Light and sound brain stimulation
Light and sound stimuli help slow down aging
A study conducted by specialists from the company Eternal Youth LLC* (St. Petersburg, Russia) led by Vadim Freifeld from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beersheba, Israel) showed that exposure to acoustic and visual signals has a positive effect on the mental health of older people. Such stimuli include bright and flickering light, white noise, binaural rhythms, etc. As has been demonstrated in scientific work, these types of effects help to improve cognitive functions, get rid of depression, improve sleep quality and reduce pain. The article was published in the journal "Successes of Gerontology".
A common problem
Aging is often accompanied by the development of concomitant age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, type II diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, etc. As life expectancy in the world is gradually increasing, the number of elderly people (60+) is also increasing. It is expected that by 2050 their number will reach 1.5 billion, which means there will be more patients in need of medical treatment. This is a significant problem for health services, since providing high-quality and timely care will require a lot of effort and large financial costs.
As a rule, diseases, including those associated with age, are treated with drug therapy. However, the use of drugs is often associated with the occurrence of side effects. Medications can also provoke complications, and some of them can even cause addiction (for example, opioid painkillers). Therefore, scientists from all over the world are looking for safer, but effective ways to alleviate and improve the symptoms of diseases associated with aging.
Light and sound therapy
Researchers from the company "Eternal Youth" under the leadership of Vadim Freifeld, head of the Laboratory of Aging Problems at the University. Ben-Gurion, conducted a review of the scientific literature devoted to the study of the influence of visual and acoustic influences on the mental health of young and elderly people. In particular, stimuli such as bright white light (2,500-10,000 lux), flickering light (with a frequency from 2 to 40 Hz), images of nature, binaural rhythms (8-14 Hz), acoustic white noise, pulsating sound were considered.
Improving cognitive functions
Experts have found that stimulation with sound and flickering light (40 Hz) helped to increase gamma activity in the brain and strengthen functional connections between certain areas of the brain in people with mild cognitive impairment. Another study showed that stimulation with flickering light and synchronized pulsating sound (4-12 Hz) can improve memory, associative learning and attention.
Listening to binaural rhythms at a frequency of 14 Hz, in turn, had a beneficial effect on working memory in patients with Parkinson's disease.
White noise (for example, the sounds of a waterfall or rain) helped to increase mindfulness, improve learning and memory skills, and also stimulated the production of dopamine and strengthened the connections of functional areas of the brain associated with attention.
It is worth noting that none of the above types of impacts had a negative impact on the condition of the participants.
Treatment of depressive disorder
Depression, a mental disorder, is a widespread phenomenon among the elderly. Often this condition is associated with a violation of circadian rhythms — this is the name of the body's biological clock, which is synchronized with the daily clock. Shortening the length of daylight hours (in autumn and winter) can negatively affect the psyche, worsening mood and in the long term leading to the development of depression.
An analysis of studies has shown that stimulation with bright white light (3,000-10,000 lux) for 30 minutes a day for two months can reduce the symptoms of depressive disorder. Moreover, light therapy can work effectively both independently and in combination with taking antidepressants.
Improved sleep
Another common symptom among the elderly is poor sleep. It is expressed, in particular, in difficulties with falling asleep, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, shortening the duration of night sleep.
It has been shown that stimulation with flickering light of a slow delta frequency and binaural rhythms synchronized with it helps to "calm" the brain by suppressing excessive excitation of the cerebral cortex.
Bright light therapy (2,500-8,000 lux) in the morning and afternoon (but not in the evening) improved sleep characteristics in elderly patients with cognitive impairments. In addition, such an effect, performed during the day, increased the production of melatonin (sleep hormone) at night. It is known that melatonin is the main regulator of the sleep and wakefulness cycle.
Pain Reduction
Age-related diseases are often accompanied by pain, which further aggravate the well-being of the elderly. And as analgesic therapy, stimuli such as bright white light (5,000 lux), flickering light and binaural rhythms in the alpha frequency range (8-13 Hz; the most pronounced effect was achieved with stimulation with a frequency of 10 Hz), demonstration of natural landscapes showed great effectiveness. The latter effect, in particular, not only reduced the intensity of pain, but also increased the pain threshold, tolerance to pain.
Significance
In general, studies have shown that visual and acoustic stimuli can have a beneficial effect on the health of an aging person. As the authors note in the article, such types of stimulation, unlike drug therapy, do not cause negative reactions, are easy to use and do not require special medical supervision.
"Visual and acoustic therapy, alone or in combination with conventional approaches, has proven itself well in the correction of mental disorders, including cognitive disorders, depressive states, sleep disorders, chronic pain associated with aging and age—related pathology (Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease)," the authors of the review write.
However, as noted in the article, the long—term effect of the above types of stimulation has not been studied, therefore, such observations are the subject of future research.
Additional information: Babak K. V., Fomenko L. P., Fomenko A. N., Freifeld V. E. "Visual and acoustic effects to improve mental health in old age". Successes of gerontology. Vol. 35, No. 4. 2022. pp. 559-568.
*Eternal Youth is a Russian company engaged in the development of antiage projects aimed at prolonging life and youth. In particular, the VSH25 project, which implements a bio-program that includes light and sound effects (as well as many other tools, such as meditation, visualization, yoga and qigong lessons, recommendations for a healthy lifestyle, etc.), to slow down the aging process of the body.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru