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Training devices – designed to stimulate the brain to enter a specific state using pulsed sound, light or electromagnetic field – have long been claimed to improve memory performance and improve activity. theta waves.
A team of researchers from the University of California at Davis tried to determine if this was true.
The electrical activity in the brain causes different types of brain waves that can be measured from outside the head. Theta waves, which occur at about five or six cycles per second, are usually associated with a brain actively monitoring something.
The researchers previously found that high levels of theta wave activity immediately before a memory task resulted in better performance.
Commercial training devices use a combination of sounds and lights to stimulate brain wave activity with oscillating patterns in sensory inputs that will be reflected in measured brain activity. Although these devices are designed to address a range of issues including anxiety, sleep problems, depressed mood, and learning, there is very little published scientific evidence to support these claims.
The researchers were able to test a theta wave training device with 50 volunteers, who were instructed to use it for 36 minutes or 36 minutes of white noise, before performing simple memory tasks.
Participants who used the device exhibited improved memory performance, as well as increased theta wave activity. The researchers then repeated the experiment with 40 different participants, but instead of listening only to the white noise, the control group received beta wave stimulations, a different type of model. Brain waves occurring between about 12 and 30 cycles per second. been associated with normal sleep awareness.
As in the first experiment, those who received theta wave training had improved theta wave activity and improved memory performance.
To prove that these devices actually work, the researchers conducted a separate study using electrical stimulation to improve theta waves. However, this had the opposite effect.
Participants found a disruption in the activity of the theta wave and temporarily impaired memory functions, proving that the drive devices actually work to improve memory performance.
"What's amazing is that the device has had a lasting effect on theta activity and memory performance for more than half an hour after its extinction," said Charan Ranganath, professor of psychology and colleagues at the Center for Neuroscience, in a statement.
The function and role of theta brainwaves remains a hot topic in the scientific community. Some claim that they are simply the product of normal brain function without any role, while others, including Ranganath, believe they play a role in the coordination of brain regions.
"Neurons are more excitable at the top of the wave, so when waves from two brain regions are synchronized, they can talk to each other," he said.
The study was published in Cognitive neuroscience.
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