Alpha Brain Waves Research Articles

Method for Producing Sounds or Light Flashes with Alpha Brain Waves for Artistic Purposes

Method for Producing Sounds or Light Flashes with Alpha Brain Waves for Artistic Purposes

Phase of alpha brain waves, reaction time and visually evoked potentials

A reaction time study was conducted in which twenty subjects were asked to respond to single flashes of light by closing a response switch as quickly as possible. The flashes were presented during six different phase intervals of alpha waves to determine whether reaction times would be related to alpha phase, thus reflecting changes in cortical excitability. Reaction times were found to be reliably faster when the stimulus light was flashed during certain portions of the alpha wave, thus supporting the hypothesis of an excitability cycle being related to the alpha wave. Inked plots of the resulting averaged visually evoked potentials yielded a complex wave consisting of eight distinct components in the first 300 msec of the response. Only two of these components correlated positively and significantly with reaction time. The peak delay of the earliest and most highly correlated of the two components was used as a measure for the interval of time required for the volley initiated by the flash to have reached the cortex and the neural integration necessary for “perception” to have occurred. When the alpha phase during which the light was flashed was corrected by this amount (57 msec), fastest mean reaction times were found to fall on a surface negative phase of the wave while the slowest fell on a positive phase.

CHEMICAL PACEMAKERS

1. Iron spicules found in the brains of general paretic patients are formed from endogenous brain iron normally present in another form. This supports our earlier view that the micro value of 16,000 obtained in advanced paretics for alpha brain wave frequencies as a measure of cortical respiration comes about from the slowing of an iron catalyzed link in cortical respiration such as would result from the reduction of available cytochrome and its oxidase, thus making this step a chemical pacemaker. 2. To test the basic theory of chemical pacemakers, a study was made of the succinate-fumarate enzyme system containing succino-dehydrogenase and cytochrome-cytochrome oxidase acting sequentially. 3. The micro value for the unpoisoned system is 11,200 +/- 200 calories. 4. According to theory, the addition of a critical amount of cyanide known to be a specific poison of the cytochrome-cytochrome oxidase system (and not of the dehydrogenase) should shift the micro cleanly to 16,000 calories, and it does. 5. According to theory, selenite, a specific poison for the dehydrogenase, should stop all respiration without shifting the micro. This also is found to be the case. 6. The theory also predicts that if the micro is shifted from 11,000 +/- to 16,000 +/- by cyanide, the subsequent addition of a critical amount of selenite should shift the micro back again to 11,000 +/- calories, and this is found to occur. 7. It is concluded that approximately 11,000 calories is the energy of activation of the succino-dehydrogenase-catalyzed step and 16,000 calories is that for the cytochrome-cytochrome oxidase-catalyzed step. These two values are encountered more frequently than any others in physiological systems. It is to be recalled that a shift of micro for alpha brain wave frequencies from 11,000 to 16,000 calories occurs in the course of advancing syphilitic brain infection and is accompanied by a change in form of brain iron.