Human Brain Is Sensitive To Light In Ears 130
vuo writes "Finnish researchers have shown that the human brain contains photoreceptors that react to intracranial illumination. Light is provided through the ear canal with bright-light headsets by Valkee. These devices, much like earphones or should we say 'earlumes,' are registered medical devices. Retinal illumination or bright-light therapy has been previously assumed to be the only way light indirectly affects brains. Light therapy helps with mood swings, seasonal affective disorder, jetlag and other circadian rhythm disruptions."
saw light spot on opposite wall (Score:2)
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When they shined a light in my ear :-)
When I turn the volume up, there is no noise coming out of my mouth.
The slide of Slashdot contribution continues... (Score:5, Informative)
The source article is posted on "PR Newswire".
This is a self published document by the company that creates and promotes the Valkee product.
I am in no position to comment on the legitimacy of the product or the efficacy of it's claims, and neither is anyone else here given the complete uselessness of the article presented.
At least link to the "scientific" article that they have on their website, which is more appropriate for this audience:
http://www.valkee.com/uk/Valkee_Poster_Presentation-Human_Brain_Photosensitiveness_May2011.pdf
I cannot tell if the above whitepaper is peer reviewed or what.
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Of course it's not peer reviewed: it's not being published in a reputable journal.
This is pure snake oil. We don't have photoreceptors in our ears.
Re:The slide of Slashdot contribution continues... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh god, reading that press release it just gets better.
They reckon that because a photosensitive protein is found in the human brain, shining light in through the ears must help in seasonal affective disorder. To demonstrate this they cut up some cadavers and showed that this protein was found in their brain.
I'm quite certain you can't see the brain by looking in through the ear canal.
I'm not that certain (Score:1)
I'm quite certain you can't see the brain by looking in through the ear canal.
Are you? If you press your palm against a strong flashlight, I bet you can see some illumination on the skin in the back of your hand as human tissue isn't that effective in blocking the light... If shining light to your brain really has some positive effect, it seems really plausible that powerful light deep in your ear might work!
That said, I've seen these products before (I live in Finland) and remember thinking "Yeah. Right. Seems as scientific as ab tronic".
Re:I'm not that certain (Score:4, Informative)
Well, in between the ear canal and the brain there's the inner ear which is full of bones and fluid.
Of course, that's leaving aside what those photosensitive proteins do in the brain. Maybe they're some leftover defence mechanism in case the brain gets exposed to light?
Even assuming that this device does have an effect on the brain, photosensitive proteins in the brain are clearly a surrogate endpoint with respect to seasonal affective disorder.
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Yes, this article is clearly bunk. But still, it's quite possible that light has more of an impact on the human body than has been traditionally accepted. Human skin might even be mildly photosynthetic -- not kidding. Fungi have been found at Chernobyl using ionizing radiation as an energy source -- and it appears that it's melanin that they've been using to capture the energy. Ionization of melanin can enhance NADH/NAD+ [plosone.org] conversion, which is the last step before ATP production. UV was shown to be effec
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This is a little delayed, but I just looked at that paper and don't think their conclusion is very strong. First of all, your extrapolation that enhancing NADH/NAD+ conversion (they measured this in vitro, without cells involved, by the way) means more usable energy for a cell doesn't really make sense. The only way it would is if this was somehow happening only in the Intermembrane space of the mitochondria. The whole point of that step is to put alot of H+ in the intermembrane space so the concentration g
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Used to do that as a kid - had one of those large square batteries and a spare light-bulb from a lego set (one of those for 4x2 bricks. Could see the outline of my bones in my hand). Freaky.
Just about every cell is sensitive to infra-red heat - helps them to align properly during the healing process. Also indirectly sensitive to ultra-violet light due to the damage caused.
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Light can penetrate surprisingly far into our soft tissue, but bone is opaque. There is no straight path through soft tissue from the ear canal to the brain, not even in politicians.
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So if you have a keyring laser, try this.. in a darkened room, with your eyes closed and/or a blindfold, shine it onto the soft tissue at the upper back of your mouth.. you can see it glowing too, right? I can certainly detect that.. Alas I don't have a keyring laser anymore, but I fully believe that you may be able to detect one shining into your ear canal..
But kids, don't shine that laser into your remaining ear!
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Its not credible at all when their own website [valkee.com] indicates that when you use it doesnt matter. When you use sunlamps absolutely matters, and if this device actually worked using it at night would give you insomnia.
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It is actually not an article but a poster presentation that occured in this conference: http://www.ismrm.org/11/ [ismrm.org]
I am not sure about that particular conference but poster presentation are usually not peer reviewed. In general poster presentation are given as a teaser for a futur conference article (which are usually peer reviewed).
Disclaimer: I am a computer scientist so it might be different in the medical field
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Maybe you're being a bit unfair. The messanger maybe unsavory but at least part of the source does appear to be reputable.
......scientists from the University of Oulu will present new findings on human brain's photosensitivity at the Scandinavian Physiology Society Annual Meeting 2011, August 12-14.
I think it would be prudent to hold off on judgment until the paper is actually presented. In any case, photo sensitivity of brain tissue is not unheard of. [wikipedia.org]
On a less serious note, Star Trek did it first [photobucket.com].
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Yeah, my first thought was not light, but the heat of the light being beamed into your ear. I know you can feel temperature in your ear. (try dumping some nice room temperature peroxide in there... it's cold!)
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They specifically mention photoreceptors, and if heat were the active agent they would be using infrared.
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Oh goddammit, I just know that we're going to see a break out of alternative medicine quacks who will start treating people by pushing fancy flashlights into their ears.
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Re:The slide of Slashdot contribution continues... (Score:4, Insightful)
I am in no position to comment on the legitimacy of the product or the efficacy of it's claims, and neither is anyone else here given the complete uselessness of the article presented.
Ill take a shot at it, having used sun-lamps before. Lets take a look at Valkee's FAQ [valkee.com]:
Portable and always with you
You can use Valkee wherever works best for you. Due to its small size, you can use it in the morning, during your commute or at work. It travels with you like a cell phone and mp3-player.
BS alarm is going crazy, because if you were to start using a sunlamp at 7pm every night you could throw your sleep patterns into disarray. Light therapy usually happens in the morning, because it affects circadian rhythm and part of the point is to make your brain think the sun is rising even in dark winter months (if youre deaing with SAD). Additionally, all the sources ive seen (wikipedia, sun lamp vendors) caution that you should not overuse them because they are mood-altering and can have negative side effects.
Saying that you can use the devices whenever you want for however long you want is a pretty clear indicator that they do nothing whatsoever (protip-- most devices that perform a medical function, other than Vitamin C, do not have a "when you want however much you want" dosing policy).
What time of the day is it best to use Valkee?
70% of users have stated that positive effects are best realized during the morning and 30% have stated that they achieve the best results in the evening. Start using Valkee in the morning preferably 30-60 minutes after waking up. If you do not realize positive results after 3-5 days, use Valkee 1-2 hours prior to going to bed in the evening.
Same issue as above. Also, not having a clear stance on that (and relying on "users" rather than "clinical data") indicates that they really have no clue what this does or why it should work or anything else, other than that you should give them money for a gadget.
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No, it indicates that they aren't doing a good job of making substantive arguments to an audience with no clue.
The circadian phase response curve [wikipedia.org] is increasingly well understood. I personally have a circadian rhythm disorder. I'm intimately familiar with my own PRC.
Research I don't have at hand shows that among the elderly, treatment with blue light in
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Nowhere does their marketing material or FAQ talk about circadian rhythm. They are marketing this is a set-it-and-forget-it happy-mood-maker. Thats not how sunlamps work at all, to achieve a specific result you need to use it at a specific time, and it doesnt just "work" with no side effects. When they market it like that, it tells me that it doesnt do a darn thing.
Google a sunlamp vendor, and see what they say about side effects and exercising caution. Youll note that they do NOT advise you to "just pi
More ads? (Score:3)
Oh glorious, glorious slashvertisements.
Is this More Than an LED in you Ear? (Score:1)
OK, someone please tell me why I would need to spend nearly $300 USD to shine 2 white LEDs in my ear? Awaiting a schematic and a parts list of what is needed to build this. Oh 3 AA's wired to pair of in-ear headphones with the coil and diaphragm replaced by an LED on each side.
Now someone tell me that this really works, that shining light i my ear is going to change my mood and outlook on life. Why on earth would the inside of our ears ever develop light sensitivity? I am smelling snake oil burning on the w
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The idea that there may be neurons somewhere within the brain that are photosensitive is plausible enough. However, light shining in the ear won't ever reach them.
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"Now someone tell me that this really works, that shining light i my ear is going to change my mood and outlook on life."
No, you're a borderline moody bastard, you'd need a hole in the head to shine a couple of thousand watts into your tiny brain.
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OK, someone please tell me why I would need to spend nearly $300 USD to shine 2 white LEDs in my ear? Awaiting a schematic and a parts list of what is needed to build this. Oh 3 AA's wired to pair of in-ear headphones with the coil and diaphragm replaced by an LED on each side.
Oh, you left out the super secret part that makes the whole thing work! The current limiting resistor!
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OK, someone please tell me why I would need to spend nearly $300 USD to shine 2 white LEDs in my ear? Awaiting a schematic and a parts list of what is needed to build this. Oh 3 AA's wired to pair of in-ear headphones with the coil and diaphragm replaced by an LED on each side.
Oh, you left out the super secret part that makes the whole thing work! The current limiting resistor!
Yeah a SED (smoke emitting diode) is not what you want here.
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"light behind knees" for jetlag? (Score:2)
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The paper behind the 1998 article didn't even claim photoreceptors. They just wanted to test whether light applied to the bloodstream through the skin affected the body's rhythm, and the knees have a lot of blood vessels.
What about people who are blind..? (Score:1)
Curious what this means for people who can't see...?
what about the colon? (Score:5, Funny)
is it sensitive to a reverse cranial insertion therapy?
no sunlight == depression? (Score:1)
... then headphones are making us all crazy! Hmm, actually...
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I guess I can sit down again.
Well, light might go into yours, but I'm pretty sure the sun shines out of mine!
So, what you are saying is... (Score:2)
Well, light might go into yours
That his orifice captures light?
Like a... black hole?
I call shenanegans (Score:2)
I want to see some peer review first
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Are any other other human orifices photoreceptive? (Score:2)
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Think of the odd new appliances if enough people end up convinced it's true!
the saddest part... (Score:2)
FTS:
These devices, much like earphones or should we say 'earlumes,' are registered medical devices.
WTF? Where, in Singapore?
Oh, I see, it has CE certification as a 'medical device' for sale in Europe. Well, nice to see the US isn't the only country lowering the bar [magna-health.com] for snake oil salesmen everywhere...(yes, those magnetic bracelet-thingies are registered under MHRA as 'medical devices')
frig.
Re:the saddest part... (Score:4, Informative)
For the record, that's a rating of medical safety. So having something that does nothing is medically safe. IN the US, probably in the EU as well.
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For the record, that's a rating of medical safety. So having something that does nothing is medically safe. IN the US, probably in the EU as well.
Great! So I can get my silverware certified and brag that I'm using 'certified medical devices' to eat my dinner? Maybe they'll make me healthier...or maybe I can convince others that they are, generating a market for my new medi-ware. Cool!
If the minimum bar for rating is that the device doesn't actually harm the person using it, then that's what the rating should be called, i.e., 'certified as medically safe', not 'certified as a medical device'. The latter implies that the device actually does someth
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My childhood radio experience was with crystal radios in the AM band, and I was a little slow in discovering that store-bought radios also had an FM band, where you could actually hear music fairly clearly, even passing under a bridge. Shortly thereafter, I heard that song. Again and again, and discovered the concept of "overplaying."
If they were going to overplay something, why not the theme from Rocky, or Star Wars?
Blonde joke (Score:3)
Of course:
Q: how do you make a light shine in a blonde's eyes?
A: you point a flash light at her ear.
That's nice. (Score:2)
Re:That's nice. (Score:5, Funny)
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This is a means for the brain to tell... (Score:2)
... when its host has a hole in its head that needs patching up.
Light Therapy? (Score:2)
You mean along the same line as garbage like Light Relief [lightrelief.com]?
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No, like understanding how light schedules affect our internal circadian rhythm e.g.
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1000418
Light? (Score:2)
SAD (Score:1)
After seeing this I was really excited and ready to order. But that's because I have the worst possible form of SAD. Even in the SF bay area I am miserable for a couple months or so of the rainy season. I'd pay way more than $300 to avoid the energy drain.
As a sufferer I can tell you that it's not
earlumes (Score:3)
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Yet another reason to keep your hair shorter (Score:1)
The brain needs the light, keep your hair shorter to prevent shadows!
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This is not news (Score:2)
This is great news! (Score:2)
Hey! Me too! (Score:3)
I just heard what you said there.
And the optic-hearing apparently works long distance as well. What a glorious day for science this is.
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I see what you mean.
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The eyes cannot see sound; but there are a variety of ways of systematically visualizing sound. If one were to take a deaf individual, and fill their visual field with a visualization of the sounds around them at all times, would they come to experience "auditory" phenomena?
Ganglion Photoreceptors (Score:1)
This reminds me of the ganglion photoreceptors [wikipedia.org] in the eyes (not rods or cones) they have a lower wavelength absorption peak of ~480nm (blueish) and they are very few compared to the other receptors. They contribute to vision slightly, but their primary role is suspected to be other things like helping to regulate circadian rhythms (i.e. body clock).
There was an interesting BBC Horizon programme recently that touched on this subject, "Do You See What I See? [bbc.co.uk]", which was primarily exploring colour perception i
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This is interesting because I have read some years ago that the US Air Force has experimented with using blue LEDs mounted on the head but somewhat behind the eyes, and doing so resulted in pilots being able to fly for significantly longer times. It was presumed to tell their circadian rhythm, "no, it's not night time, yet."
Shine an optical mouse in your ear (Score:2)
I've noticed for years now that if I shine the light of an optical mouse in my ear, even with my eyes closed, even with someone else doing it with my eyes closed, I hear a high-frequency ring only at the times the light is shining in my ears.
But I don't know if this is because of the effect described in TFA or something to do with the engineering of optical mice.
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Holy shit that's crazy. I totally thought you were an idiot, and then I tried it, and yep, a high-pitched tone.
Of course, it also works when I press the back of the mouse against my ear, with the light shining in the other direction, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say they have nothing to do with each other and partially return to my initial assumption. It will definitely be useful as another way to find people who are bad a critical thinking though.
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It will definitely be useful as another way to find people who are bad a critical thinking though.
Mine doesn't do it unless the light is shining directly into my ear. It also works with the mouse quote distant from my head; it works as far as I am able to physically stretch my arm away and still aim the light at my ear. I have an old ambidextrous optical Logitech with the aqua bubble (or whatever you'd call it) on top.
I can also hear a high-pitch ringing when the charging LED on my laptop and razor are on (they blink on and off, so it's easy to tell that the noise is coming from the LED -- high pitch no
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Most people, before they break the habit, are very good at lying to themselves to prevent ever having to believe they're wrong.. See, now you've called in the experts, and if nobody responds, you can go right on believing that it's the light itself that's making the noise, or whatever other goofy thing you're thinking that essentially boils down to "I can hear light" without actually saying it because you know that's ridiculous. Before you even try to figure out the answer, take a step back and look at the
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... and I've got a mirror close to my desk.
Cocaine is one hell of a drug, huh?
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Have you tried making the sound back to it? Maybe you can get the mouse to move on the screen if you 'sing the mouse tune' right. /silly
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I can hear when a CRT is powered on (TV or computer monitor). Something about the magnetic field, which is apparently stimulating something in my ears, allowing me to hear a very high pitched sound. I've met one other person who experiences the same.
Simpler than that -- you may just be hearing the whine of a flyback transformer, which at 15.5 kHz lies within the normal range of hearing.
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Most people over the age of 20 lose that part of their hearing. I used to be able to hear it. Like the other response- it's the electronics actually making the noise. I could hear it from another room. Now I can't even hear it from right next to it.
Like that time in the '70s (Score:2)
when I could see music flowing out of the speakers.
Tosh! (Score:3)
Here, just for my Slashdot friends, is the secret to really showing 'Seasonal Affective Disorder' who is boss:
Simply passing electrons through the cerebrospinal and intracellular fluids of the brain at a speed greater than that of light within those media will bathe the brain in a lovely, broad-spectrum, delicate blue glow [wikimedia.org]. This will stimulate photo-receptors that aural lighting cannot hope to reach.
Unfortunately, due to high costs and a coverup by the alarm-clock/industrial complex, you may have to sneak into a nearby university or DOE laboratory in order to use a linear accelerator of sufficient power. While Cherenkov radiation can also restore vigor to the scalp and reverse balding, you need energy sufficient to pass through the skull in order to see circadian benefits.
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I have no doubt that some light will reach t
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Yep (Score:2)
This ain't new (Score:2)
Infrared hearing? (Score:2)
I remember reading not too long ago about using infrared light to stimulate the hair cells or nerves in the ear.. it was thought that using an infrared laser could work better than the current electrode method of a Cochlear Implant.
Hmmm.... headphones with lights in them? (Score:2)
I listen to sounds of nature on my headphones at work. I use a program called Ambiance (Adobe Air app) that lets me mix various field recordings, which keeps me more alert than coffee, and drowns out the blabbering of my cubicle neighbors. It also helps my mood, as it usually sounds like a Spring afternoon.
This has me thinking -- can I add some sort of lights source into my headphones? They're full ear-covering headphones, so I could produce a lot of light in them without affecting those around me, or much
Old news? (Score:2)