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In Reply to: RE: Biofeedback posted by unclestu on February 12, 2013 at 22:00:26
Thanks Stu for your thoughtful reply. I do find that people's sensitivities vary greatly. I have often wondered if the testing companies do for new pharmaceuticals really proves anything about their safety. A product is determined to be safe if only a small percentage of users have side effects, but if you happen to be one of that small percentage, then it does not matter to you that most people can use the drug safely. It is possibly something like an allergy that means some people react more. Maybe the women who had bad reactions to silicone breast implants were allergic to silicone, but they could not "prove" that the silicone caused their problem because wide ranging studies showed most women did not have reactions.
So in a similar way there might be people who are sensitive to the effects of a particular tweak and others who are not. But it seems that if there was some measurable physiological response in someone or a group of people who were sensitive that showed up repeatedly, at least that would offer evidence to the sceptics that there was something going on.
Personally, I am not that worried about convincing sceptics, but if someone wanted to find a way to prove that there was something going on, this might be a way to do it. If it worked, you might even be able to collect a million dollars from Randi! Although I guess he keeps changing the rules for his challenge.
Follow Ups:
one interesting test may be a fMRI. It will literally measure brain wave activity and if there was something occurring, a fMRI would disclose the brain activity that would accompany it. Of course listening to a real speaker while in an MRI machine would be , uh...., a bit difficult, but one could employ other means. (can't even use headphones as the magnetic field would cause big trouble).Dan Levitan in his book This is Your Brain on Music, uses the fMRI to analyze the brain activity when listening to music. The scale of the brain involvement in listening to music is quite amazing, much more so than if simply reading, for example. The brain functions also incorporate other functions, including the area which which controls vision, for example. I believe more research in this arena is neccessary and interesting as perhaps the higher "sensitives" may have their brain wired such that perhaps a greater brain involvement is part of the process (not saying that they are smarter or implying anything like that at all).
To that end, Oliver Sachs wrote a book entitled Musicophilia, which recounts psycho-physiological cases involving music. It is extrememly fascinating and shows that music is inherent in many brain functions, but often subdued in normal living functions. He covers iondividuals who could be called idiot savants and well as a doctor who got struck by lightning and shortly afterwards started hearing music endlessly.
The PBS video involving the Philadeplhia Orchestra members titled the Music from Within interviewed one member who displays kinesthesia. She sees colors when she hears music, and the colors are definitely correlated to the notes she hears. This just one of many historical cases, and not everyone sees the same colors for the same notes.
As for the pharmacological example you mention, I have several acquaintances in the biomed research sector. It is a bit frightening to hear them talk candidly. Since many newer pharmaceuticals are genetically aimed, and some companies deliberately ignore research on minority groups which they feel can not afford their potential services. After all, there is no law stipulating that they must, but it is a frightening glimpse of the new reality, especially one which allows the private sector to determine the direction of new research.
In fact one of the frightening things they mentioned was that "cures" are no longer actively sought, since a long term medical treatment is economically more viable for the drug developer..... Very scary.....
I believe the only way for audio tweaks is to continue on. Anectdotal evidence while scientifically unacceptable, still has some effect if enough individuals can perceive the effect. There are some even on this forum, who I have nothing but the highest respect for, who can not hear certain tweaks.
That being said, I recall demonstrating a few tweaks to a engineering society at our local universtity and everyone could hear what I demonstrated, even though none, including their professors, could offer any rational explanation for the effect.
At a later, more private demo, one professor grumbled that I had coached them into listening to a particular aspect of music so that the demo was not truly valid. Still as I pointed out, he could still hear what I had coached them to listen for and that he could still hear it, so I do not believe that the coaching was a psychosomatic issue.
For many tweaks, I find this to be the case. One particular aspect of music is altered, but it may be lost amidst the totality of the musical experience. It is much easier listening to a instrumental trio than an entire symphonic orchestra.
Another factor would be the simple enjoyment and need for music. These qualities vary considerably among individuals also and also determines the "need" and "desire" for tweaks. One ex girl friend I had once exclaimed: "I can still hear the words just as well as before". The nuances of the vocal presentation and the back up instrumentation were simply not important to her.
of course YMMV
Stu
Edits: 02/13/13 03/15/13
And thanks for the tip about evaluating tweaks using simple arrangements of music. I sometimes have selected complex music for testing because I love it when a complex piece of music is so well resolved that it sounds natural and uncongested. But maybe I am "shooting for the moon", and should test my tweaks with simpler pieces of music to catch subtler effects that might be there, but that I would miss listening to the complex music.
Another strange bit of research involved making voiceprints of the frequencies in a person's voice. Like a fingerprint, everyone's voice print is unique in that there are missing frequencies. The researchers then played music with a person's missing frequencies enhanced, and there were noticeable therapeutic benefits. Another way, we may all be sensitive in different ways to music.
Here is a site that seems to be doing something along these lines:
http://www.biowaves.com/Info/WhatIsSound.php
I used to play around with a homemade sound table which was a massage table with large subwoofers built into it. That was a unique way of introducing vibrations into the body, and would sometimes bring me to tears because the positive feelings evoked were so powerful. However, I did find that my body acclimated and so the effect became less profound over time.
In music they call it overtones. You can play the major notes in a chord with, say, one missing, and the interaction of those notes present will often induce the missing notes. Some will claim it is merely the brain function seeking to fill that missing parameter, however.
I sort of believe it may be in the mind but it also can be a reality in that sympathetic resonance can create these overtones. You can hear this in the notes of a piano, when you hold the sustain pedal.
Don't know if you ever played in a wind ensemble, but in the Chester Overture there is a brass choir where if everyone is in precise tuning, you can hear these overtones coming through. Talk about chicken skin music....In many pieces you may hear it but since the music is continuously moving you may not hear it. In the case I mention our conductor tuned everyone in the breass choir and then played that section note by note so everyone could hear the overtones.
In that sense, music can truly be greater than the sum of the parts.
Your sound table is interesting also. I once ( accidentally) touched a -300 volt line and received a shock that was so unique I touched the line again. The minus three hundred volts did not hurt, but gave me a most peculiar jolt ( not that I would recommend it to anyone) that coursed through my bones. It was not painful but gave a most unique vibration which longered for minutes afterwards almost like a deep massage therapeutic session.
In speaking to an orthopedic surgeon long after, he told me that they have a therapy whereby they insert what looks like an accupuncture needle into broken bones and connect it up to -15 volts in order to promote bone growth.
There is something about negative voltage which to the human body is very unique. It would bear investigtion and research, IMHO.
Stu
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