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Expecting your brain to operate in a way that produces certain frequencies because your ears are detecting air vibrations with those frequencies sounds extremel
by chc 9y ago
Expecting your brain to operate in a way that produces certain frequencies because your ears are detecting air vibrations with those frequencies sounds extremely homeopathic.
- bitcurious 9y agoThis study of memory loss in mice found that exposing them to light at about 40hz triggered gamma waves and reduced plaque formation. https://news.mit.edu/2016/visual-stimulation-treatment-alzheimer-1207 https://news.mit.edu/2016/visual-stimulation-treatment-alzhe...
- delecti 9y agoWe perceive visual stimuli as distinct events (up to a certain frequency), but when hearing, a 40 Hz sound isn't perceived as 40 individual sounds per second.
- cassianoleal 9y agoPerhaps because it isn't? Waves are not discrete structures. 40Hz means you have 40 wave cycles per second, not 40 discrete sounds.
- delecti 9y agoThat's kinda what I'm getting at. My understanding is that brain waves are more akin to a CPU clock, with various processes being synchronized, than to a sound wave. If that's the case, then you wouldn't have any reason to expect sound to make a difference in your brain's clock rate, but you could reasonably expect light pulses to.
- tw1010 9y agoDismissing it based on nothing more than a feeling, and no data, is just as irrational as homeopaths.
- tree_of_item 9y agoNo it isn't. You should default to disbelieving such extraordinary claims.
- tw1010 9y agoYou should default to having no strong opinion at all.
- tree_of_item 9y agoTurmeric added to coffee adds twenty years to your lifespan. Are you completely ambivalent to such a ridiculous claim? No, you should disbelieve it unless you get a sufficient amount of evidence.
- taeric 9y agoTo be fair, science thrives on curiosity. I'd prefer we establish something was safe and have at the experiments. So, disbelieve in part by trying to disprove. Win win.
- varjag 9y agoScience is not being advanced by disproving crackpots. It's a waste of precious resource better spent elsewhere.
- taeric 9y agoYou'd be surprised. :)
- varjag 9y agoDon't think I would.
- colordrops 9y ago
- bsanderson 9y agoActually a thing... Auditory Beat Stimulation and its Effects on Cognition and Mood States https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428073/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428073/
- chc 9y agoThe proposition "listening to music affects your mood" is very different from the proposition "listening to a certain frequency of tone causes your brain to produce waves at a corresponding frequency."
- bsanderson 9y agoSure but who said anything about music? The word music doesn't appear in the original link or in any other comment on this page, or in the link I posted.
- derefr 9y agoI wouldn't go so far as to say such an idea is on the level of homeopathy—scientist certainly do induce ("entrain") the brain to certain frequencies of operation using flashing lights. The general principle is sound. But, I would emphasize, they usually do that by first genetically modifying the creature whose brain they want to manipulate to make some of its neurons into opto-couplers. They wouldn't be doing that if there was an easier way. :) (It turns out that—even without the genetic modification—some frequencies of flashing light do cause the brain to do certain things. See, for example, https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/flashing-light-clears-toxic-brain-protein-in-mice-with-alzheimer-s https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/flashing-light-clears-tox.... But the effects of this, from what I understand, aren't the same effect you would get by actually getting the brain to entrain to that frequency; it's maybe entraining the pulse-rate of the brain's glymphatic channels or somesuch, but not synaptic firing.)
- Dylan16807 9y agoLarge amounts of sensory input with a certain rhythm affecting brain firing is known to happen; see seizures. And the idea has a pretty obvious mechanism. So your comparison is not fair at all.
- colordrops 9y agoYour statement is as lacking in evidence and reasoning as you suppose the one you are attacking is.