I’ve seen that word thrown around in movies and media but I have bearing of how that fits in with my understanding of the brain. I’m no biologist, but I do have a BA in Computer science so my understanding is that the brain is basically a meat computer with interconnected specialized modules. When ever I hear in media about reading, transmitting, transferring, etc.. brainwaves I have no idea what they’re even referring to. What are “brainwaves”, are they measurement? Are they measuring activity? If so then what the hell are alpha/beta waves?
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good place to start is looking up EEG or electroencephalogram. this is the study neurologists use to detect tendency for seizures, or seizures outright in people. but the background patterns on an EEG of a normal brain would be “brainwaves” in the most analogous sense to sci-fi stuff. every normal EEG in a normal patient is a combination of multiple wave frequencies and change depending on if the person is awake, drowsy, asleep (including stages of sleep), or actively seizing. and it is a recording of electrical activity on the surface of the brain, or cortex, only.
the four main frequency ranges used in EEG reading are:
delta waves <4 Hz
theta waves 4-7 Hz
Alpha waves 8-12 Hz
Beta waves 13+ Hz
and like I said every moment of a recording is a combination of these, some in higher percentages or locations on the brain.
Brainwaves are electrical signals produced by the brain
Alpha waves are associated with relaxed states, while beta waves are linked to focused and alert states
It’s fascinating how our meat computers work, isn’t it?
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