Does the Sound of a Singing Bowl Synchronize Meditational Brainwaves in the Listeners?

Seong-Chan Kim and Min-Joo Choi ()
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Seong-Chan Kim: Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Biomedical Engineering, Jeju National University, 102 Jejudaehak-ro, Jeju-si 63243, Republic of Korea
Min-Joo Choi: Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Jeju National University, 102 Jejudaehak-ro, Jeju-si 63243, Republic of Korea

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: This study aims to verify if the beating sound of a singing bowl synchronizes and activates brain waves during listening. The singing bowl used in this experiment produce beats at a frequency of 6.68 Hz, while it decays exponentially and lasts for about 50 s. Brain waves were measured for 5 min in the F3 and F4 regions of seventeen participants (eight males and nine females, average age 25.2) who heard the beating singing bowl sounds. The experimental results showed that the increases (up to ~251%) in the spectral magnitudes of the brain waves were dominant at the beat frequency compared to those of any other clinical brain wave frequency bands. The observed synchronized activation of the brain waves at the beating sound frequency supports that the singing bowl sound may effectively facilitate meditation and relaxation, considering that the beat frequency belongs to the theta wave region which increases in the relaxed meditation state.

Keywords: singing bowl; beat frequency; brain wave; meditation; synchronization; activation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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