#309 - In-Home Neurofeedback Training with Vital Neuro Headphones ft. Co-founder Alex Doman
May 22, 2024
Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, AC & Jessica Hill, COTA/L
Alex Doman is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, psychoacoustic music producer, and TEDx speaker with more than thirty years of experience in neurotechnology. His mission is to help others achieve their optimal potential and become the best version of themselves.
The third generation in a family of pioneers dedicated to improving people's brain performance for over seventy-five years, Alex founded Advanced Brain Technologies and co-founded Sleep Genius and Vital Neuro. Doman’s production credits are extensive, guiding teams who’ve created cutting-edge solutions that have helped millions of people worldwide including among others; The Listening Program® music listening therapy and audio streaming service, and Sleep Genius™ which achieved the #1 global Health & Fitness app in the App Store. He and his colleagues at Vital Neuro are on a mission to change people's minds for the better through their patented EEG-driven method, Neuroguided Performance Training.
Alex’s bestselling book Healing at the Speed of Sound® is published in five languages and was one of Apple’s Top 10 Enhanced Books of the Year. He’s contributed articles to scientific journals, magazines, and books, and is host of the Advanced Brain Podcast with guests including NY Times bestselling authors, health personalities, and other thought leaders. He has been interviewed for; NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, Today, NPR Marketplace, Wall Street Journal, Self, Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Fast Company, MoneyWatch, ESPN Radio, Hearing Health Magazine, top podcasts and, other media. A global keynote speaker, Alex has been on stages in Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America and is listed as one of the 50 important human behavior experts to watch.
Alex Doman is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, psychoacoustic music producer, and TEDx speaker with more than thirty years of experience in neurotechnology. His mission is to help others achieve their optimal potential and become the best version of themselves.
The third generation in a family of pioneers dedicated to improving people's brain performance for over seventy-five years, Alex founded Advanced Brain Technologies and co-founded Sleep Genius and Vital Neuro. Doman’s production credits are extensive, guiding teams who’ve created cutting-edge solutions that have helped millions of people worldwide including among others; The Listening Program® music listening therapy and audio streaming service, and Sleep Genius™ which achieved the #1 global Health & Fitness app in the App Store. He and his colleagues at Vital Neuro are on a mission to change people's minds for the better through their patented EEG-driven method, Neuroguided Performance Training.
Alex’s bestselling book Healing at the Speed of Sound® is published in five languages and was one of Apple’s Top 10 Enhanced Books of the Year. He’s contributed articles to scientific journals, magazines, and books, and is host of the Advanced Brain Podcast with guests including NY Times bestselling authors, health personalities, and other thought leaders. He has been interviewed for; NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, Today, NPR Marketplace, Wall Street Journal, Self, Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Fast Company, MoneyWatch, ESPN Radio, Hearing Health Magazine, top podcasts and, other media. A global keynote speaker, Alex has been on stages in Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America and is listed as one of the 50 important human behavior experts to watch.
Really what we're doing is we're aiming to help people manage their mental state more effectively. Helping them to improve their focus, find states of calm, get rid of that impending feeling of overwhelm that so many people have, and help them to regain control and perform in life the way they want to perform.
Rachel:
I'm Rachel.
Jessica:
And I'm Jessica, and this is All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Rachel:
We are both certified occupational therapy assistants and together with Harkla, we are on a mission to empower parents, therapists, and educators to help raise confident and strong children of all abilities.
Jessica:
On this podcast, we chat about I'm going to be talking about all things sensory, diving into special needs, occupational therapy, parenting, self care, overall health and wellness, and so much more.
Rachel:
We are here to provide raw, honest, and fun strategies, ideas, and information for parents, therapists, and educators, as well as other professionals to implement into daily.
Jessica:
Thank you so much for joining us.
Rachel:
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to All Things Sensory by Harkla. Welcome. If this is your first time listening, we're so happy to have you here today. I'm Rachel.
Jessica:
And I'm Jessica and you are going to meet Alex Doman today. We've interviewed him before, four years ago, and we decided to have him back on the podcast today to talk about his new program, which you will learn all about once we get started. But a little bit of info about Alex, he is an entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in neurotechnology. His mission is to help other people achieve their optimal potential and to become the best version of themselves. He is a third generation in a family of pioneers dedicated to improving people's brain performance, and he founded Advanced Brain, co-founded Sleep Genius and Vital Neuro, which is the one that we are going to talk about today. So he and his colleagues at Vital Neuro are on a mission to change people's minds for the better through their patented EEG driven method, Neuroguided performance training. He has a book called Healing at the Speed of Sound. He is a contributor to many scientific journals, magazines, books. He also hosts his own podcast, the Advanced Brain Podcast. So many things. I can't believe he does all of these things.
Rachel:
And he's so calm, you know.
Jessica:
Probably because of the vital neuro.
Rachel:
I know. I know. So we're going to jump in and meet Alex and we'll learn all about vital neuro and we hope you enjoy. Hello, Alex. Welcome back to the podcast.
Alex Doman:
Great to be here. Jessica and Rachel. Awesome to see you.
Jessica:
We interviewed you way back in 2019, and we will link that episode so that everyone can check that out as well. But we asked you five secret questions in that interview, and we are going to ask you the same secret questions and compare your answers.
Alex Doman:
Oh, no, I forgot about the secret questions.
Jessica:
This is our favorite thing about having guests back on is we get to ask the same questions and see where they end up.
Alex Doman:
Alright, well, let's, let's see if we've grown.
Rachel:
Pressure.
Jessica:
First question, what is your favorite dessert?
Alex Doman:
My favorite dessert is key lime pie.
Jessica:
You did say that last time.
Rachel:
And he said New York cheesecake.
Alex Doman:
Well, New York cheesecake came into mind, but it's still key lime.
Jessica:
Okay, so you're still the same there. There you go.
Rachel:
Love that. It just makes me like blah. Just the thought of key lime pies, you know, like that is your favorite is just like.
Alex Doman:
You haven't had a great key lime.
Jessica:
Okay. What does your morning routine look like?
Alex Doman:
Well, what it looks like, well, we won't get too descriptive. However, I've got a pretty regular morning ritual.
Get up at 5:
30 in the morning and now it involves doing what I call a sunrise stack with vital neural, which we'll be talking about. So I wake up and I do a 15 minute relaxation session with a vital neuro to kind of meet my brain where it's waking up. When you wake up, your cortisol level is high to help you get awake and I do a relaxation session to kind of dampen that cortisol a little bit. Then I start to have black coffee with it and start reading and I do a focus session. I follow that with an optimized session, then go out the door and take my dog for a walk to get some movement and first morning sunlight.
Rachel:
Wow. I love that. I love the consistency of the routine and I love how you balance the vital sessions with what your body needs and like you said, you're meeting your body and your brain where it's at.
Alex Doman:
Well, that's the cool thing. You can just dial in whatever your needs are in the moment. So that's one of the great things about the flexibility of it.
Jessica:
Yeah. Cool. Next question. What is your favorite form of exercise?
Alex Doman:
My favorite form of exercise is weightlifting.
Jessica:
Okay.
Alex Doman:
Oh, I love to lift. That is my favorite activity.
Rachel:
Are you still swimming?
Alex Doman:
I am not actively swimming and I need to get back to my swim routine.
Rachel:
Cause when we talked to you in 2019, you said you're getting into it.
Alex Doman:
I was. I got heavy into it for a while cause I had set myself a goal and I fell short of that goal, unfortunately. So, one of the realities is at my club, there is so much competition for the pool in the morning. I don't like sharing lanes. You're in there for an early morning session. You've got to share lanes with people and I'm just not down for that.
Rachel:
Yeah.
Jessica:
That's fair.
Alex Doman:
And it backed me off a little bit.
Jessica:
Okay. What is your sensory quirk?
Alex Doman:
My sensory quirk is my touch sensitivity. I still may have a little startle reflex, COTAs, if I get touched unexpectedly.
Jessica:
Last question. If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would it be?
Alex Doman:
That's a challenging one. Curious.
Rachel:
Okay.
Jessica:
I like curious, so that's a good one.
Rachel:
I do too.
Alex Doman:
Currently, I'm quite curious.
Rachel:
Yeah. For good reason. So, the reason why we have you back on today is to talk about something new and exciting called Vital Neuro and people may have heard me talking about this. And I'm excited to have you fill us in, but before we jump into all things Vital Neuro, kind of give us the background, give our audience the background, who you are, what you do, and why are you doing it?
Alex Doman:
Yeah. So, you know, I've been in the field of neurotechnology and auditory music based therapies for, I hate to say it, 30 years now. So, this has really been my life's work. I came into it through my family, third generation, focused on child development, brain performance, neuro rehabilitation, starting with my grandfather, who was a physiatrist, doctor of physical medicine, rehabilitation. My father, he's an educator and family for 80 years has simply been involved in developing methodologies and helping people reach their full potential. And it's just our, it's our mission. It's our vision. It's our life work and our, our way of being. So. I do this because I was blessed to grow up in a family very committed to helping people, and I'm just proud to be able to continue the tradition.
Rachel:
I think I forgot about that from our, like, our original interview, that your whole family, like, you grew up doing this, and your whole family was involved. And so, you are involved in advanced brain technology, which is what we initially had talked about. And helping to develop that, create that amazing program that we've used for so many years now. So let's dive into vital neuro. What is it? Fill us in.
Alex Doman:
Well, some background, let's talk about neurofeedback training and then we'll talk a little bit about, you know, vital neuro. So people may be familiar with neurofeedback or that may be a new idea to them, but that's a non invasive way to train the brain. It involves putting EEG sensors placed on the scalp to measure and monitor brain wave activity. Feedback is provided in real time to the individual doing the training using either visual cues or auditory cues and that helps the brain to self regulate and to function more efficiently. So this training leverages a technique called operative conditioning, which if you have studied psych 101, you learned about operant conditioning and, rewarding behavior to encourage a behavior. So neurofeedback is a way to change the brain's behavior by rewarding it and giving it stimulus that it finds pleasing and rewarding. But what this allows the brain to do is to temporarily change its brain function to shift its state and then as you use it, that change becomes more permanent over time. So, you know, that's kind of the, the background research in science and neurofeedback's a field several decades old and is used quite widely internationally. Now, Vital Neuro, we're a company that is really focused on advancing, advancing mental wellness through neurotechnology. So we, as a team, have developed a mobile patented neurofeedback system. It combines neurofeedback in a mobile architecture with what we call neuroresponsive music in a very user friendly format, and really what we're doing is we're aiming to help people manage their mental state more effectively. Helping them to improve their focus, find states of calm, get rid of that impending feeling of overwhelm that so many people have, and help them to regain control and perform in life the way they want to perform. So, that's what we're really here to do and the methodology, is called neuro guided performance training. So that's the name of the combination of the mobile neurofeedback with the neuroresponsive music.
Rachel:
Amazing.
Jessica:
Then I had a question pop up as you were talking about neurofeedback. Does it help stimulate the production of dopamine in the brain? Is that kind of the process that it uses there?
Alex Doman:
Well, great question, Jessica. And, the idea, any time that we are providing training and stimulus to the brain, you're affecting the brain on multiple levels, and one is neurochemically. So, different techniques are going to produce and stimulate the production and increase in different neurochemicals. And you can see changes in the dopamine response and the serotonin response in response with different individuals and different training protocols. But that, that would be a piece of it.
Jessica:
Okay.
Rachel:
One big factor that I think is important to chat about is kind of who Vital Neuro was designed for and our podcast really focuses on kids and helping kids thrive. But a big part of it is putting our own, as adults and as therapists and caregivers, putting our own oxygen masks on first, before we can help our kids thrive. So let's talk a little bit about that aspect.
Alex Doman:
Yeah, so when, when we started Vital Neuro, the focus of the team was really, how do we help the broader population get that sense of control? Self regulate to focus, right? So if we can do that, we can do anything. So if we, we can manage our emotions and, and our emotional response to what's happening in our mind, if we can focus on, on task, and we can feel in control, we can be so much happier. So much more productive and effective in our daily life. So we had really focused on the adults and healthy caregivers, healthy, you know, adults that are in working professions and high stress occupations, caregivers, such as yourselves as therapists, as parents, to really help them get that sense of self control, self regulation, and to perform the way that they ultimately want to perform. So where most of my work has been focused on pediatric populations and adolescents, this has been a big shift in, in vital neural. So really it's for you and as for the other therapists that are listening to us today, and the parents, primarily. Because we, we can only help people to the degree that we help ourselves.
Rachel:
Yeah.
Alex Doman:
So, we, we've had this conversation, Rachel, about put on your oxygen mask first, just as we're instructed on the airplane. Because we need to feed ourselves, we need to take care of ourselves, and so often , especially if we're in a household where the child with special needs, all the attention, all of the focus, all of the energy goes to serving them, and we end up being depleted and we're running out of energy and gas and then we can't be there only, not only for that child, but for a spouse and for our other children. So, really important that we practice good self care and that's what Vital is really about.
Rachel:
Yeah, we actually just recorded a podcast not too long ago. It was your idea because of working, she doesn't even know what I'm going to say now, because she was working with a client whose mom was just like in that fight or flight and was verbalizing that like, I can't even take care of my own needs, like I can't even keep my head above water. And so we recorded an episode about like. How do we as parents, parents of, you know, kids with special needs, how do we take care of ourselves and get out of fight or flight mode in order to help our kids? Because if they see us, and if they sense that in us, it just, you know, waterfall effect. Waterfall effect? Is that the word?
Jessica:
Domino effect.
Rachel:
Domino effect. You know, trickles down into them as well. So, I just feel like this is such a great and simple solution for our parents. Our caregivers are therapists in between sessions, if you had a really challenging or difficult session with kiddos and you're like, Wow. I just need to calm down. I need to organize my own nervous system and reset before my next kiddo. I know like in the perfect world, we have time to do that, but then.
Jessica:
At least on your lunch break.
Rachel:
Exactly. Exactly. And the nice thing about the vital neuro is there's different time length and goals of the session. So if you're like, I need to relax, but I only have five minutes, you can still work towards achieving that goal in just a short amount of time.
Alex Doman:
Yeah. Well, and well said and that reset we call making the shift. So, you know, literally how do we shift from stress to relaxation or calm? How do we shift from a world of distraction to being focused? How do we upregulate our arousal, right? When arousal is too low, how do we get energy to, to get active and engage what we want to do? And when our arousal is too high, how do we calm the nervous system? And in a 5 or 10 minute Vital session, we can do that. We can make that shift and Rachel, I know you've had many of those experiences.
Rachel:
Yeah, yeah, it's been a game changer for me. I think the latest thing that kind of just blew my mind was, you know, I can't remember when I started it. I wouldn't say it was like January or February, but I went into my doctor, who's, a functional medicine practitioner, and she's doing,her hippy hippy voodoo voodoo on me and like testing me and doing all the things and she all of a sudden is like your nervous system seems to be like almost like Confused about it. Like, your nervous system seems to be doing better, you know? I wonder why, you know? And I'm like oh my word. Like, and then I told her what I was doing. I was using the vital neuro. She's like, well, whatever you're doing, keep doing it. Because like, I can, she could actually see the difference that was, that was happening on her little hippy hippy voodoo voodoo. And it was just, just like what I needed to hear, like, okay, this is, this is actually transferring.
Alex Doman:
That's, that's very cool. So what does that change feel like to you?
Rachel:
I just feel like I have, I have more of a reaction time to think about how I'm going to react. Like generally the hardest parts of the day are like when my kiddos are like yelling at me or screaming and there's constant noise. Everyone knows I'm auditorily sensitive. So I just feel like I have more response time to stop, think, have an appropriate reaction, stay calm in the moment, and then when I am feeling that like overwhelmed, when I have all these looming tasks over my head, if I can do a session, I just feel like it's, it's like, okay. You've got this, like bringing it back. Like you're fine. Everything's going to work out.
Alex Doman:
So you can take a beat now without being reactive.
Rachel:
Yes. Yes.
Alex Doman:
So important.
Rachel:
Oh my gosh. My kids are probably like, wow mom? Like, wow, this is so great.
Alex Doman:
Feels good when reactivity's slower, for sure. That longer use and the cup doesn't overflow.
Rachel:
Yeah.
Jessica:
All right. I have a question. You mentioned in your morning routine that you use Vital Neuro to like dampen your cortisol in the morning and so I just had a question about this, and you will be able to explain this to me. But don't we want that cortisol in the morning to help us wake up? Like what's the, what does that look like and why do we want to potentially dampen the cortisol in the morning?
Alex Doman:
Yeah, so, so for me, and you know, we don't even need to, speak about the cortisol necessarily, Jessica. The idea is that once I'm awake and cortisol has done its job and my arousal is up, then I am getting game ready for my day and I am putting myself into a mental state that I want to be to be as effective as I can with the tasks that are coming at hand. So for me, that's about being very calm and being very centered and being very present. So when I do a relaxed session, it just brings myself within, finds a place of quiet. I contemplate what's ahead of me in the day. So I go through that really, that mental pregame, and that really helps me and then I'll ramp myself up, I go to focus state. And that's where I do my morning reading. So I'm now getting again into a different mindset and that I ramp up to our optimized mode, which is more activating and now I'm ready for action. So I'm really just taking a stepped approach to approach the day for myself. It's not that I wake up and cortisol's high and I feel really stressed. In fact, you know, I, I wear a biometric and I'm monitoring my stress levels all the time and I wake up. They're incredibly low, but I want to keep kind of that mellow and then just gradually have the control of how I'm ramping myself up for the day. You know, and the cool thing is I can be doing other things and that's really important with Vital when I'm doing my sessions. So I could be present, eyes closed, do a meditation, do a deep relaxation session. Then I can do my morning reading. I can do email with my optimize and then get out the door. So, you know, it's super flexible in terms of how we use it. That's just my morning preference.
Jessica:
Right. Now that makes sense.
Rachel:
And I think too, what's helpful for people to understand. So you're talking about a relaxed session, a focus session, and an optimized session, all of the music and like the visual, like ASMR type screen video is different for each of these sessions. So like the relaxed session is more of like calming music and the focus is more like alerting music and the optimize is more like bouncy and like upbeat and that's my personal favorite. But I think that's helpful for people to realize that. The meditate is very slow as well so I think that when people can understand that the music changes in order to help you achieve that desired state that's important too.
Alex Doman:
Well, even as we expand on that a little bit more in neuro responsive music. Vital has five modes. It has sleep. So that's your pre sleep ritual to help you go to sleep, stay asleep, feel more rested when you get up in the morning. Meditation when we need to drop into very deep relaxation or engage in a meditation practice. Relaxation just to bring that calm and down regulate focus is a calm focus. So that's really mind alert, body relaxed, then optimizes again, that more upbeat, give us more energy. And all of the music for Vital is composed for each mode. So that music is specifically composed, the tempo, the frequency, the musical structure to guide the brain to that state and then when the brain reaches the state, which is being monitored by the EEG and the headphones, and it reaches that state, then the music changes and it becomes more rewarding. It becomes more fulfilling. And that's the operant conditioning of the neural feedback. So when the music changes, the brain signal, you're doing the right thing. So it's getting a reward for doing that and it learns how to stay in that state for longer and longer periods of time. You know, you'll notice you go out of state sometimes and part of the music disappears. So you lose part of the composition and then what are you and your brain trying to do? You're trying to recapture that and get that more fulfilling experience with the music. And then simultaneously, the visuals are either animating when you're in that reward zone or paused when you're out of the zone and so those visuals and the music matches the goal mode. As you described, so it really becomes a really fulfilling and fun and enjoyable experience to do a live session.
Rachel:
Well, it's only fulfilling if your brain is doing the right thing and it's working. That's what it sounded like. That's what was so stressful for me at first I'm, like it keeps changing the music stopping the visual stopping like what am I doing wrong? And I was like in my head and then when you told me don't think about it. Just like go about your day and just be present with the music That's when it changed for me and I was able to like let go and then my brain was like oh, I just need to trust what I'm doing and you'll be
Alex Doman:
You're just getting feedback. You're getting feedback and guidance on where to go and the brain, the brain is picking up these cues really quickly and it figures it out. And I think we're so used to trying to control what happens around us that actually letting go and just letting it happen, focus on our breath, just observe what's happening, don't judge it, let the training occur, and your brain will get better and better at self regulating, at paying attention, at doing what it needs for itself. Because what it are we designed to do? We're designed to self regulate and vital simply reminding the brain how to do it.
Jessica:
Now is this program designed to be used like occasionally, for just a couple of months, or is this something that can be used for life?
Alex Doman:
All of the above, right? So we have had people that are what I would say are in crisis. A lot has happened. They're managing a lot in their life. They're feeling peculiarly overwhelmed and they need some immediate relief. We can put on the headphones, do a 10 or 15 minute relaxed session and get them off the edge. So you can have an episodic benefit one time to feel better. Now, as we work with this over time, we get the cumulative benefits of neuroplasticity where we get more permanency to the change. So for myself, Vital, like with the listening program, is a lifelong tool because the stressors don't stop coming. Right? They're always going to be there, but how I'm prepared to respond to them is up to me and I use these tools to be my most resilient self and we can see significant results in a relatively short time frame. So last year, we ran a series of studies with high, high stress occupations. So we worked with flight attendants, nurses including a lot of critical care nurses, first responders, and classroom teachers. So they did vital for six weeks, and they were recommended to do a minimum of three ten minute sessions per week. So we did a baseline assessment, a midpoint at three weeks, and a post assessment after six weeks and we measured six areas of emotional and cognitive function. So I want to share those results with you because they're amazing. So in six weeks across this population, anxiety reduced 45 percent. Burnout symptoms 22 percent. Concentration improved 45 percent. Depression symptoms decreased 45 percent. Sleep quality improved 30%, stress reduced 26%, and well being perception increased 39 percent on standardized health reports. That's six weeks and so for these individuals, they were able to make a big shift and feel a whole lot better, and many decided, I'm good. I'm feeling great. I've gotten my benefit from using this and then if they're having challenging times, they'll come back to it and others, it becomes part of that daily routine, just like your exercise or the rituals that you have, which is our preference where this is going to become part of what we do just to live our best life. So the great thing is the system has the flexibility to work across that spectrum of need.
Jessica:
Yeah, I like that.
Rachel:
Those numbers are just wild to me. Like 45%, like, those are huge changes.
Alex Doman:
They're massive changes.
Jessica:
That's such a short amount of time.
Alex Doman:
If, we knew the impact, but to work, and this is important, this is individuals using Vital in their daily life and I mean, what does that look like? VITAL is a pair of wireless headphones. It has EEG sensors embedded in what we call a sensor bar. So, I mean, using VITAL just means I put on my headphones. I turn on my app, I go and select that I want to relax for 10 minutes, and within 30 seconds, I'm doing relaxation training with Narrow Guided Performance Training and I'm making that shift. So, this is something you can do. Take with you, you can do it at home, you can do it at work, you can have it in the car, you can travel on the airplane, and it's the companion that you need when you need it. You just open up the case and pull it out when necessary.
Rachel:
Yeah, it's so easy, it's like crazy to not be able to have the time to do it during your day. I mean, I still struggle sometimes to get my sessions done during the day, just Because of the season of my life. I don't like doing it when it's loud and when like the kids are all you know making noise. So like figuring out that balance has been the hardest part for me. But I when i'm doing it consistently, that's definitely when I notice the biggest shift.
Alex Doman:
And we all have the carve out that time. Again, it goes to the self care.
Rachel:
Yeah,
Alex Doman:
I watched your reel on on what your job is Rachel and there's a list of about 20 things and yes, life can get a little overwhelming. You can always find five or ten minutes for yourself.
Rachel:
Exactly. Let's chat about what it looks like to, for anyone listening, to get a pair of these headphones.
Alex Doman:
Yeah. So, all you have to do is go to the Vital Neuro website at vitalneuro. com and order the headphones. So headphones, a one year subscription with an iOS app. So it's currently iOS Android will be coming in the future, but that's it. Go to the website and get started.
Rachel:
Easy peasy. I have a discount code I should share with our podcast listeners so they can get a discount on it as well if they want to.
Jessica:
You should.
Rachel:
Shameless plug. Might as well get a discount on it, but. I just, I actually have one more question that I was thinking of. I had my mom do a session when she was here visiting. Shout out because she's our number one fan and she's probably going to be listening to this. But she, she has trigeminal neuralgia and so we were like, let's just try it. Let's see, let's see what happens and she ended up crushing it and got a really good score, which I know it's not about the score. But I'm, you know, slightly competitive and we had to talk about that. But I was asking her afterwards, like, did you notice the music shifting? Like, did you notice any changes? And she's like, no. So what are your thoughts on that? When someone doesn't perceive those changes or hear those changes or notice those. Have you ever had that happen?
Alex Doman:
I have on a couple of occasions had to be very subtle, mainly related to the volume being too low on the audio and they weren't picking up those cues and the changes in the music. And there are, you know, it also depends somewhat on our orientation. So some people don't pick up on shifts and cues and changes music. So it's just something that they don't have an awareness of. You know, I, I remember, you know, somebody listening to a session once again. Oh, wait, the sounds here, the sounds here, the, and they hadn't noticed that before and they began and they discovered oh, there's something happening bilaterally between the left and the right brain hemisphere. Because we do a lot with spacial work with the music. So it would, would be interesting if your mom's condition is related to that or some people just don't pick up that perception for whatever reason.
Rachel:
Yeah, but that's a really good point that you aren't necessarily like musically inclined or if you're not picking up on those things, it would make sense to not really pay too much attention to it.
Alex Doman:
And even if you're not paying attention to it, your brain is. So whether or not you're aware of it, your brain is picking it up.
Jessica:
Well, when we chatted with you four years ago, we focused on advanced brain technologies and the listening program. Today we focused on vital neuro. So I'm just curious where you're going to be in another four years and what you'll be working on.
Alex Doman:
You know, right? It's an interesting question, having spent so much time in this field and the work at Advanced Brain Technologies is, you know, I'm involved, but my wife, Mandy Doman, runs the organization. There's an amazing team and amazing faculty and scientific advisory board that keep that humming and it's just rewarding to watch that work continue. ABT is involved with vital neuro as well and making it available to clinicians and developing practitioner training and helping clinicians now implement this within their practice. But my focus my mission is really on continuing all of the work to help people better themselves and that vehicle now is really dialed in on vital neuro. We have something world changing here. We have see lives repeatedly impacted over and over in massively significant ways. So my head is down along with our team, very committed to this mission, and making vital as successful to as many people as possible. So when we're back in four years, we can talk about the impact we've made.
Jessica:
Oh, and we're that's so wild to think about.
Rachel:
If you were to leave us, leave our audience of parents, therapists, educators, if you were to leave us with, like, your gold star advice, What would it be?
Alex Doman:
Believe that anything's possible, that we have unlimited potential, and that we need to try things. We need to try and we need to be persistent. We need to believe in our kids We need to keep fighting for our kids, and we need to be taking care of ourselves so we can do our best for them
Jessica:
Perfect.
Rachel:
I thought you were gonna say stay curious. That's what I was waiting for.
Jessica:
I think it goes along with believing things are possible, right?
Rachel:
I love it.
Alex Doman:
You gotta believe, right? There's, there's a lot of questions and there's, there's a lot of answers and there's a lot of opportunity and possibilities. And you know, we're, there's so much ahead that we've yet to discover. So, you know, in four years, going back to that prior question, AI plays a very interesting, interesting role in all of this and, you know, that for sure is part of our product roadmap with Vital Neuro. So how do we take learnings from brain data? How does the system, Rachel, get smarter about you and how does active learning from all of the individuals benefiting from Vital? Help the system improve over time based on the learnings from everyone that's using it. So I'm really excited about the brain data and how that's going to inform what this looks next few years.
Jessica:
Yeah.
Rachel:
I like that. I like even inside the app, too, being able to document, like, how you felt, what you were doing during the session. I feel like that's really helpful to be able to go back and analyze that data, too, of like, oh, well, I had a really good session, and this is what I was doing, or this is what I was thinking about, or this is what I was stressed about, and now I feel great, and just learning about that, being in tune with what's going on and being able to track that as cool.
Alex Doman:
Yeah. I think you're going to like the next app update coming in a week or so.
Rachel:
Oh, I get a sneak peek or do I just have to wait and see?
Alex Doman:
You got to wait and see. But, you get to set goals, you get to close rings, you get a resilience score. So there's all sorts of cool, cool things that are helping you track and measure the change that's happening with vital neuro and the goal setting feature is awesome. So excited to get your feedback on that once you use it.
Rachel:
Cool. Well, that sounds good. Anything else that you're thinking about? Anything else you want to share? I feel like we got all the basics covered. I just want to make sure people really understand the concept behind it because it's kind of novel.
Alex Doman:
Yeah, you know, I think it says bullies you have a pair of headphones that have brain sensors in them. These aren't putting anything into your head, simply reading brain activity, which is the electrical signals coming off your brain. You select a state of mind on the app that you want to achieve, you press play, you listen to music that's beautiful and guides your brain there, while the system's analyzing your brain data and your brain is responding to the music in real time. That shifts your mental state, helps you feel better, more calm, more focused, better regulated and when you use it regularly and the more you use it, more it can help. It's simple. You know, the science underneath is very complex. But the experience of using it is super easy and it's something I believe everyone should do if they have the opportunity to do it.
Jessica:
Well, we will put all of your information, website, all of that good stuff in the show notes so that everyone can go check it out.
Rachel:
That sounds good. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day, filling us all in. We'll link a discount code. We'll link Vital Neuro. We'll link ABT for anyone. We'll also link our old podcast from four or five years ago and just share the, share the love.
Alex Doman:
Yeah, let's share the love. Great to be with you both again.
Jessica:
Thank you so much.
Alex Doman:
Thanks for having me.
Jessica:
We're going to make sure to link Rachel's discount code in the show notes for you to use to purchase your own vital neuro headphones and get the app and get started on this program so that you can start retraining your brain, essentially.
Rachel:
Yeah. If you liked this episode, if you thought it was interesting, definitely leave a review. We honestly love having reviews on our YouTube channel. Interview episodes just because it gives a little shout out to our interviewees and we just love that if you can take a minute and also take a screenshot while you're listening, tag us on instagram, share the love like we talked about in this episode and tag vital neuro tag advanced brain. It's just such a powerful tool. We just need to share it, share it with the world.
Jessica:
Okay. Well, that's it. It's all we got for you today. Thanks for being here. We'll talk to you next time. Okay. Bye.
Rachel:
Thank you so much for listening to all things sensory by Harkla.
Jessica:
If you want more information on anything mentioned in the show, head over to Harkla.co/podcast to get the show notes.
Rachel:
If you have any follow up questions, the best place to ask those is in the comments on the show notes or message us on our Instagram account, which is at Harkla_family or at all things sensory podcast. If you just search Harkla, you'll find us there.
Jessica:
Like we mentioned before, Our podcast listeners get 10 percent off their first order at Harkla. Whether it's for one of our digital courses or one of our sensory swings, the discount code sensory will get you 10 percent off. That's S E N S O R Y.
Rachel:
Head to harkla.co/sensory to use that discount code right now.
Jessica:
We are so excited to work together to help create confident kids all over the world. While we make every effort to share correct information, we're still learning.
Rachel:
We will double check all of our facts, but realize that medicine is a constantly changing science and art.
Jessica:
One doctor or therapist may have a different way of doing things from another.
Rachel:
We are simply presenting our views and opinions on how to address common sensory challenges, health related difficulties, and what we have found to be beneficial that will be as evidence based as possible.
Jessica:
By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or your child.
Rachel:
Consult your child's pediatrician or therapist for any medical issues that he or she may be having.
Jessica:
This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast.