Wired magazine crossed their hot and white wires in May's issue. Here's what they so confidently stated without contacting us, and evidently not spending more than 30 seconds interacting with our web presence.
MYTH: Listening to Music Makes You Smarter
Music can certainly expand your mind; if you don't believe us, play Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of Oz. But can it amp up your brain power? That's the claim of companies like iMusic and the Monroe Institute, which market CDs and MP3s that promise to increase focus and improve memory. This ain't Baby Bach: The recordings pump a different frequency into each ear, and these "binaural" tones mix in the brain to produce a pulse that supposedly shifts the firing pattern of neurons, altering brain waves and, the thinking goes, reverse-engineering the mental state that accompanies them.
A compelling idea, but it's less likely to produce serious thought than a Fergie concert. In a recent study at Oregon Health and Science University, subjects exposed to a binaural pulse in the 3- to 8-Hz theta band (which is linked to working memory) showed no change in brain wave activity as measured by EEG. What's more, they actually became depressed and forgetful. If you wanted that, you'd just listen to Celine Dion. — G.L.
That G.L. stands for Greta Lorge. In case you are wondering where we stand on this 1) iMusic and our patented technology doesn't contain binaural beats, a hobbyist level pursuit that yields somewhere between zero to a microscopic blip in results. 2) The Monroe Institute, which hasn't furthered brain science one millimeter since their inception, does indeed use binaural beats. 3) Our knowledge base actually contains a quite comprehensive article about how empty the binaural beat value proposition is, which can be found here: http://www.vth.biz/kb/index.php?article=47
After letting Wired know of the technical difficulty they unknowingly foisted on its readers, they've righted their wrong in this months issue. On page 20 in 7 point font they write "iMusic's acoustic brainwave technology is not binaural ("Listening to Music Makes Your Smarter", issue 16.05).
After challenging them to put iMusic to the test, and offering them a free and guided means of doing so, they had no better sense but to publish this nano sized retraction. I guess Wired isn't as interested in staying on top of the latest and greatest as we previously thought, which is too bad. We hope any major media source that catches wind of our life boosting technology will take the time to investigate. Hopefully this isn't the final chapter in the Wired slash iMusic romance.
