How Sound Waves Affect the Brain

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Katelyn Miller
Waves Blog
How Do Sound Waves Affect the Brain?
The brain is made up of billions of cells called neurons. Like the rest of your body, your neurons use electricity to communicate with each other. All of the neurons communicating produces a lot of electrical activity in your brain. “When you graph the electrical activity of your brain using EEG, you generate what is called a brainwave pattern, which is called a “wave” pattern because of its cyclic, wave-like nature”. -https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/brain-podcasts/how-you-can-use-sound-and-music-to-change-your-brain-waves-with-laser-accuracy-and-achieve-huge-focus-and-performance-gains/ We live most of our lives in a state a preliminary beta brain waves. “When we lower the brain wave frequency to alpha, we can put ourselves in an ideal condition to learn new information, perform more elaborate tasks, learn languages, analyze complex situations and even be in what sports psychologists call “The Zone”, which is a state of improved focus and performance in athletic competitions or exercise. Part of this is because being the slightly decreased electrical activity in the brain can lead to significant increases in feel-good brain chemicals like endorphins, norepinephrine and dopamine”.

When you meditate or focus on something the electrical patterns in your brain slow down and relax. “But it turns out that you don't need to be a trained monk or meditate for weeks on end to be able to achieve this state of alpha brain wave relaxation. Instead, you can use a concept called “brainwave entrainment” to get the same effect” -https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/brain-podcasts/how-you-can-use-sound-and-music-to-change-your-brain-waves-with-laser-accuracy-and-achieve-huge-focus-and-performance-gains/ Brainwave entertainment is any method that causes your brianwave frequencies to fall into step with certain frequencies. This is based on the concept that that the human brain has a tendency to change it’s dominant EEG frequency towards the frequency of an external stimulus like music or a sound. “The type of sound frequencies that are typically used in brainwave entrainment are called “binaural” beats. The way that these work is that two tones close in frequency generate a beat frequency at the difference of the frequencies. I know this sounds complicated, but it's pretty simple to understand when you think about it. For example, a 495 Hz audio tone and 505 Hz audio tone (whether overlaid in music or in a sound frequency) will produce a 10 Hz beat, roughly in the middle of the alpha brain wave range”.

“Binaural beats are like optical illusions for sounds. When your left ear hears a slightly different tone from your right ear, you perceive a beat not present in the music you listen to. These binaural beats (from Latin “with both ears”) have been peddled as “digital drugs”, producing all sorts of effects from improving sleep to enhancing your memory. For example, recently the pharmaceutical company Bayer, manufacturer of Aspirin, put seven files of binaural beats on its Austrian website. The idea: by making you relax, the beats may put you in a relaxed state, which could alleviate headaches. But it is far from certain whether this idea – and many others about binaural beats – hold true”. -https://knowingneurons.com/2017/12/21/binaural-beats/ In loudspreakers it sends out two waves that come together to amplify the sound.



Scientists in California are using genetically modified neurons coupled with microbubbles to turn neurons on and off. “A similar technique, called optogenetics, is currently in practice and uses light pulses to control neurons. Just like a switch in your house turns your lights on and off, light can be used to turn neurons on and off. Special light-sensitive channel proteins are added to specific neurons, and are then activated with focused lasers. However, the procedure gets tricky when it comes to cells deep inside the body. The brain and other tissue can get in the way, scattering the light, and in order to reach certain cells, an optical fiber is surgically implanted. Sonogenetics is less invasive as low-frequency sound waves can pass through tissue and bone withease” -https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-control-brain-cells-using-sound-waves/ Scientists are still learning about how sound waves can control brain waves and heart beats and such. In the future I think scientists will better understand this concept how different sounds affect the brain in different ways.








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