On Repeat This Finals Season: Gamma Waves
November 21, 2023
Writer: Helen Hannan
Editor: Hannah Ostfield
I’ve always had this innate ability to sit down, lock-in, and get stuff done using only what I can describe as brute force. Some days, though, especially in college, where it seems like there’s always something better to do, I need a little extra push. And no, I’m not talking about caffeine.
All credit to my ride-or-die influencer, Andrew Huberman, who introduced me to the world of brain oscillations that can be manipulated to increase focus and memory, decrease stress and anxiety, and improve sleep, among other cool advantages (Chen et al., 2022). Here, in simple terms, is the science of using sound and music as a “stimulant:”
First, a little background: Neurons are the cells of our nervous system that relay information to one another by translating a sensory signal into an electrical potential, or voltage. At a cellular level, this looks like a wave of repeating peaks— with one cycle of the wave showing what happens when the voltage in one neuron changes, or depolarizes, for a fleeting moment as the signal passes through it. This is called an action potential, and to better understand it, let’s imagine your arm as a slinky. Now, when your slinky-arm touches the table in front of you, the slinky compresses at the point of contact, sending oscillations up to your shoulder and all the way up into your brain for interpretation. If you want to contextualize this more with the human body, consider how your skin indents when you press two fingers together; this is your slinky compressing. Your brain has these electrical waves in it, too, representing things like thinking, and they have different frequencies (how many cycles there are per second) depending on your state of consciousness. Gamma waves range from 30-140 cycles per second, or Hz, and are active when you are concentrating (Jia et al., 2011). The other four main waves are alpha, beta, theta, and delta which occur at different states of relaxation and sleep (Nayak et al., 2023).
The cool thing about these waves is that we have the power to control them with sensory input. About a month ago, I stopped listening to music while studying and started listening to continuous 40 Hz binaural beats — 40 Hz means it is a gamma wave, and binaural means that the wave I hear has a resultant frequency from one sound that is coming out of my left earbud and one slightly different sound coming out of my right earbud. An important thing to mention is that because binaural beats work by feeding two different waves into your brain, you have to listen to the sound with headphones. Binaural beats are better studied and are more pleasant to listen to, but monaural beats (which you can listen to without headphones) may work just as well and be a good alternative if you can only hear in one ear (Engelbregt et al., 2021).
Listening to gamma waves has been shown to increase concentration and attention by enhancing cognitive function (Ross et al., 2020). When you input gamma waves into your brain through sound, your brain entrains it, which means it carries the wave along. The medium of the wave was once air; now, it is you. These waves also increase blood flow to essential brain areas, causing bilateral activation of cerebellar hemispheres (Pastor et al., 2002). Such an easy way to activate the cerebellar hemispheres — responsible for executive functioning, language, visuospatial interpretation, and attention — can be extremely useful (Klein et al., 2016).
It was, admittedly, a little weird to listen to at first, but it has been one of the most helpful things I have ever done to enhance my studying. I can sit in one spot and study for hours on end without realizing it; there have been many days when I have checked the time and been shocked at how long I had been so intensely focused. If you do not want to take my word for it, at least five of my friends have started this practice because of me, and they all agree it has changed their study habits. Still, if you do not want to believe any of us, please, believe the science.
While I mainly focused on gamma waves, binaural beats at other frequencies can have just as profound effects. Another example is that, if you have trouble sleeping, you might want to try out 3 Hz binaural beats (Jirakittayakorn et al., 2018). Understanding how environmental factors influence our brains can have considerable benefits in all aspects of our lives. So, maybe next time you are trying everything you can to motivate yourself to study for your finals, look up “Pure Gamma Binaural Beats (40 Hz)” on Spotify – I promise it won’t hurt.
Works Cited
Ross, B., Lopez, M.D. (2020). 40-Hz Binaural beats enhance training to mitigate the attentional blink. Sci Rep 10, 7002. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-63980-y
Chen, X., Shi, X., Wu, Y., Zhou, Z., Chen, S., Han, Y., Shan, C. (2022). Gamma oscillations and application of 40-Hz audiovisual stimulation to improve brain function. Brain and behavior. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2811
Engelbregt, H., Barmentlo, M., Keeser, D. et al. (2021). Effects of binaural and monaural beat stimulation on attention and EEG. Exp Brain Res, 239, 2781–2791. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06155-z
Jia, X., & Kohn, A. (2011). Gamma rhythms in the brain. PLoS biology, 9(4), e1001045. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001045
Jirakittayakorn, N., & Wongsawat, Y. (2018). A Novel Insight of Effects of a 3-Hz Binaural Beat on Sleep Stages During Sleep. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 387. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00387
Klein, A. P., Ulmer, J. L., Quinet, S. A., Mathews, V., & Mark, L. P. (2016). Nonmotor Functions of the Cerebellum: An Introduction. AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology, 37(6), 1005–1009. https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.A4720
Nayak, C. S., & Anilkumar, A. C. (2023). EEG Normal Waveforms. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
Pastor, M.A., Artieda, J., Arbizu, J., Marti-Climent, J.M., Penuelas, I., Maseu, J.C. (2022). Activation of Human Cerebral and Cerebellar Cortex by Auditory Stimulation at 40 Hz. Journal of neuroscience, 22 (23), 10501-10506. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.22-23-10501.2002
