Audio Visual Entrainment and Acupressure Therapy for Insomnia
Anne George, Oluwatobi Samuel Oluwafemi, Blessy Joseph, Sabu Thomas, Sebastian Mathew, V. Raji in Holistic Healthcare, 2017
The brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which communicate by means of electrical signals. The combination of millions of neurons sending signals at once produces an enormous amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected using sensitive electrodes that measure electricity levels over areas of the scalp. The combination of electrical activity of the brain is commonly called a brainwave pattern, because of its cyclic, wave-like nature. Brainwaves are divided into bandwidths to describe their function but are best thought of as a continuous spectrum of consciousness. The brainwaves change according to actions and emotions. When slower brainwaves are dominant one may feel tired, slow, or dreamy. The higher frequencies are dominant when one feels active or alert. The brainwaves are classified based on frequency as alpha, beta, theta, and delta. They are depicted in Figure 10.1.
Bioelectric and Biomagnetic Signal Analysis
Arvind Kumar Bansal, Javed Iqbal Khan, S. Kaisar Alam in Introduction to Computational Health Informatics, 2019
A human body emits many types of signals based upon electrical and magnetic activities caused by the circulation of an electric charge in the body. As discussed in Section 2.4.3, the contraction and relaxation of the heart allowing it to pump blood to the body is based upon electrical activity in the heart. This electrical activity is due to the periodic charge imbalance between the interior and exterior of the heart-cells, as explained in Section 7.1. The brain generates many types of waves called brain-waves in different cognition-states, emotional states and disease-states. Muscle movement generates signals. By knowing the combinations of these electrical activities in different parts of the body, different activities and abnormalities in these parts can be derived probabilistically. The advantages of bioelectrical signal analysis are that we can identify or predict many abnormalities without performing invasive surgeries. Using signal analysis, we can study the growth of the diseases noninvasively, study the remission of the diseases noninvasively and monitor the signals to detect the state of the organ and the body post-surgery.
Electromedicine
Mark V. Boswell, B. Eliot Cole in Weiner's Pain Management, 2005
As electromedicine is principally used to treat pain, it is important to be familiar with the anatomical structures in the body responsible for transmitting impulses, such as pain, touch, and pressure to and from the periphery of the body to the brain and spinal cord. These are known as the afferent and efferent nerve fibers, and their functions are as follows. The afferent nerve fibers carry signals inward to a central organ or section, as nerves that conduct impulses from periphery of the body to the brain or spinal cord, and the efferent nerve fibers carry signals or impulses away from a central organ or section. In other words, they carry impulses away from the CNS. It has been hypothesized that electrotherapy devices interact with electrical signals of the brain. The brain waves are involved in normal functions of the body, such as gamma brain waves or fast brain waves, which operate at 40 Hz and are involved in higher mental activity such as perception and consciousness. Similarly, beta brain waves operate at 25 Hz and are present in the fully awake state; alpha brain waves operate at 10 Hz and are present during sleep, prayer, light meditation; theta brain waves operate at 3 Hz and are associated with astral travel, remote viewing; and, finally, delta brain waves operate at 0.5 Hz and are associated with deep meditation. The brain waves can be recorded by an EEG (or electroencephalogram) machine.
Depressive symptoms and functional status are associated with sleep quality after stroke
Published in Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 2021
Leonardo Carvalho Silva, Andressa Silva, Marcela Ferreira De Andrade Rangel, Lívia Cristina Guimarães Caetano, Luci Fuscaldi Teixeira-Salmela, Aline Alvim Scianni
The physiological sleep state consists of non-rapid eye movement which has three different stages, and rapid eye movement. Each is linked to specific brain waves and neuronal activity.7 It has been reported that both sleep stages and duration may be affected by multiple factors, such as age, drugs, temperature, and medical diseases.8 Age-related changes in motor ability and sleep architecture may have implications for physical rehabilitation in older individuals with stroke.9 Changes in sleep architecture, such as less time spent in N3 stage (reduced slow-wave) may represent neuronal dysfunction.4 Given that higher slow-wave activity during sleep reflects cortical plasticity and can improve recovery at both acute and chronic post-stroke stroke stages,10 changes in neuroplasticity and in normal sleep homeostasis may negatively affect motor learning and functional recovery after a stroke.4
The effects of oral administration of curcumin–galactomannan complex on brain waves are consistent with brain penetration: a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled pilot study
Published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2022
Aman Khanna, Syam Das S, R. Kannan, Andrew G. Swick, Cristina Matthewman, Balu Maliakel, Sibi P. Ittiyavirah, I. M. Krishnakumar
The electrical activity of the brain was discovered during the mid-eighteenth century. Dr Hans Berger, a German Physiologist, recorded the first human electroencephalogram (EEG) in 1924 [13]. An EEG is a real-time graphical representation of the brain waves as a summation of spontaneously generated electrical potentials in a small area of the brain. Brain waves are typically classified into four types: θ, α, β and γ waves, based on their frequency range [14]. Continuous EEG recordings are divided as bands of θ (4–7 Hz), α (8–15 Hz), β (15–30 Hz) and γ (> 30 Hz). The α-waves have been shown to be originated within the cortex, occipital lobe and thalamic regions of the brain and are correlated with working memory, cognition, relaxation and the sensation of pain or other discomforts [15,16]. The β-waves have shown to present throughout the motor cortex and are found to occur during a heightened state of awareness or alertness [17]. So, β-waves are connected with mental concentration, mood and complex functionalities like arithmetic calculation ability [18]. The θ-waves or θ-rhythm are prominent in the hippocampus and are shown to originate once a repetitive task becomes autonomous; hardly requires any focus to complete [19]. γ-waves are originated in the thalamus and are involved with the establishment of neuronal circuitry [17].
GABA and l -theanine mixture decreases sleep latency and improves NREM sleep
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2019
Suhyeon Kim, Kyungae Jo, Ki-Bae Hong, Sung Hee Han, Hyung Joo Suh
As characterized by EEG recordings, sleep is broadly divided into REM and NREM (Bersagliere et al. 2018). Combined oral administration of GABA and l-theanine significantly increased the amount of NREM sleep, as compared to controls (Figure 3, p < 0.05), via an increase in theta waves. Moreover, awake time was also significantly decreased following GABA/l-theanine administration, as compared to all other groups (p < 0.001, Figure 3). Brain waves can be classified into four types: α (less than 8–13 Hz), β (more than 13 Hz), θ (less than 4–8 Hz), and δ waves (less than 4 Hz) (Abdou et al. 2006). Each wave type is associated with a specific mental state. Delta and theta occur in the early stages of deep sleep and sleep, respectively (Ray and Cole 1985).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Action Potential
- Alpha Wave
- Central Nervous System
- Electroencephalography
- Membrane Potential
- Nervous Tissue
- Postsynaptic Potential
- Neuron
- Neuronal Ensemble
- Neural Binding