Mark Tommerdahl

The Brain Gauge methods predicted GABA deficits in autism that were later validated with medical imaging

After having many discussions with people who are interested in the Brain Gauge technology, I became increasingly aware that a vast majority assume the Brain Gauge was designed exclusively for assessing traumatic brain injury (TBI) and concussion. Although we have received support from the Office of Naval Research for the development of the Brain Gauge as a standardized concussion tool, the development of the device began as a means for studying alterations in brain

Or maybe a better question is – Did anyone ever successfully treat it?

One of the unique things about the somatosensory system that separates it from the other sensory modalities is that there are pain receptors in the skin that project to the somatosensory cortex. All of the painful stimuli we encounter is modulated through the sense of touch. This has been well known for decades, if not centuries, and this concept did not escape medical practitioners - the idea ofremoving this part of the brain to eliminate pain surfaced in

Many heart medications that improve HRV have a negative impact on brain health that can be measured with the Brain Gauge.

Several people have asked us how heart rate variability (HRV) compares to the Brain Gauge. The question we keep getting is: "Is the HRV measure from my smartwatch as good of an indicator of brain health as the Brain Gauge measures?"

The short answer to this question is no, HRV and Brain Gauge measure completely different things. Heart rate variability gives a measure of the autonomic nervous

Frequency of testing brain function can be analogous to weighing yourself.

The question of how frequently someone should test themselves (or be tested by a clinician) with the Brain Gauge comes up quite often. The short answer: it depends on the reason that you are testing. Many people are doing things to make their brain function better. This is a bit like doing things to lose weight. If you are on a diet and trying to lose weight by increasing physical activity as well as cutting back on the calories,

When considering the health effects of “conventional” vs. “organic” food, the debate is usually centered around the consumer: Are there more nutrients in one or the other? Are pesticide/herbicide levels on conventional food significant enough to cause problems? Sometimes the discussion will veer towards which is more costly to the environment, or which is more efficient for feeding a growing world population. However the discussion rarely ventures to the subject of the health of the farmer growing the food, and thus applying the fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. But a

Can the Brain Gauge be used to decrease pain or improve brain function?

For many years, people have found modest success with treating different forms of chronic pain with different types of tactile stimulation (vibration, electrical stimuli, etc.). Results from those studies (and there were quite a few) are both divergent in terms of results obtained from tactile stimulation and inconclusive. In our own work, we demonstrated a reduced effect of high frequency tactile stimulation (this means we delivered 150 Hz vibration to the skin at the same time as

Probing brain function by vibrating the fingertips
One of our favorite quotes of the year is from someone who was considering purchase of a Brain Gauge for his practice. But then he consulted a lawyer, and the lawyer told him “you can’t prove that the Brain Gauge does anything other than test finger function.”

In the court of law, this is probably true. People have had enormous difficulty proving that anything means anything in that arena (including EEGs, MRIs, MEGs, etc.) and the Brain Gauge would be no exception.