Headphones That Get You High On Dopamine Are Tipped To Go On Sale Next Month

[Sledge]

http://www.sciencealert.com/headphones-that-get-you-high-are-tipped-to-go-on-sale-next-month

 

Headphones that get you high on dopamine are tipped to go on sale next month

When the music is not enough.

 

BEC CREW

19 FEB 2016

18.5k 

Headphones that stimulate the release of dopamine in your brain and reportedly make you feel high as hell have been invented by Florida-based tech company, Nervana, and are set to go on sale as early as next month.

The headphones will pump music into your ears as normal, but at the same time, an integrated device will deliver a low-power electrical signal through your ear canal to stimulate the Vagus nerve - a nerve that runs from the brainstem to the abdomen and plays a role in the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centres.

 

"I felt the electricity go into my arm, and everything was tingling there, but the best moment for me was afterwards when I finished and stood up," journalist Amanda Gutterman writes for Futurism. 

"I felt like I reached a personal high point. I couldn't stop smiling or laughing. I was like, 'Oh wow'. For about 5 minutes, my happiness level was a 10 out of 10. Then it got foggier, but I was still unusually happy for about an hour."

According to Nervana, the headphones don’t just deliver these electrical signals indiscriminately - the technology analyses the audio signal coming out of your music player, and then syncs up the signals to the beats. 

Or if you select "ambient mode", the signals will sync up with the sounds in your environment, which means you can go to a concert and sit up the back and get high to the music - legally. 

Now, it must be said that the claims surrounding these headphones have not been peer-reviewed, and the company has not published any background research that went into its development. So as to whether or not these things truly deliver on what they promise, we can’t be sure. But if the technology is legit, it sounds like a pretty good way to while away a Sunday afternoon.

As Jon Levine reports for Mic, the headphones will set you back US$299, and are expected to go on sale next month. And if you’re interested in using them 'on the go', you’d better be prepared to cart around a chunky generator - it’d basically be like carrying one iPhone for your music, and another one for your electrical signals.

But whatever you do, just don’t listen and drive: "[We're] not going to recommend driving, certainly not while using it," Nervana co-founder and CEO Ami Brannon told Mic, adding that while she was confident there was no impairment to brain function (you’d hope not), the official advice is to stay off the road for at least 30 minutes after use. 

If someone wants to volunteer to be the guinea pig and fork out a few hundred dollars to see if they actually work, that'd be great. Because they sure sound like a whole lot of fun.

 

[t-pain]

yeah i dont need any electrical "signals" going into my brain but if it works go for it.

[zachw]

Cofounder: "We actually don’t have a device ourselves right now, but the engineers building the devices try them out all the time. "

 

WTF? The cofounder doesn't have a device??

 

Anyway, folks interested in this stuff can play with TDCS for about $1 worth of materials (9V battery, sponge, couple of alligator clips, wire, and a resistor). Great Radiolab program on TDCS here.

[trichcycler]

I suspect the forced long term release of dopamine to cause immediate addiction to the mode of delivery. Too much dopamine is not a good thing.  I think Xtasy does the same thing....what happens when all the dopamine is gone...... 

prolly been going on for awhile. I remember this kid in highschool who still walks around town wearing the same black clothes and a headphone set. 

 

some day the nursing homes will be filled with elderly depressed headphone addicted people...

[t-pain]

you sound like a prohibitionist grassmatch.

 

 

ecstacy is less harmful than marijuana. although i'm wondering how accurate that is, as it seems like you need to drink water with MDMA or you will have a bad time.

 

what ecstacy has to do with hooking up your headphones to a car battery though, is a question for "yet another grassmatch offtopic post thread".

[trichcycler]

 google dopamine, ecstasy, its relationship to your brain, and the long term effects well known with taking the drug. I just don't have the time right now.

and nope, I could give two chits who takes xtasy, or what happens to their brain. If dopamine feels good, and it dos momma, real good, then why not  have it all the time one might ask...because its production is limited. when you are out, you are out. ask any  raver how they feel day to day. I worked with a half dozen hard core ones who thought the same as you. Twitchy little btards now, forever changed. they didn't have google either : )

 

 I'm surprised you didn't sense the obscene humor within it. maybe a smiley face bin more appropriate than a startle face. sry

[trichcycler]

you sound like a prohibitionist grassmatch.

 

 

ecstacy is less harmful than marijuana. although i'm wondering how accurate that is, as it seems like you need to drink water with MDMA or you will have a bad time.

 

what ecstacy has to do with hooking up your headphones to a car battery though, is a question for "yet another grassmatch offtopic post thread".

this is hilarious tpain... just take a look at your trusted chart there. seems methadone, anabolic steroids and khat are also safer to use than Cannabis...Um....MMMMkkkkay... where did you get that garbage from, maybe a prohibitionist sight?

[trichcycler]

yet another grassmatch offtopic post thread".

 

 

why be rude like this anyways

and wrong too. my post is quite on topic, and light hearted, something all here could use more of imo.

"immediate addiction to the device"  duh...that's awesome marketing right, and funny too

 

"prolly been going on for awhile"    ha! kid still wearing his (addicted too?) headphones (maybe because of the addictive qualities of dopamine) with a snicker..

 

 I still got the love for ya.

[Restorium2]

I suspect the forced long term release of dopamine to cause immediate addiction to the mode of delivery. Too much dopamine is not a good thing.  I think Xtasy does the same thing....what happens when all the dopamine is gone...... 

prolly been going on for awhile. I remember this kid in highschool who still walks around town wearing the same black clothes and a headphone set. 

 

some day the nursing homes will be filled with elderly depressed headphone addicted people...

I have heard that some of us like music because our mothers listened to a lot of music while we were in the womb. Makes us feel good. Some day we will be in the nursing homes still listening to tunes. Depressed? Only if you kill the music .....

[trichcycler]

I love music too. I am a musician since 13. funny you mention pregnancy, we played music to my son invitro daily until he was born. We used headphones even! lol

Our family is a very musically inclined one today. We have lots of artists and other musicians at family reunions. they're the brokest ones hehe, but the coolest people.

point with headphone walking guy has details, let me explain.

 

For 30 yrs, he has been walking, not driving.

For 30 yrs he has no company

For 30 yrs he wears the same black outfit, and a headphone set.

he was a weirdo in school, and still is. schoolyard loiterer, police attention, etc.

 

insignificant out of context perhaps, but within...I humorously proposed this technique of hidden frequencies could be harmful and addictive...the 30 year headphone walker loner black outfit guy may have been subjected to these frequencies all along, in humor of course. or not.

 

good day

[trichcycler]

my parents played very loud music of the day, zep, jimi, etc al the time. it was annoying when I was younger.

I don't listen to music cd's/mp3 loud now, but I do live/play it loud when jamming in the studio. bad for ears I know...

I like those artists that my parents liked  too. my son listens to a lot of new rock but still likes the old stuff form my parents day, except for those porch acoustic blues

sets.

 

what kind of music do you listen too Resto?

[Restorium2]

my parents played very loud music of the day, zep, jimi, etc al the time. it was annoying when I was younger.

I don't listen to music cd's/mp3 loud now, but I do live/play it loud when jamming in the studio. bad for ears I know...

I like those artists that my parents liked  too. my son listens to a lot of new rock but still likes the old stuff form my parents day, except for those porch acoustic blues

sets.

 

what kind of music do you listen too Resto?

From Devo to Johnny Cash and everything in between. I don't like Prince type music much. I like fun music and music that tells a story that makes my hair stand up. I have a song going through my head all day long. It changes as the subject matter changes. Like this morning when I suggested the nylon stocking for a filter casing my mind went to SCOTS and their song that talks about pantyhose. (posted) My brain is always looking for matches, it looks for the music that matches what I'm thinking about. It's one of the things I treasure most in my life. I think it's a gift. I know it's a gift for me because it makes me 'feel' things. Music helps to put feelings into words. It's another dimension to everything. 

[Highlander]

I have heard that some of us like music because our mothers listened to a lot of music while we were in the womb. Makes us feel good. Some day we will be in the nursing homes still listening to tunes. Depressed? Only if you kill the music .....

My earliest memories where when I was just under three years old. My mother used to push me around the streets in downtown flint in a big baby carriage and play Gordon Lightfoot songs on a portable 8-track. Good technology at the time. I still relax anytime I hear a Gordon Lightfoot song. I had the privilege of meeting Gordon Lightfoot in the back alley of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor a few years ago while his band was loading equipment into a semi truck. He was old and frail but still energetic about his music. I talked with him about the Edmund Fitzgerald song. He said that he produced the song quickly after the tragedy and never expected it would be a popular hit.

[Highlander]

 

This song speaks to most of us.