Feb 11
7
Monaural beats-What Are Monaural Beats?
What Are Monaural Beats?
Monaural beats are used for brainwave entrainment in which two tones which would be used binaural beats are played in each channel resulting in a stronger stimulus. With monaural beats, the interference pattern that produces the beat is outside the brain so headphones are not required. They differ from isochronic tones because monaural beats are a sine wave pulse rather than entirely separate pulses of a single tone.
Monaural beats are similar to binaural beats in the sense that they also use two tones to entrain brainwaves.
Binaural beats use two tones of different frequencies that need to be listened to via stereo headphones. Monaural beats also use two tones, but they can be listened to via speakers (although headphones are recommended) because with monaural beats, the two tones mix before they reach the ear.
Monaural beats are easier on the brain than binaural beats and it is said that monaural beats have a stronger effect on the brain. It takes less time for the brain to adjust to the tones and thus you can get results fairly quickly.
Only monaural beats are the result of the arithmetic (vector) sum of the waveforms of the two tones as they add or subtract from one another, becoming louder and quieter and louder again.
Monaural and binaural beats are rarely encountered in nature, but in man-made objects, monaural beats occur frequently. For example, two large engines running at slightly different speeds will send “surges” of vibrations through the deck of a ship or jet plane. The lower pitched tone, is called the carrier and the upper tone is called the offset.
Monaural beats occur in the open air and external to the ears. For example, when two guitar strings of slightly different frequencies are plucked simultaneously, monaural beats strike the ear as beats and therefore excite the thalamus, an action crucial for entrainment. Binaural beats played through loudspeakers become monaural beats.
To hear monaural beats, both tones must be of the same amplitude. However binaural beats can be heard when the tones have different amplitudes. They can even be heard if one of the tones is below the hearing threshold. Noise reduces the perceived volume of monaural beats whereas noise actually increases the loudness of binaural beats.
HINT: When listening to monaural beats, one needs to take care to have a quiet environment so background noise does not interfere with the tones and disrupts the entrainment process.
