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Audio drugs mushroom in Azerbaijan - ANALYSIS

Audio drugs mushroom in Azerbaijan - <font color=red>ANALYSIS </font>

25 September 2009 11:37 (UTC +04:00)

We all know that music can alter your mood. Sad songs can make you cry. Upbeat songs may give you an energy boost. But can music create the same effects as illegal drugs?
There are different slang terms for digital drugs. They’re often called "idozers" or "idosers." All rely on the concept of binaural beats.
It is incorrect to call binaural beats music. They’re really ambient sounds designed to affect your brain waves.
Digital drugs supposedly synchronize your brain waves with the sound. Hence, they allegedly alter your mental state.

They have two tones with very close but differing frequencies played for the left and right ear. When you listen to it through headphones, your brain perceives the two as if they were producing a pulsing sensation.

Sellers claim binaural beat recordings cause a profound altering of the mind. Some say they develop extrasensory perception or help meditation, but the majority of websites sell them as a substitution to chemical drugs. This is stressed by marketing where sound files of binaural beat with extra noises or music added to mask its harsh sound are named like â€œmarijuanaâ€ or â€œcrackâ€ and anecdotal support of YouTube videos and posts on online forums, where authors claim to have had a â€œunique experienceâ€ from their â€œdozeâ€. At the same time, i-dozer-selling websites almost always state that their product has nothing to do with illegal drugs in fine print.

The names of tracks refer to their content - such as the Us-based iDozer offers MP3 files "Alcohol", "Nicotine", "Masochist", "Hand of God", â€œNuclear Explosion" etc.

However, according to users, these audio tracks donâ€™t influence everyone.

Rufat Gulmammadov, Information Society Development Officer at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies told APA-Economics that a central school internet filtering commission has been set up to protect children from harmful effects of the internet.

Along with this, the ministry recommends ISPs to regularly update filtering.

He added that internet cafes have also been warned to monitor the resources used by adolescents.

Osman Gunduz, Head of Azerbaijan Internet Forum, told APA-Economics that the phenomenon of i-dozers has existed in the global network for several years.

Despite the fact that there is no final conclusion about their negative impact on human body, some countries have imposed bans on the use of them by children and adolescents.

For example, the spread and promotion of such products creates punishable criminal responsibility in Russia, he added.

According to him, it is expedient to prohibit the use of audio drugs by children.

"For this, internet cafes have to impose a restriction on websites advertising such products, and schools have to raise awareness,â€ he added.

Many are skeptical about the effects of digital drugs. Few scientific studies have been conducted on binaural beats.

According to psychologists, the hemispheres of human brain can independently compare the sounds coming from the auditory organ. Thus, in normal conditions the brain uses this mechanism to determine the direction of the sound. Through the stereo-headphones and the sounds of different frequencies may cause the brain to hear sounds "which donâ€™t exist". As a result, certain rhythms get synchronized and cause excessive effects. You can feel relaxation and meditation comparable to hypnosis. During experiments significant changes are noted in human electroencephalogram and therefore, scientists believe that audio drugs not as safe as advertised by sellers.

According to scientists, these drugs impair coordination and can cause hallucinations.

Even if binaural beats had worked as promised, they are not safe. They could also create a placebo effect. The expectation elicits the response. Again, this is unsafe.

Neuroscientists believe that if the brain is overfilled with inadequate information of audio files, it can suffer some problems.
It is for the reason that people with weak nervous system are especially vulnerable because they can not cope with inadequate influence, may lose concentration, and all these influences can lead to mental illness in future.

Stimulation of brain waves is strictly prohibited for people with epilepsy, cardiac arrhythmias and other heart disease, and takers of drugs and stimulants, or drunk.

These drugs are promoted by www.aznet.biz, www.strana.az, www.camel.az etc. in Azerbaijan.

The phenomenon was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove in 1839 and was proven to have a mild neurophysiologic effect, although there have been no large-scale scientific studies into it ever since. Several organizations like the Virginia-based Monroe Institute have studied the possible effects of the binaural beat on human consciousness.

According to the explanation of this term which literally means "having or relating to two ears", the brain produces a phenomenon resulting in low-frequency pulsations in the loudness of a perceived sound when two tones at slightly different frequencies are presented separately, one to each of a subject’s ears, using stereo headphones. A beating tone will be perceived, as if the two tones mixed naturally, out of the brain. The frequency of the tones must be below about 1,000 to 1,500 hertz for the beating to be heard. The difference between the two frequencies must be small (below about 30 Hz) for the effect to occur; otherwise, the two tones will be heard separately and no beat will be perceived.

The effects of binaural beats on consciousness were first examined by physicist Thomas Campbell and electrical engineer Dennis Mennerich, who under the direction of Robert Monroe sought to reproduce a subjective impression of 4Hz oscillation that they associated with out-of-body experience.