3 ms·
Keep in mind that the binaural beats community spouts a lot of BS. Only for the lowest frequencies (say, under 100 Hz) are there reliable traveling waves to ev
by KingMob 10y ago
Keep in mind that the binaural beats community spouts a lot of BS.
Only for the lowest frequencies (say, under 100 Hz) are there reliable traveling waves to even measure in the brain. Due to the firing refactory period where a neuron resets its membrane potential, most neurons have a max firing rate in the range of 250-300 Hz, so it's not possible for difference tones to explain any binaural beats above those frequencies.
Even for lower frequencies in the range of delta-gamma waves, it seems deeply unlikely that difference tones are the explanation, because the neurons encoding for frequency are separated spatially, so it's not as if two traveling waves reach the same neuron, subtract out, and result in the difference frequency.
However the brain produces the beat frequency, it's nothing like the way signals subtract in other media.
- stcredzero 10y agoKeep in mind that the binaural beats community spouts a lot of BS. That's not where this is coming from. If, as you say, the brain is processing information in the frequency domain, then how would beat frequencies arise? I'm not debunking what you are claiming. That fits what I know about hearing. I'm genuinely curious as to how!
- KingMob 10y agoAh, my apologies. We used to have an RA in my old lab who was a little too obsessed with binaural beats. He claimed he could use mp3's like drugs... My primary area of study was perceptual consciousness in the visual domain, so I had to look a little more in-depth into binaural beats to answer your question. So, it appears that frequency coding is the norm for higher frequencies, but not for lower frequencies, which are the only ones we can hear binaural beats from. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find much relevant neuroimaging literature, so I don't really know. Binaural beats are an auditory illusion, but I'm not sure of what process. The lower frequencies do record phase information, and use that for localization information (comparing phase differences at each ear for a frequency tell you the angle it came in from), so It could be related. Sorry again!