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White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

#31

Post by elliekelly »

rbolkey wrote: post #23
avgDev wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Music with words distracts me as I like to 'understand' songs and just enjoy the message. I tried electronic music and as a European it really makes me want to dance, hah. By far the best music for me is classical music. It literally makes tedious things like writing emails, documenting and coding much more enjoyable.

Another option is to listen to music that's in a different language. I have a playlist that I affectionately call "French Bistro".

I listen to the “radio” soundtrack from The Sims for the same reason. The songs have lyrics but they’re too indecipherable to be distracting.

Re: White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

#32

Post by izzygonzalez »

westurner wrote: post #27

White noise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_noise https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28402424 : > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_oscillation#Overview says brainwaves are 1-150 Hz? IIRC compassion is acheivable on a bass guitar. Doodling improves memory retention / learning, too. IDK how much difference the content of a doodle makes? Hypothesis: Additional "cognitive landmarky" content in the doodle or re…

Regarding doodling, it seems that any active productive study method is at least somewhat beneficial. I've found this in my own personal experiments. For example, testing myself with cloze deletions, creating Anki cards, generating mind maps, Cornell notes, inline annotation/marginalia, doodling, generating questions, generating mnemonics, mind palaces, etc.

An interesting one is reading and reciting out loud: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09658211.2017.1...

Another non-intuitive method that is helping me a lot is pacing around my house slowly while I read. It goes to show that cognition is an embodied phenomenon. It's unintuitive when intelligence is viewed from the traditional split mind/body paradigm but just take a look at an image of our nervous systems. Those wires to and from our brain and guts wrap around every part of us.

Re: White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

#34

Post by politelemon »

avgDev wrote: post #19
tines wrote: post #9

Possibly the same reason why people like to listen to music while working? The essential feature common to white noise and music you're familiar with could be the predictability. I know for me a good song (uptempo, not too distracting) can help me block out the outside world and make me feel very productive.

Music with words distracts me as I like to 'understand' songs and just enjoy the message. I tried electronic music and as a European it really makes me want to dance, hah. By far the best music for me is classical music. It literally makes tedious things like writing emails, documenting and coding much more enjoyable.

The lofi hiphop (aka lofi girl) radio station on YouTube is another example of non-distracting music. It's there, but not something that draws attention.

Re: White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

#35

Post by izzygonzalez »

eecc wrote: post #7

I prefer pink (and occasionally punk) noise

When I lay down for bed I play a track called Pink Noise for Sleeping on a loop and set a 3 hour alarm that shuts off the music when it runs out. https://music.apple.com/us/album/pink-noise-for-sleeping/111...

When I'm awake I play Lightning Bolt, Oozing Wound and Discordance Axis on repeat. I guess they're so loud they're almost like noise lol

Re: White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

#36

Post by thenthenthen »

I enjoy some noise, like fan, AC, but get auditory hallucinations from most ‘noise generators’ (apps). I start to hear voices, orchestras tuning etc. Very strange and distracting. I’m thinking it’s my mind trying to make sense of all the random frequencies? Any tips to counter this? ( I could record my fan and play that... in a loooooong loop ;)

Re: White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

#37

Post by hahajk »

avgDev wrote: post #19
tines wrote: post #9

Possibly the same reason why people like to listen to music while working? The essential feature common to white noise and music you're familiar with could be the predictability. I know for me a good song (uptempo, not too distracting) can help me block out the outside world and make me feel very productive.

Music with words distracts me as I like to 'understand' songs and just enjoy the message. I tried electronic music and as a European it really makes me want to dance, hah. By far the best music for me is classical music. It literally makes tedious things like writing emails, documenting and coding much more enjoyable.

Same with me, the music I normally like distracts me while I work. To fix it I open up a youtube tab with a "cafe sounds" loop running (while also playing my music). Then it sounds like there's some nice music playing somewhere in the distance but I can't make it out. I also open up a "train sound" loop, which really dials in my focus.

It's a bit of a cacophony, but it got me through grad school!

Re: White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

#38

Post by zone411 »

avgDev wrote: post #19
tines wrote: post #9

Possibly the same reason why people like to listen to music while working? The essential feature common to white noise and music you're familiar with could be the predictability. I know for me a good song (uptempo, not too distracting) can help me block out the outside world and make me feel very productive.

Music with words distracts me as I like to 'understand' songs and just enjoy the message. I tried electronic music and as a European it really makes me want to dance, hah. By far the best music for me is classical music. It literally makes tedious things like writing emails, documenting and coding much more enjoyable.

There are many genres of electronic music and only some are dance-oriented. If you want to check them out, try non-vocal playlists on https://www.di.fm/playlists or on YouTube or Spotify.

Re: White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)

#40

Post by wing-_-nuts »

I use a non-looping white/brown noise machine to help me sleep at night and it works wonders in the city.

One thing I've wondered is the health effects of listening to that noise at ~ 40db all night over all these years. OSHA says that anything under ~ 80db is safe for 8h, but I do wonder if there are any longer term impacts to hearing or audio processing for softer sounds played over a lifetime. I could easily see the brain adapting and 'ignoring' noise in that spectrum. For now, I simply consider the extra sleep I get to be worth the price.

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