The Beat Goes On
by Heather Wax (from Science and Spirit)
Gabe Turow is still amazed by what he saw. At first, it seemed normal: The woman he watched on videotape, a patient with Parkinson’s disease, walked extremely slowly and, even then, only with the help of an aid. It took her several seconds to reach her right arm across her chest, to touch her left elbow. But then, when disco music began to play, she stood straight up, gained speed, swung her arms symmetrically, and walked to the beat. “We had an entire room of neuroscientists sit there and go, ‘Whoa,’” said Turow, a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.
The video, brought to Stanford by Concetta Tomaino, director of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function and vice president for music therapy at Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in New York, is a stunning example of what all the scientists attending the first symposium on “brain wave entrainment” already knew: Rhythmic patterns can affect brain function in profound ways.
The basic principle behind brain wave entrainment is that if a person listens attentively to a rhythmic stimulus, such as tribal drumming, repetitive prayer, or music with a beat, then the person’s brain waves gradually will become “entrained”—they will modulate in frequency to match the tempo of the beat. This response, the theory goes, can cause changes in mood, arousal, and attention.
A few years ago, clinical psychologist Harold Russell ran an experiment with a group of elementary and middle school boys with ADD or ADHD. For twenty minutes each school day, he had them wear special eyeglasses and headphones that administered rhythmic light and sound stimulation at a slightly higher frequency than their natural brain rhythms.
ADD and ADHD, like other neurological disorders, have a telltale brain wave signature; those who suffer from either one display an unusual amount of slow brain waves in the frontal cortex—a pattern that researchers have discovered by measuring electrical impulses. Russell believed he could use beats of light and sound to speed up brain wave activity and thus alter this mental state, improve brain functioning, and develop new treatments.
After two months, the children showed improved concentration, performed better on IQ tests, and exhibited fewer behavioral problems when compared with a control group. “It’s probably similar to if you worked out every day with a personal trainer; your body would be considerably different at the end of several months,” Russell said. “There’s increasing evidence of neural plasticity. Now, the prevailing belief is that the brain is continually modified by ongoing experience.” Russell hopes to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use his procedure as a treatment device that could replace or reduce the need for medications like Ritalin or Adderall.
Science & Spirit magazine welcomes reader feedback at letters@science-spirit.org. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
by Heather Wax (from Science and Spirit)
Gabe Turow is still amazed by what he saw. At first, it seemed normal: The woman he watched on videotape, a patient with Parkinson’s disease, walked extremely slowly and, even then, only with the help of an aid. It took her several seconds to reach her right arm across her chest, to touch her left elbow. But then, when disco music began to play, she stood straight up, gained speed, swung her arms symmetrically, and walked to the beat. “We had an entire room of neuroscientists sit there and go, ‘Whoa,’” said Turow, a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.
The video, brought to Stanford by Concetta Tomaino, director of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function and vice president for music therapy at Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in New York, is a stunning example of what all the scientists attending the first symposium on “brain wave entrainment” already knew: Rhythmic patterns can affect brain function in profound ways.
The basic principle behind brain wave entrainment is that if a person listens attentively to a rhythmic stimulus, such as tribal drumming, repetitive prayer, or music with a beat, then the person’s brain waves gradually will become “entrained”—they will modulate in frequency to match the tempo of the beat. This response, the theory goes, can cause changes in mood, arousal, and attention.
A few years ago, clinical psychologist Harold Russell ran an experiment with a group of elementary and middle school boys with ADD or ADHD. For twenty minutes each school day, he had them wear special eyeglasses and headphones that administered rhythmic light and sound stimulation at a slightly higher frequency than their natural brain rhythms.
ADD and ADHD, like other neurological disorders, have a telltale brain wave signature; those who suffer from either one display an unusual amount of slow brain waves in the frontal cortex—a pattern that researchers have discovered by measuring electrical impulses. Russell believed he could use beats of light and sound to speed up brain wave activity and thus alter this mental state, improve brain functioning, and develop new treatments.
After two months, the children showed improved concentration, performed better on IQ tests, and exhibited fewer behavioral problems when compared with a control group. “It’s probably similar to if you worked out every day with a personal trainer; your body would be considerably different at the end of several months,” Russell said. “There’s increasing evidence of neural plasticity. Now, the prevailing belief is that the brain is continually modified by ongoing experience.” Russell hopes to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use his procedure as a treatment device that could replace or reduce the need for medications like Ritalin or Adderall.
Science & Spirit magazine welcomes reader feedback at letters@science-spirit.org. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
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