Brainwave Entrainment

This does not specifically have to do with anything we've done recently in class, but relates to bits of different things we have mentioned, and  is rather something cool I stumbled across. Brainwave Entrainment is a practice that makes brainwave frequencies fall in sync with stimulus frequencies to put the brain in a specific state (i.e., alpha, beta, theta, or delta waves.) This happens by stimulating different brain frequencies. This works because the brain can switch its dominant EEG frequency to that of an"external dominant stimulus". This can be done through seeing something, hearing something, seeing and hearing something at the same time, or electromagnetic radiation. The stimulus would have to be something specially able to stimulate these tones, like music at just the right frequency for the brain to mimic.

I was looking into this because I was looking for something that could help me focus, and I stumbled onto this music that is said to increase Beta waves in the brain, which help with attention and functionality. The music has undertones of Binaural beats and Isochronic tones. The Binaural beats are audio signals that cause a brain response of the same frequency/ type of signal. Headphones are important, because they are made up of two similar tones played at the same time in different ears, and then the brain creates the tone both of our ears end up "hearing" by combining the two tones. This is said to have many different health benefits, including decreasing anxiety and promoting memorization and learning. The sensation (as in sensation and perception) having to do with Binaural beats is thought to come from a part of the brainstem known as the superior olivary nucleus. Isochronic tones are evenly spaced out noises that rapidly turn on and off. They help priduce strong cortical responses in the brain, and these also have plenty of proposed health benefits, along with stress reduction, improved studying power and cognition, and plenty more!