From: rxh6@po.CWRU.Edu (Randall Holt)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Pulling the Plug on the Brain Synch (was Re:Voyager)
Date: 11 Sep 1992 20:29:06 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


In response to qeustions about the Voyager, I submit an article I posted on
the Cleveland Freenet Skeptics SIG on 9/1/92....
 
The Tuesday morning edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer re-printed a New 
York Times report on semi-technical New Age marvels ( 'New Ways to Fix Drain 
on Brain' 9/1/92 CPD page 6-D) under the misguided belief that the 
Health/Science forum is also a platform for psuedo-science, in this case 
purporting the healthful effects of 'Synchro-Energize', a 'brain-gym'. 
 
The basis for the therapy is that bright, bizzare light patterns accompanied 
by soundtracks of classical music, ocean waves or heartbeats will 'stimulate
theta waves', and 'make the mind sharp, but relaxed'.
 
The purveyors of this stress-reduction tool claim that some people are 
stimulated to 'rocket toward the sun', 'revisit [ones] chilhood' or 'have a 
_Eureka_ moment'. (Referring to a mental epiphany, as opposed to a _Hoover_ 
or _Dirt Devil_ moment, I guess). However, rather than make extraordinary 
claims she can't back up, the SoHo shop owner interviewed in this article 
claims, 'Different things happen to different people'.
 
To give the NY Times credit, the article does point out (in the last column)
that no scientific data exists to support the benefits of this treatment, and 
that epileptics and psychotics should avoid flashing lights. However, they quote
the owner of Zentech (a mail-order company) as saying, 'The only negative effect
would be not liking it or it not working.' Personally, it seems that wasting 
$650 on the 'Relaxman' portable brain-synchronizer is a negative effect.  
 
This is not a brand new approach to the method of separation of money from the 
ever-willing public, as many will recall the popularity of floatation tanks and
bio-feedback machines.
 
In a clipping from the August, 1990 Skeptical Inquirer electronic edition,
---------------------
>RAMPARTS
>
>The New Age has fostered a colony of cottage industry that fetches
>the furthest reaches of credulity in search of the Inner Self. From
>the august pages of the "Wall Street Journal", we learn how mantras
>and chakras are ceding to high-tech gizmos that go whizz and pop.
>
>The come-on never loses its luster, despite its time-worn failure:
>you get something for nothing. (The multi-billion dollar diet
>industry applies the formula very well, promising ways to "melt off
>the fat" while you eat anything you want.)
>
>Wouldn't it be nice to possess the facile pen of Shakespeare, or
>the gliding wit of Thoreau? Without any sweat in English Lit. 305?
>You can do it in the comfort of a chaise longue as you don your ski
>goggles and headphones. Through the headphones is piped static.
>Yes, STATIC. What the goggles are supposed to accomplish is not
>exactly clear, but they aid in "synchronizing your energies" with
>those of Mother Earth.
>
>One patron, 24-year-old Jerome Edwards, said after a brain massage,
>"I feel mentally relaxed but not mentally energized."
>
>Well gollee, Jerry, ask Maryellen Visconti (owner of the "Mind
>Gym") for a refund. She will tell you that you cannot expect
>miracles on the first session. At $20 per half-hour, Einstein can
>be about 400 bucks away. Mensa massages here are evidently as
>good as pectoral pulling in the weight room, according to those who
>have had their creative juices squeezed out.
>
>Naturally, some stick-in-the mud psychologists pooh-pooh this
>contraption with predictable prose: "I think you can get smarter
>through a little device called hard work," said Dr. Jim McGaugh, a
>brain researcher at UCD.
>
>Aarg! Perish the thought. Visconti has written several cook books,
>so she knows as much about brain function as any fool Ph.D. brain
>researcher.
-----------------------
 
Personally, having been induced to try it by ever-willing-to-believe friends, 
I find the mesmerization of the computer video-monitor while observing the 
white-noise of Free-net, or just staring at a white ceiling while the little 
proteinaceous floaters in my eyeballs go wafting by to be sufficiently mentally
sharpening to skip the cost of the 'Relaxman'. Or just plug into MTV for a 
dose of random noise and color stimulation (although other organs than the 
brain may find themselves stimulated). Or dig out the old Lava Lamp. Although, I
have to admit that Tim Leary might find combination of therapies useful.
 
With the hundreds of patently ridiculous notions in our society to launch 
a diatribe against (just look at several thousand postings in this SIG), 
why does this topic really rip my cookies? Because, through the carelessness 
or editorial haste of the PD, another unfounded modern myth has been given 
a form of validity. Athough at one point the scientific validity is questioned,
this occurs 85% of the way through the article. The most misleading point of 
the article is the headline, 'New Ways to Fix Brain on Drain', implying that 
the method actually does fix anything. In all fairness, since the PD reprints 
such a large percentage of Science/Health from the NY Times, they are not 
guilty of instigating misleading information about science, but are guilty of 
diseminating it.
 
Instead of just passing on this stuff as believable science news, maybe they
should investigate the claims made that the 'Synchrotron' can synchronize 
brain waves. But, do the science editors even have a library of scientific
textbooks deep enough to inquire as to what does evoke EEG synchronization? 
If they do, they didn't bother to use it this time, because if they did, they
would have pointed out that the theta wave (4-7 Hz) which is claimed to
be sparked by these devices is a wave pattern that is associated with normal
juvenile brain function, and does not occur in adults.
 
Since I do have a physiology book or two, I'm going to put forth an alternate 
theory based on sketchy data as to how I think this toy works (purely 
conjecture, mind you - details in the science methodology of the 'Synchrotron'
seem to be lacking). True EEG synch always occurs during REM stage sleep. Other
periods of the sleep cycle are also associated with synchronized EEG activity. 
Three mapped out areas of the cerebrum, the diencephalic sleep zone, the
medullary synchronizing zone and the basal forebrain sleep zone are well known
for the synchronicity evoking potentials they provide. An artifactual phenomenon
has been described which shows the imposition of brain wave synch by 
stimulating eye movement either visually or by occular muscle stimulation 
(in a series of experiments by Orden reported in Lancet in the early 70's). 
 
Using the time honored method of Occam's Razor, where a complex hypothesis 
is discarded in favor of a simple theory, I suggest that brain wave 
synch due to these devices (if indeed, any such synch exists outside of the 
sales literature) is an artifact due to eye movement, rather than by somehow 
stimulating the three synch centers of the brain via audio-visual channels. 
Under this scrutiny, the claims of 'mental improvement by synchronizing brain 
waves' are reduced to just so much merchandizing hoo-ha. Like any good ad 
campaign, these claims are based on a grain of the truth, since real 
synchronization of brain waves is not different than getting a good night's 
sleep, thereby improving mental acuity.
 
Of course, since it can't be proven that flashing lights don't improve brain
function, any more than it can be proven that the Dianetics e-meters don't
improve one's self image, the purveyors of synch-therapy can't be brought
up on fraud.
 
However, the PD science/health editor should be chastized. Thanks to them, I
will be treated to another week or two of misinformed conversation with 
suggestible friends convinced of crystalline healing properties, psychic 
knowledge, the facts of astrology,  and now 'brain Synchro-Energizing'.


___________________________________ end of original posting

\
SO, a few more things can be added in response to the flamers.
I've tried it. It's stupid.
If it works for you - great. I feel the same way about religion and
astrology. BUT, don't ask me to believe in those either. I do believe in
the SCIENTIFIC METHOD. It always works.

Also, several postulates have been made concerning US, CAT, PET, MRI or EEG
authenticity of these devices. (nobody has mentioned SQUID, so I will).
The bottom line on any such study (and I'm very familiar with the literature)
is that ANY sensory stimulation will alter brainwave patterns, which can be
measured using the above devices. This does not mean that any of these
sensory inputs are beneficial or detrimental. And if you read the literature
accompanying these devices, they make no claims medically, only 'feel-good'
claims.

And for the excitable gentleman technical writer, please don't underestimate
your abilities to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. But I must point out
that your over-emphasis on personal experience does little to bolster your
argument. Try not to take the skeptical nature of this SIG as a personal
affront, but more as a healthy questioning of claims that are unproven.
\
Randy - who relaxes with a homebrew and a good book
-- 
Randall W. Holt - rxh6@cwru.po.edu     |   Sturgeon's First Law   
Dept. Radiology MetroHealth Hosp.      |   '90% of everything is crap'
Dept. Biomedical Engineering, CWRU     |   
(216) 778-8296                         |