First of all, a true binaural beat does not cause entrainment. Today, there are many affordable personal EEG devices, as well as indirect biofeedback devices available if you want to get to the nitty gritty. If you get an adverse reaction, stop entrainment and no harm done, which may not be the case if drugs are prescribed. If you have an overactive mind and trouble sleeping, it’s a pretty good bet you have an over abundance of high beta. If you are depressed and have trouble focusing, you no doubt have a left brain imbalance. However, there are indirect means of determining your state of mind. Low theta/ delta can cause problems with depression and focus, high beta and gamma frequencies can cause problems with anxiety, irritability, and insomnia. Alpha and SMR frequencies do not cause any problems that I know of. A good purveyor of BWE sessions will point this out. This will help with emotions, but excessive slow activity in the prefrontal cortex causes focus problems prevalent in depression and ADD. This can be bad in the case of using low delta frequencies to soothe the emotional amygdala. BWE does not target specific areas of the brain, although you can increase the activity of areas of the brain by entraining to the frequency it operates on. This is pertaining to BWE, not binaural beats. They will not produce helpful target frequencies such as SMR either. A TRUE BINAURAL BEAT (stead tone, no beat in each ear) WILL NOT PRODUCE ADVERSE IMBALANCES. If adverse changes persist, a new protocol can be put in place. If adverse changes occur, simply stop using the sessions and the brain will revert back to baseline. She is correct that improper use of BWE can cause damage, but such changes are never permanent unless reinforced over at least 3 weeks. SMR entrainment has a balancing effect as well, bringing increased low beta to each side. A better approach, especially when you have an EEG is to stimulate the left brain with flickering light and isocronic tones with beta in the right eye/ear (the brain is cross wired), and alpha in the right brain/ left side. Binaural beats can bring the brain into balance indirectly. Conditions such as PTSD, ADD/ADHD, and depression typically have an abundance of beta activity in the emotional right (prefrontal) brain, and a lack of beta in the left analytical brain. What she would see is increased activity across all areas of the brain at different frequencies. If she used an actual BB, she would see no increase in the SMR range as the perceived beat is too low to cause a cortical response. Using an EEG for neurofeedback is very effective at creating lasting positive changes in the brain. Flickering light stimulates the occipital (vision) part of the brain which is much larger than the auditory cortex. Most, if not all neurofeedback practitioners use photic (flashing light) stimulation and isocronic tones as this is the most effective means of entrainment. The author of the Quora article is using the “binaural beat” catch phrase to encompass any form of BWE. The immediate brainwave state of low beta is relaxed focus and would be helpful to listen to while working or studying. Don’t make any judgments until after 3 weeks. Entraining to SMR has many benefits such as improved sleep cycles and building up a resistance to stress. Such frequencies have a balancing effect on brainwaves. It is all in there…īrainwave entrainment (BWE) in the low beta range 12-15 Hz, also known as SMR (sensorimotor rhythm) because the sensorimotor cortex of the brain operates. Gerald Oster wrote the book on binaural beats. The same study backed up no entrainment at 15Hz. BB’s at 15 Hz have been found to increase visuospatial memory. If you hear a beat, it’s not a binaural beat.īinaural beats do promote hemispheric synchronization, and are hypnotic to listen to. Most are isocronic tones or monaural beats. The term “binaural beat” has become a catch phrase for any kind of audio entrainment modulations. The tone separations are too great for the mind to mix. Contrary to thousands of YouTube videos, binaural beats are impossible beyond 35 Hz. They are finicky on what pitch is used, they must be at equal volume in each ear, any kind of hearing loss renders them useless. They do not entrain the brain because the wave depth of the perceived beat is so low it doesn’t impact the brain enough to start the frequency following response. I produce brainwave entrainment sessions for a living.
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