lborgman / gamma

GammaHz - web app

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This app lets you test stimulating gamma waves in the brain. I do not know if it works. However the app was inspired by an article on NPR:

• The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goes

From the article:

A brief history of brainwashing The new studies come more than a decade after Iliff and Dr Maiken Nedergaard, a Danish scientist, first proposed that the clear fluids in and around the brain are part of a system to wash away waste products. The scientists named it the glymphatic system, a nod to the body's lymphatic system, which helps fight infection, maintain fluid levels and filter out waste products and abnormal cells. ... But the lymphatic system uses a network of thin tubes that transports waste to the bloodstream. The brain lacks these tubes. So scientists have spent decades trying to answer a fundamental question, Kipnis says: "How does a waste molecule from the middle of the brain make it all the way out to the borders of the brain" and ultimately out of the body? Part of the answer came in 2012 and 2013, when Iliff and Nedergaard began proposing the glymphatic system. They showed that in sleeping animals, cerebrospinal fluid begins to flow quickly through the brain, flushing out waste. But what was pushing the fluid? And how was it transporting waste across the barrier that usually separates brain tissue from the bloodstream?

Now, more than 10 years later, we seem to have part of an answer to the last question:

Waves that wash Kipnis and his team began looking at what the brain was doing as it slept. As part of that effort, they measured the power of a slow electrical wave that appears during deep sleep in animals. And they realized something: "By measuring the wave, we are also measuring the flow of interstitial fluid," the liquid found in the spaces around cells, Kipnis says. It turned out that the waves were acting as a signal, synchronizing the activity of neurons and transforming them into tiny pumps that push fluid toward the brain's surface

And here comes the part that inspired me to create this app:

They exposed these mice to bursts of sound and light that occurred 40 times a second. The stimulation induced brain waves in the animals that occurred at the same, slow frequency. Tests showed that the waves increased the flow of clean cerebrospinal fluid into the brain and the flow of dirty fluid out of the brain.

This app tries to produce sound and light that varies at 40Hz:

• Sound: The app makes a sound at 40Hz.
• Light: Making light that varies so fast is a bit harder. The screen in for example a modern mobile phone is refreshed 60-120 times a second (depending on the model). I have used this to try to produce something as close as possible to 40Hz.

Please notice:

I have at the moment no idea whether this app does any good or harm! If you have any issues (psychological or technical!) you are welcome to tell me here.

Be aware that screen flashing can be uncomfortable (and maybe even dangerous if you have photosensitive epilepsy).