Haunted by the Neurophone - Another Color of Noise

 Patrick Flanagan's Neurophone

    Golden Noise and Bone Conduction

    Patrick Flannagan (October 11, 1944 - December 19, 2019) was a self-made man, entrepreneur, inventor, and author of writings that can be attributed to the esoteric field.

    His earliest invention is the so-called "Neurophone" (1958), an electronic device that gives many promises, like synching your brain halves for a meditative state, helping the deaf to learn to hear, calming, relaxing, helping to sleep, and to help you learn.

Let us quickly learn about the device:

    In early emanations, the device drove two electrodes, which seemed to be impractical, so in later versions, the Neurophone uses two ceramic piezo transducers (like in a landline telephone, really) which are also called "electrodes" (falsely so).

    The principle of the Neurophone is rather simple (hence it is easy to build one DIY-style):

    A hypersonic carrier signal, which in itself cannot be perceived by the hearing apparatus is modulated with another, deeper frequency. In the case of the more advanced (and expensive) models, there is an Aux in connector for external signals.

    The cheaper models offer only one modulation method, that of a "Golden Noise" Generator. We have read about the colors of noise here before (there are a few others like yellow or orange, but let's not get into that right now).

    A "Golden Noise" is an in itself modulated sweep from 20 - 20.000 Hz over an arbitrary amount of time. It is supposed to be associated with the "Golden Ratio", but there is no proof thereof.

    Simply put: there is no clinical proof that the claimed effects do work. One study has been undertaken but is doubted.

    Let me take a little side-step into the physics of hearing. We, humans, possess two modes of perceiving sound:

- Air Conduction:

    Clearly, the sound gets compressed into the direction of our eardrum and then translated to hammer & ambos, the rest is.. a little bit complicated - The inner ear (Cochlea and so on). So if this is all intact, we can hear the sound (while the perception of higher frequencies dampens with age).

- Bone Conduction

    Through our skin and mostly our bones, we are also enabled to conceive vibrations (musical signals, in this case). This method is used in hard cases when there is damage to the outer ear, or a Cochlea implant is required due to damage to the inner ear (which is too complex to go into depth at this point).

    So, for supersonic bone conduction a working Cochlea is needed. The contraption requires a Cochlear implant, if not intact, and a conductor strapped to the back of your head.

The Neurophone is nothing more than a bone conductor as is commercially available in hearing aids. For unabled-hearing people though, bone conduction won't work if the nerves ranging from the cochlea are damaged.

So: Many claims, but no proof. As this may come as a bit of a disappointment, the only thing that I can add is my own experiences with the Neurophone (the basic version):

Statement a) - It is a totally eerie experience

As supervised, one would put the "Electrodes" (the Piezo Transceivers) on your temples, but are invited to experiment - I tried a few places, and all with bone contact worked better. It is like an otherworldly sound seeming to come from nowhere. There is no direction, but it also does not seem mono.

Statement b) It works well for people without a hindrance

 

Purpose met or not, everyone will have to find out on his or her own. I gather that the latest model of the Neurophone, now endorsed by a German company won $1,5 Mio. in a crowdfunding campaign.

by nokturnal