INFRASONICS

CeNSE, SASTRA
1. Music Therapy targeting Brainwaves:
Brain waves are neuronal oscillations typically observed in EEG readings. They represent the organized
spiking of millions of neurons and are indicators of various stages of brain activity/thoughts such as
wakefulness, daydreaming, REM sleep, deep sleep etc., classified according to the frequency observed.
Most of these are typically in the infrasonic range (0-20Hz), and their characteristics are as follows. The
brain waves are most frequently studied in the context of dream and sleep cycles and their impact on
emotions, memory etc.

Techniques such as Binaural Entrainment exist, where when two audio frequencies are played in a
stereo effect, the brain picks up the beat frequency. If the beat frequency lies within one of the
brainwave frequency ranges, the neural activity orients itself to match this frequency, thus making it
possible in principle, to control the activity stages of the brain.
To this effect, our research work consists of two components:
1. Analyzing the nature of EEG signals using Chaotic Characterization techniques such as phase
portrait, Lyapunov Exponent, Kolmogorov Entropy, Fractal Dimension and Recurrence plots. This

enables us to detect the differences between various stages of brain wave activity in terms of
the dominant frequencies.
2. Using music as a tool to tune the brain. Specifically, musical melodies (Ragas) are selected such
that the differences between pairs of notes (Swaras) fall in the brainwave frequency range. By
carefully choosing the melody phrases, the music can be played such that the brainwaves
respond. It is indeed a well known fact in literature that music does have a powerful effect on
mental abilities such as cognition, reason and emotion. The difference in principle between the
proposed method and binaural entrainment is that while the latter relies on both frequencies
being played simultaneously, the former relies on the consecutive difference between two
notes, taking advantage of the memory and perception delay properties of the brain. Finally, it is
noted that music based tuning leads to control and improvement of decisions and problem
solving skills, apart from providing much needed relaxation and entertainment.

2. Cymatics Connecting the Spoken and Written Language

Cymatics is the study of visualization of sound. Specifically, by articulating sound through an enclosure
covered with a membrane, the vibration of the membrane, seen by the distribution of particles/liquid
on its surface forms a spatial pattern related to the sound producing it. Examples of cymatic sounds
corresponding to piano keys are shown as follows:

It has been noted in passing in literature that in certain languages, the cymatic pattern of the spoken
alphabet might match with the corresponding written alphabet. This fact, combined with the spiritual
powers professed of the Sanskrit language form the motivation to conduct cymatic studies on Sanskrit
alphabets. By using a homemade apparatus, various Sanskrit vowels and consonants are pronounces
and the cymatic patterns arising thence are recorded. For example, the cymatic patterns obtained for
the retroflex consonants (First series of T, Th, D, Dh and N) are shown as follows:

From the results, we observe that the cymatic patterns of the retroflex consonants indeed match the
alphabet shapes. Specifically, the Brahmi alphabet, one of the earliest subcontinental alphabets which
gave birth to more than 30-40 scripts throughout South and Southeast Asia is seen to match with the
cymatic patterns generated.
A more thorough experiment inspired by a definite theoretical study into the spatiotemporal properties
of the sound of speech await.