BRAINWAVES
Brainwaves are our brain’s internal communication system. They are the way that our billions of neurons talk amongst themselves. The term “brainwave” is meant to refer to the pulses of the electrical signals that our neurons send out in groups to one another (BrainWorksNeurotherapy). They do this to adjust the brain’s functions to our current circumstances, needs, and actions. The alignment of our actions with our brainwaves, both influencing each other, is what allows us to properly live our lives.
It is common to think of a single brainwave as a kind of note in a large symphony. These “notes” are measured in hertz (cycles per second) and together they aim to produce the brain activity that is ideal for the situation it is in. These brainwaves are measured using electroencephalography which makes use of electrodes on the head (Cell). The kind of “note” played in this musical performance depends on the range of hertz it is found at. Slow brainwaves can be thought of as a low drum beat and the highest frequencies being the sound of a flute (BrainWorksNeurotherapy). In our lives, these slow brainwaves are dominant when we sleep and meditate, and the higher frequencies take charge when we are stressed or paying close attention.
Sinha Clinic illustrates the different types of brainwaves well:
The slowest and largest brainwaves are found between ~1-3Hz and are called Delta waves. These are dominant when we are asleep.
Theta brainwaves are found at ~4-7Hz and represent a deeply relaxed state or the stage prior to falling asleep.
Alpha brainwaves are found at ~8-12Hz and are associated with light relaxation and idling while waiting to respond to one’s environment.
Beta brainwaves are located between ~13 and 38Hz. They are linked to having a state of moderate mental activity and being alert to one’s surroundings.
The last type of brainwave is Gamma. These brainwaves are between ~39 and 42Hz and are the fastest we can produce and measure. When we produce gamma waves, we are in a state of “heightened perception” (Muse), spiritual experience, and refined consciousness (BrainworksNeuroTherapy).
PAIN
Pain is an experience that everybody is familiar with, whether physical or mental. It can be understood as a sign that tells us that something is not right (JohnHopkinsMedicine). Even if we experience pain and can localize it to a part of our body, it is sometimes unclear what is causing it. The pain is either acute or chronic (JohnHopkinsMedicine). Acute pain is a sharp and quick experience. An example of acute pain is the pricking of a finger with a needle because the pain from the direct event does not last. Another kind of pain, one that can follow an episode of acute pain or can be separate entirely, is called chronic pain. This is an experience of long-lasting pain that may not always be centralized to one specific location. An example of this is in a headache or stomachache.
Pain is sensed and experienced through a number of stages, when physical. It begins with nociceptors detecting a large amount of irregular pressure on the surface of the body, such as the splitting of the skin through a cut, or compression from getting hit by something, or both (VeryWellHealth). When this happens, these nerves send signals to the spinal cord. Impulse signals meet in the spinal cord at the dorsal horn. This area of the spinal cord simultaneously sends signals to the brain and back down to the pained area in the form of reflexes (VeryWellHealth). The remaining signals that are sent to the brain are meant to allow it to make sense of what happened. The specific part of the brain that these signals are sent to is the thalamus (VeryWellHealth) and this part distributes the signals to different areas to make sense of the situation. One of these areas is the limbic system which attaches emotion to the event (VeryWellHealth).
As brainwaves are a cause and simultaneous result of one’s environment, pain plays an influence. Pain is hard to measure objectively because it is a subjective experience. People have different histories with and tolerances to pain. This makes it very difficult to predict how an individual will respond to a painful stimulus. MedicalNewsToday reports that alpha waves are most capable of predicting pain sensitivity. They seem to be negatively correlated. This means that as the alpha brainwave frequency decreases, the pain sensitivity increases. A study on alpha waves and pain indication reported in ScienceDaily also makes this conclusion.
Pain-Comfort Balance in Physician and Dentist Ratings
There are a number of factors that contribute to patients’ satisfaction of physicians and dentists. These qualities are evaluated in many ways, casually and formally. Regarding the former, there are many websites dedicated to the specific, yet informal, ratings of physicians. As for the latter, an example of an industry-standard survey that measures patient satisfaction in healthcare settings is the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey, also known as the HCAHPS (Catalyst. NEJM). Among other factors, pain management is one of the core variables measured here, although highly criticized. It is clear that healthcare practitioners and patients themselves are interested to know about pain experiences.
A recent study on ResearchGate about pain’s influence on patient satisfaction found that, in hospital settings, patients rated their stay lower when they had pain than when they did not.
This study also shows that when patients experience pain, the influential role of the physician decreases, a possible explanation being that although patients see physicians as concerned about their care, they are less concerned about their pain. In other words, a negative correlation is also found here between patient pain and satisfaction and patient pain and physician influence.
Other healthcare practitioners like dentists have adapted to using pain scales with their patients. These are simple rating systems that let patients rate their experience of pain on a Likert Scale anchored from one (minimal pain) to ten (the worst pain ever experienced (CosmodentalCentre)). It can be thought that dentists started using these assessments out of genuine care for their patients, post-appointment patient satisfaction ratings, or both.
ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY (EEG)
The cells in your brain are called neurons and communicate with each other by electrical signals. Your brain has roughly 86 billion neurons. These signals go up and down in intensity. These are your brain waves. We can measure brain waves using a technique known as electroencephalography (EEG).
Electroencephalography is a technique in which electrodes are placed on a person’s scalp using a cap or a headset. EEG measures the electrical activity of groups of neurons that transmit similar electrical signals at the same time.
Most often a detector is placed on the scalp or forehead and used to record the electrical currents generated by neurons in the brain. EEG cannot measure the electrical activity of individual brain cells, because the electrical currents that anyone neuron generates are too small. These currents can only be measured when many neurons transmit similar electrical signals at the same time.
Brain waves vary in speed depending on certain factors. In our case, it is important to note that as someone experiences more stress, the brainwaves of this person tend to increase in frequency. The speed of brain waves is called the frequency, the number of times a brain wave goes up and down in 1 second. The unit of frequency is Hertz (Hz); 1 Hz means one cycle per second.
We can identify different frequency ranges using EEG. For example, the Delta range corresponds to relatively slow brain waves that go up and down 1–4 times in a second, or 1–4 Hertz (Hz), which is the unit of frequency. Figure 1 shows an overview of frequency ranges (also called frequency bands
A range of brain wave frequencies that are associated with a certain mental state. For example, frequencies in the range of 1–4 Hz are called the delta-band, which is associated with deep sleep.
Figure 1. Mental state of a person at specific brainwave frequencies.