Gamma Entrainment CDs - Let's Not Follow The Herd, Yet

There's Still More Research To Be Done On Gamma States Of The Brain

Summary:
The announcement in 2004 by Dr. Richard J. Davidson of having measured incredibly high gamma wave formation in the brain of Tibetan Monks during their meditation on compassion, has led to a flurry of Gamma Entrainment CDs in the market. Are they really useful? This article cautions against jumping to conclusions about Gamma induction, till more research results come in.

Keywords:
Meditation, brain entrainment, gamma entrainment, gamma activity, Richard Davidson, Dalai Lama, Tibetan Monk, electroencephalogram synchrony, Matthieu Ricard, Sechen Monastery, affective neuroscience, Geodesic Sensor Net, dmigs med snying rje, working memory, Nyingmapa, Kagyupa, psychoacoustics


The Tibetan Monk Experiment
The market today is flooded with CDs that entrain the brain towards Gamma wave generation. As is well known, Gamma waves vibrate at a frequency level of between 26Hz and 100Hz, which is like a blizzard on the terra firma of the brain. Usually, gamma waves are associated with intense mental activity, while solving problems, while handling emotions such as fear, learning, conscious perception, and the like.

The motivation behind this sudden interest in Gamma entrainment has been a research paper published in 2004 by Dr. Richard Davidson and his colleagues from the Wisconsin-based Waisman Center for Brain Imaging and Behavior, in association with Dr. Matthieu Ricard of Kathmandu, Nepal-based Sechen Monastery [1]. The paper reported an experiment conducted on a team of eight Buddhist practitioners, aged between thirty-four and sixty-four. The chief qualification of the subjects? Every one of them had been practicing Tibetan Nyingmapa and Kagyupa style meditation for anywhere between fifteen and forty years. Had they maintained a logbook a la air pilots, it would have showed a huge chunk of ten to fifty thousand hours of their life spent in meditation.

On the bald scalp of each of the subjects was attached a web of electrodes. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was taken at three stages. The initial baseline EEG was collected by asking the subjects to relax and be neutral (no specific thoughts). Next, the participants were asked to meditate, and allow the mind to be in a state of "unconditional loving-kindness and compassion". The Tibetans call this the dmigs med snying rje state of mind. The second EEG was taken in this state. The final EEG was recorded after the meditative session was over.



When the EEG machine crunched data collected from each of the electrodes for each subject, and assimilated them into one holistic sheet giving comparative and absolute results, jaws must have dropped in the meditation hall. For, the results showed very high-amplitude gamma rhythms - between 25 to 42Hz - in the parieto-temporal and mid-frontal cortex of brain of the meditators when they were in the state of meditation. Their brain seemed to function as a single unit, as if the neurons of almost the entire cortex held each others' hands, and synchronized and danced at such high frequencies. The transition from the relaxed, low-frequency state (pre-meditation) to this high-frequency state was attained with total ease by the veteran practitioners.

Conclusions From This Experiment
This research clearly linked meditation - more specifically the mind set on feelings of compassion - to the incidence of high gamma oscillations detected in the cerebral cortex of the practitioners. Besides the eight monks, there was another batch of ten young lads, still wet behind the ears in matters of meditation, which acted as a control group. This control group too showed increased oscillations on the cortex, but not as intense and abundant as that of the senior group.
As compared to meditation techniques where the practitioner focuses on an object (such as a mantra or one's breath), in objectless meditation, the focus is not on one single entity but on the essence of meditation itself. (The Dalai Lama has written a beautiful piece on the practical benefits of altruism [2].) The practitioners in the experiment did not focus on an "object", but on a "feeling" of compassion, and thus can be termed to come under the category of "objectless meditation".

What this means is that when the meditators brought the feeling of compassion, the dmigs med snying rje in their mind, it must have automatically been followed by the mind preparing itself to act on the thought - to do something, to be the vehicle of bringing about compassion. As if the brain was responding to a call to _action_. (emphasis mine).

Another research, ignored by the media [it didn't involve celebrities, you see :)], involves studying the very same gamma oscillations, on two epileptic patients [3]. The subjects here were required to identify items that were presented to them a while ago. [The capability to remember things some time after you see / read / hear / sense them, is known as "working memory". Remember the time when you were verbally told about three to four totally things that were new to you and which you were to buy from some shop? Remember the slight tingling in the head as you grappled with this new information that you were presented with? That was your brain shifting into higher gear, ensuring that it remembered them all. That is working memory! :) ]

The very same electrodes were suctioned on their scalp. The two patients showed a peak of 38Hz when they were presented with the items they were to remember; this peak level was sustained throughout the period when it was required to remember them, and then this level fell abruptly when the time came to identify that which had been retained.

The researchers concluded there is a sudden gush of blood to very specific neurons on the cortex when you are trying to remember things. This gush is associated (follows or precedes?) with gamma wave generation. (emphasis mine).

Gamma Entrainment CDs
Fortified with all the information that we have collected thus far, we come to the crucial question. What end do we wish to achieve with Gamma Entrainment CDs? When we listen to these CDs, what is supposed to happen to us?

When the Tibetan monks meditate on the thought of dmigs med snying rje, their brain generates Gamma oscillations. When the two young patients try to remember things that they know they will have to identify later, their brain generates Gamma oscillations. When we listen to a Gamma entrainment CD, will we begin to harbor thoughts of dmigs med snying rje ourselves? Or will our meditative powers increase? Or will we be able to remember and retain more? If A, then B. But if B, then A?

The researchers themselves state very clearly (in both the papers I have discussed here) that their work on the subject is incomplete. Logically speaking, therefore, isn't it premature for marketers to rush to the market with these CDs? Isn't it premature for users to gullibly buy them, just because the labels "meditation" and "Tibetan monks" are incidentally connected to the concept?

In a few forums where people discuss their experience with these CDs, the general observation that I have come away with is one of confusion. What I experienced: was it good or bad? Huh?

Final Word
In contrast to the high haemodynamic response (blood gushing to the neuron cells) that the brain gives in association with gamma waves, binaural beats and relaxation CDs are associated with alpha (7-13Hz) and theta (4-7Hz) waves. This is the level of brain activity when you are actually relaxing or deeply meditating.

As for Gamma entrainment, let the scientists and researchers figure out how they could be helpful to us, if at all.

Bibliography:
1. Davidson, Richard J., et al; Ricard Matthieu. (August 2004). Long Term Meditators Self-Induce High Amplitude Gamma Synchrony During Mental Practice. Retrieved October 28, 2006 from - http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/pubs/2004/meditators_synchrony.pdf.

2. Gyatso Tenzin, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. On Being Too Realistic & Practical - The Use Of Meditating On Compassion. Accessed October 28, 2006 from - http://www.katinkahesselink.net/tibet/compassion.html.

3. Howard, Mark; Rizzuto, Daniel, et al. (December 2003). Gamma Oscillations Correlate With Working Memory Load in Humans. Accessed October 28, 2006 from - http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/13/12/1369.