When one considers how the brain must organize sequential processing activity, or how it must recognize a particular visual image, splayed across the visual cortex, as belonging together, we realize that an incredible amount of parallel processing must occur, and nearly simultaneous communication between different parts of the brain. It is belaboring the obvious to say that timing, and the coherence of timed events over a larger interval, are important for the completion of sequential processing tasks. Various parts of the brain must be successively alerted to play their role in the completion of the task. This is called activation. This is the business of the brain stem, of the midbrain, and of the thalamus in particular. And this process is out to lunch in the head-injured, the depressed, the over-anxious, the sleep-deprived, and the ADHD child or adult. Sterman long ago postulated that the mechanism being affected by EEG training is that by which the thalamus regulates and stabilizes the intrinsically hyperexcitable cortex. This mechanism is presumed to act rhythmically in the 12-19 Hz domain. The thalamus has both specific and non-specific nuclei. The specific nuclei project to localized regions of the brain, whereas the nonspecific ones project to broad regions of the cortex. By varying the training frequency within the band, and by varying electrode location, we are able to elicit highly specific effects, in addition to the general benefit of training activation. In this we are guided by what neuropsychologists and neuroanatomists have learned with respect to localization of function. The specific effects confirm that we are able to train both the specific and the nonspecific thalamic nuclei. They also prove that we are not simply dealing with placebo effects.

NIMH stopped funding the epilepsy research in 1985, arguing that the field had been plumbed. In fact, the field had just begun. One of the most promising findings in this decade of the brain is how amenable the brain is to effecting change in its own function, if only it is given appropriate cues. One of these days all this will be considered obvious. Why shouldn't the brain be able to adapt to new information about itself? It is called learning. That's what our brain does well.

Just as in agriculture a slow transition is taking place from the pesticide war against nature to using more biological means of control, we will emerge from a singular focus on pharmacotherapy and surgery to recognizing the brain's own potential for healing. We know it exists. In one of its aspects, it is known as the placebo effect. In another of its aspects, we know it as "spontaneous remission". What the brain is known to be capable of randomly, we may be able to elicit systematically.