Myths and Science of Binaural Beats, How to Talk About Historical Injustices, and Australian Dingos Evolved from Pet Dogs

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2020

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about whether binaural beats are worth the hype; how Australian dingos evolved from domesticated animals; and how to navigate some unexpected consequences of talking about historical injustices.

Are binaural beats worth the hype? by Andrea Michelson

Binaural beats synchronize brain activity, don’t affect mood. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/sfn-bbs021120.php
Smith, L. (2019, September 30). What are binaural beats, and how do they work? Medicalnewstoday.Com; Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320019
Perez, H. D. O., Dumas, G., & Lehmann, A. (2020). Binaural beats through the auditory pathway: from brainstem to connectivity patterns. Eneuro, ENEURO.0232-19.2020. https://doi.org/10.1523/eneuro.0232-19.2020
López-Caballero, F., & Escera, C. (2017). Binaural Beat: A Failure to Enhance EEG Power and Emotional Arousal. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00557
Garcia-Argibay, M., Santed, M. A., & Reales, J. M. (2017). Binaural auditory beats affect long-term memory. Psychological Research, 83(6), 1124–1136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-017-0959-2

Dingos descended from domesticated dogs by Cameron Duke

Handwerk, B. (2018, August 15). How Accurate Is Alpha's Theory of Dog Domestication? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-wolves-really-became-dogs-180970014/
Smith, B. (2015). The Dingo Debate: Origins, Behaviour and Conservation. Csiro Publishing. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=j6omCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Smith,+B.+(2015).+dingo+debate+-+origins,+behaviour+and+conservation.+Csiro+Publishing.&ots=3_mq6lMji_&sig=mZZsGU__kGJWWujADYBBwmemUA4#v=onepage&q=land%20bridge&f=false
KTH Royal Institute of Technology (2020, February 11). They were once domestic pets, then natural selection made dingoes wild. https://phys.org/news/2020-02-domestic-pets-natural-dingoes-wild.html
Zhang, S.-J., Wang, G.-D., Ma, P., Zhang, L.-L., Yin, T.-T., Liu, Y.-H., … Zhang, Y.-P. (2020). Genomic regions under selection in the feralization of the dingoes. Nature Communications, 11(1). doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14515-6
Arendt, M., Cairns, K. M., Ballard, J. W. O., Savolainen, P., & Axelsson, E. (2016). Diet adaptation in dog reflects spread of prehistoric agriculture. Heredity, 117(5), 301–306. https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.2016.48

Bringing up historical injustices makes majority groups defensive, but there's a way around it by Kelsey Donk

Bringing Up Past Injustices Make Majority Groups Defensive. (2020, February 5). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/02/research-bringing-up-past-injustices-make-majority-groups-defensive
Social identity theory | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica. (2020). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-identity-theory
Hideg, I., & Wilson, A. E. (2020). History backfires: Reminders of past injustices against women undermine support for workplace policies promoting women. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 156, 176–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.10.001

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from
0:04.8	Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Goff and I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn about
0:08.9	whether binaural beats are worth the hype, how Australian dingoes evolved from domesticated dogs, and how to
0:15.8	navigate some unexpected consequences of talking about historical injustices.
0:20.6	Let's satisfy some curiosity. If you've ever searched for mindfulness techniques to help you sleep or manage your anxiety,
0:28.0	you may have come across binaural beats.
0:30.0	It's a form of sound therapy that creates the auditory illusion of a rhythmic beat, and it's claimed to soothe stress, boost your mood, and increase focus.
0:40.0	We'll play a sample on a sec, so you can hear what I'm talking about. But how exactly
0:44.9	do Binaural beats work and what does the science actually say about their supposed benefits?
0:50.0	Well, Binaural means using both ears, which is exactly what binaural beats do.
0:56.4	You're going to have to put your headphones on stereo sound for this trick to work.
1:00.4	When you hear a slightly different tone in each ear, your mind creates the illusion of a third tone. That tone is the binaural beat, and it comes from the difference in frequency between the two tones.
1:14.0	So for example, if your left ear, here's a 200 hurts tone,
1:18.0	and your right ear here's a 210 hurts tone,
1:21.0	the binaural beat would be a 10 hertz tone. Here's a sample. I don't know how I feel. Wow. That was weird. Yeah. Did that make you feel weird? Not really. That made me feel weird. Well, despite all the claims of what binaural beads can do to your mind, the evidence is mixed.
1:49.0	A 2017 study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found no evidence of binaural
1:54.8	beats enhancing brain activity or changing emotional states.
1:59.4	But a 2019 study published in psychological research reported that binaural beads did have an effect on long-term memory
2:06.2	and that effect could be positive or negative depending on the frequency of the beats.
2:12.1	Most recently a team of scientists compared binaural beats to monoral beats,
2:17.0	where an engineer edits all three sounds of a binaural beat into a single track.
2:22.0	They found that both types of tracks led brain activity to
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