[CDBacklash]

Anyone here got know-how regarding the human brain?
What changes when you close your eyes with regards to music listening?
If possible, I'd like to keep it as scientific as possible (even metascience and pseudoscience, etc). If possible, an opinion free thread.
Looking forward to hopefully an interesting read.

 

[dura]

A very interesting subject!

AFAIK when listening to music you start in Beta, but then enter Alpha.
Beta is our every day state in which people are clear but easly distracted by life around them.
Alpha is a very clear concentrated state in which you are much more perceptive; it also occurs in different kinds of work.

It takes usually about 20 minutes to enter Alpha, very dependent on the settings and the person. People need to be interested and able to concentrate without being disturbed.

It would be ideal to judge a component etc. while being in Alpha; one more reason to listen to a component long and undisturbed to judge it.

Unfortunately when doing comparison tests subjects are in Beta.
What the consequences of this is I do not know; it seems reasonable to believe that people hearing is better in Alpha, but how much better..?
If the differences are large the conclusion might be that tests done with subjects in Beta are not so usuable after all, despite all kind of other scientific rules for testsetup being respected.

I'm afraid this is about all I'm able to remember about the subject right now (I do have a MD psychology, but it is seriously outdated).

 

[krmathis]

Closed eyes means you free up brain power to use for the remaining senses, including hearing.

 

[b0dhi]

Closing your eyes, whether listening to music or not, immediately results in an increase in alpha waveforms in the brain. This is how machines that allow you to control electronics by blinking work. I can't say for certain if it in fact results in increased acuity in hearing.

As an interesting side-note, there's a tree-dwelling marsupial that finds food in trees by putting its ear against the tree and tapping its fingers on the bark to listen for a hollow - these creatures close their eyes when doing this.

 

[johnwmclean]

Nice cheap upgrade too. LOL

 

[zeroibis]

I would like to add a warning that if you close your eyes during a music video to improve the quality you will lose the picture...

As far as application to DBT perhaps the people used should actually be blinded during the test to improve results lol.

This definitely explains why I need to listen to music to fall asleep unless I am able to really concentrate on something. Before I started listening to music I would half to take a long shower or bath and then lye in bed for about an hour while trying to focus my mind into a loop so that I could focus on falling asleep. The best method to do this was to make up a story and just focus on what happens till I am out of it. When I listen to music I usually hear the first few songs and fall asleep. Interesting that this takes about 20min on average to do! Pretty crazy.

 

[nkk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeroibis /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would like to add a warning that if you close your eyes during a music video to improve the quality you will lose the picture... As far as application to DBT perhaps the people used should actually be blinded during the test to improve results lol. This definitely explains why I need to listen to music to fall asleep unless I am able to really concentrate on something. Before I started listening to music I would half to take a long shower or bath and then lye in bed for about an hour while trying to focus my mind into a loop so that I could focus on falling asleep. The best method to do this was to make up a story and just focus on what happens till I am out of it. When I listen to music I usually hear the first few songs and fall asleep. Interesting that this takes about 20min on average to do! Pretty crazy.

I have nothing to add to the thread, but felt compelled to say that I feel a lot better knowing I am not the only one who has this problem.

-Nkk

 

[ph0rk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dura /img/forum/go_quote.gif A very interesting subject! AFAIK when listening to music you start in Beta, but then enter Alpha. Beta is our every day state in which people are clear but easly distracted by life around them. Alpha is a very clear concentrated state in which you are much more perceptive; it also occurs in different kinds of work. It takes usually about 20 minutes to enter Alpha, very dependent on the settings and the person. People need to be interested and able to concentrate without being disturbed. It would be ideal to judge a component etc. while being in Alpha; one more reason to listen to a component long and undisturbed to judge it. Unfortunately when doing comparison tests subjects are in Beta. What the consequences of this is I do not know; it seems reasonable to believe that people hearing is better in Alpha, but how much better..? If the differences are large the conclusion might be that tests done with subjects in Beta are not so usuable after all, despite all kind of other scientific rules for testsetup being respected. I'm afraid this is about all I'm able to remember about the subject right now (I do have a MD psychology, but it is seriously outdated).

Mostly speculation, but I would think a potential issue with trying to rely on alpha-only evaluations of things like audio (apart from the difficulty of knowing when one is fully alpha while outside the lab) is that the level of focus may cause them to pay attention to things that might not matter at any other time.

For example: my lcd has a slight unevenness to the backlight, but 99% of the time I don't notice. Only with a black or dark background and no media or text to watch/read do I really notice, and I have to pay close attention.