We can see now a growing body of evidence underscoring the relevance of photobiomodulation (PBM) and neurofeedback (NFB) as immediately applicable interventions for remediating the damage caused by COVID 19 infection. PBM has been shown to effectively reduce inflammatory markers throughout the brain, and promte improved cortical perfusion thereby improving tissue-level brain health and resistance to further injury. NFB can then be employed to repair the damage done to neural network connectivity allowing for a renormalization of overall brain activity.  

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​https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(20)30495-1

This paper offers an opportunity to the neurotherapy community to build the bridge between functional MRI and QEEG analysis especially with the availability of swLORETA and DTI analytics. The findings from this study suggest that trauma decreases the robustness of internetwork communications, thereby lending support to what I've suggested regarding the CNS's response to trauma involving a 'regression' shift to a more primitive (lower glucose demand) organizational algorithm that predates the development of bilateral connectivity through the corpus collosum. These data would be helpful in organizing a treatment model to support the renormalization of internetwork connectivity and a corresponding reduction in dissociation which is a primitive (primary process) object-relational mechanism for discriminating similarities and differences.

AbstractObjective:Dissociative experiences commonly occur in response to trauma, and while their presence strongly affects treatment approaches in posttraumatic spectrum disorders, their etiology remains poorly understood and their phenomenology incompletely characterized. Methods to reliably assess the severity of dissociation symptoms, without relying solely on self-report, would have tremendous clinical utility. Brain-based measures have the potential to augment symptom reports, although it remains unclear whether brain-based measures of dissociation are sufficiently sensitive and robust to enable individual-level estimation of dissociation severity based on brain function. The authors sought to test the robustness and sensitivity of a brain-based measure of dissociation severity.
Methods:An intrinsic network connectivity analysis was applied to functional MRI scans obtained from 65 women with histories of childhood abuse and current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The authors tested for continuous measures of trauma-related dissociation using the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation. Connectivity estimates were derived with a novel machine learning technique using individually defined homologous functional regions for each participant.
Results:The models achieved moderate ability to estimate dissociation, after controlling for childhood trauma and PTSD severity. Connections that contributed the most to the estimation mainly involved the default mode and frontoparietal control networks. By contrast, all models performed at chance levels when using a conventional group-based network parcellation.
Conclusions:Trauma-related dissociative symptoms, distinct from PTSD and childhood trauma, can be estimated on the basis of network connectivity. Furthermore, between-network brain connectivity may provide an unbiased estimate of symptom severity, paving the way for more objective, clinically useful biomarkers of dissociation and advancing our understanding of its neural mechanism
ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19060647

This is the latest publication showing the impact of safe, self-administered infrared light therapy as an effective treatment neurotrauma and related neurodegenerative conditions. The device used in this study was the Vielight Duo which provides both 10hz and 40hz stimulation to the brain as well as the body's blood supply through intranasal stimulation.  The study results suggest that the 8 weeks of stimulation resulted in increased brain volume in an number of regions and a decrease in hippocampal volume and overall network connectivity in relation to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The assumption that the intranasal stimulation would stimulate hippocampal activity is not supported by this study's results as the power density of the intranasal applicator is lower than the transcranial diodes and the amount of photons that could reach the brain would be rather limited. The intranasal unit does provide an excellent vehicle for stimulating the entire body's blood supply as it passes through the facial region every 4 minutes and thereby can irradiate all the free floating mitochondria now found to be in the blood stream. 
                               "Along with other data, the results suggested that the free-floating mitochondria
                               in healthy blood were in fact functioning, respiring organelles. The team estimates
                               that there could be between 200,000 and 3.7 million cell-free, intact mitochondria
                               per milliliter of blood plasma." 
Z.A.A. Dache et al., “Blood contains circulating cell-free respiratory competent mitochondria,” The FASEB Journal, doi:10.1096/fj.201901917RR, 2020. 

Quietmind Fdn. has been a long time advocate of PBM treatment and has taken a leading role in the integration of Vielight and other forms of PBM with neurofeedback and functional medicine. This study further illustrates the need for careful titration of stimulation dosing in order to avoid negative reactions (headaches) which can result from overstimulation. QMF provides consultation to Vielight users to optimize clinical results while minimizing adverse response potential.

The documented lack of improvement in delayed recall after 8 weeks of treatment while free recall did improve suggests the lack of neural connectivity improvement. This is not surprising and has been discussed in previous publications and underscores the relevance for an integrative treatment approach that seeks to improve both tissue level pathology with PBM and neural connectivity using brainwave biofeedback or neurofeedback training. This therapeutic combination leverages the value of increased perfusion, oxygenation and ATP production while renormalizing neural connectivity.  

Quietmind offers clinical and technical consultation to anyone purchasing Vielight devices through our clinical trial programs. Please contact our office for details info@quietmindfdn.org or call 610-940-0488.
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www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.00952/full