Neurofeedback – which can help retrain the brain – traces its roots to the 1970s, when Dr. Barry Sterman, a neuroscientist at UCLA, developed it to help those with epilepsy reduce seizures and NASA astronauts to more comfortably re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
Judy Chiswell had her first brush with the method in 1982, when workers for a Washington, D.C., company converting library book index cards from paper stock to electronic form were under a national contract to manage reams of information while making very, very few mistakes.
“I was focused on helping put the pieces back together for the people who were having stress-related disorders,” she said.