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BRAIN WAVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(neurophysiology) rapid fluctuations of voltage between parts of the cerebral cortex that are detectable with an electroencephalograph
Synonyms:
brain wave; brainwave; cortical potential
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("brain wave" is a kind of...):
bioelectricity (electric phenomena in animals or plants)
Domain category:
neurophysiology (the branch of neuroscience that studies the physiology of the nervous system)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "brain wave"):
alpha rhythm; alpha wave (the normal brainwave in the electroencephalogram of a person who is awake but relaxed; occurs with a frequency of 8-12 hertz)
beta rhythm; beta wave (the normal brainwave in the encephalogram of a person who is awake and alert; occurs with a frequency between 12 and 30 hertz)
delta rhythm; delta wave (the normal brainwave in the encephalogram of a person in deep dreamless sleep; occurs with high voltage and low frequency (1 to 4 hertz))
theta rhythm; theta wave (the normal brainwave in the encephalogram of a person who is awake but relaxed and drowsy; occurs with low frequency and low amplitude)
Context examples:
The level of connectivity of the brain waves varies according to the mum’s emotional state: when mothers express more positive emotions their brain becomes much more strongly connected with their baby’s brain.
(Mothers’ and babies’ brains ‘more in tune’ when mother is happy, University of Cambridge)
Specifically, they found that the changes in the size of brain waves, called beta rhythms, correlated with the improvements the volunteers made during the rests.
(Brains may use short rest periods to strengthen memories, National Institutes of Health)
