I receive the following report that may be of interest to the group.
Ron Blue
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 14:27:35 -0600
From: "Mark Hopkins" <mark at omnifest.uwm.edu>
Message-Id: <9503202027.AA24487 at omnifest.uwm.edu>
To: x011 at lehigh.edu
Subject: Resonant frequencies in the brain
I'm going through your paper right now. One interesting comment you made
was regarding Singer's observation -- this is something I had discovered
quite a while back in myself.
If you spend a sizeable amount of time (a couple hours, say) watching TV
in the dark and then shut it off (say to go to sleep) something curious
will happen. You'll notice the appearance of a spontaneous flickering --
with the same frequency of the TV. In other words, a sympathetic oscillation
had been established in the brain. This flickering can actually go on for
several minutes.
It doesn't show up as an actual alternation between light and dark, so much as
it shows up as an "abstract" visual oscillation.
The frequency of a television flicker is around 24 Hz: something you can
determine by waving your finger in front of a TV set and counting silhouettes.
So Singer's 40 Hz is definitely not unique.
(Actually my CRT is also around 24 Hz and I can see the flicker right now as
I close my eyes, it's somewhat dark in here right now).
