time a key element we want as part of peak performance is versatility: we want to be able to be decisive in one moment and creative in the next; or high performing during the day and deeply recover during the night. Peak performance brain training will often focus on developing this kind of neurological flexibility.

Sadly our society has chronic sleep problems and most of us are unaware of this. In brain assessment data we often see slow wave brain activity associated with sleep more present with eyes open than eyes closed, which shows the brain trying to recover and also not being able to shut off. We can train this slow wave activity using neurofeedback that will help you get to sleep quickly and have better quality sleep.

There has now been a lot of study of the brain of meditators. Different types of meditation have different brain patterns. Jeff Tarrant from the Neuromeditation Institute has mapped styles from the literature that he has called: Focus, Mindfulness, Open Heart, Quiet Mind and Deep States. You can read about each of these styles on the Neuromeditation Institute website. We can train any of these styles using neurofeedback. We are particularly interested in "Deep States" of meditation which Jeff Tarrant does not mention as explicitly as the other types of meditation. The Deep States protocol has us reducing much of the activity in our brain, just leaving theta and gamma frequencies going which can have us in psychedelic type states of awareness.