| Abstract |
Chromatic Waves is an investigation into the use of white, pink and brown noise to alter brain wave activity. White and pink noise (20-20,000 Hz) contain all audible frequencies. However, as the frequency of pink noise increases, its intensity lowers. Brown noise has a lower frequency range of just 1-150 Hz. The five most prominent brain waves are alpha, beta, theta, gamma, and delta. The delta wave is commonly associated with periods of relaxation and sleep in the brain.
To measure the impact of white, pink and brown noise in enhancing relaxation, the Muse2 headset was used to record EEG data of 15 participants. During the experiment, thirty seconds of silence was allowed followed by a minute of brown, pink and white noise. The experiment was conducted in a quiet room in the school to ensure there was no interference from background noises.
Once the data was collected, the mean brain wave intensity during each interval was calculated. The mean silence intensity was compared to the mean intensity during periods of noise, and the z-score was calculated. The z-scores for all participants were averaged to understand the difference in brain wave activity between silence and white, pink and brown noise.
After analysing and plotting the data, the results indicated that no tone group altered the brain wave activity by a significant amount. All average values remained between -1 and +1 standard deviations from the silent mean.
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