The purpose of this project is to evaluate the clinical efficacy of binaural beat stimulation for the treatment of pain and mood in patients suffering from low back pain and to investigate the neural underpinnings of binaural beat stimulation, the 'Frequency Following Response' (FFR). Use of auditory stimulation may provide a cost-effective and portable alternative to biofeedback therapy, and thus have widespread clinical utility, not only for persons experiencing chronic pain, but for other populations currently benefiting from biofeedback, such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Devices employing binaural beat stimulation are available commercially although there is scarce clinical or experimental data on this type of therapy. Various companies have constructed the stimulation patterns, but have used, at most, anecdotal evidence as a guide. This project could also contribute toward the development of maximally effective stimulation frequencies and procedures. The study team has completed 66 recordings on 26 subjects using Neuroscan software up to February, 1999. These EEG data have been copied onto CDs and analysis of the data from CDs is proceeding. Visual inspection of the averaged EEG epochs associated with binaural beat stimulation shows evidence of Frequency Following Response (FFR) to low frequency stimulation. Individual differences in this response are pronounced, very much in line with a strong conclusion of a recently published paper on the audiovisual entrainment for therapeutic purposes: """"""""Individual differences in reactivity to the stimulation are profoundly important"""""""". Use of auditory entrainment stimulation may provide a cost-effective and portable alternative to biofeedback therapy, and so have widespread clinical utility. However, some suggest that by knowing the dominant EEG frequencies of the listener the clinical effectiveness of binaural beats may be enhanced. This study can shed further light on this issue. Accounting for the individual differences in response to binaural beat stimulation will have both clinical and theoretical significance.
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