Interpreting the Meaning of Brainwaves - The Startup - Medium

Interpreting the Meaning of Brainwaves

What does each measurement and wave tell us?

Alisya Kainth
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Feb 11 · 7 min read

A muse headband. https://choosemuse.com/

Recently, I got a Muse headband because I wanted to be able to incorporate it into a

project of mine. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a small headband
that goes around your forehead and ears with the sole purpose of measuring your
brainwaves. For the average person, it’s used to help with meditation and mental
health, along with it’s app. This is extremely helpful because measuring our own
brainwaves can keep us on track when meditating and helps us achieve the stability
we want in those sessions.

But for developers who want to incorporate these devices into their own projects, we
need to be able to understand exactly what the headset is measuring and what those
brainwaves mean in order for it to actually be useful. This is true for all brainwave

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sensing technology not just Muse, another common example being Emotiv neurotech
products. The good thing is, most devices tend to measure the same parts of the brain
since they prove to get more accurate readings with a non-invasive approach. But
there is still so much to learn about our brain, even though we have a long way to go
until we know everything about it.

Areas of the Brain

For just some background knowledge, it is essential to understand the different parts
of the brain and what their primary functions are. For the sake of this article, I will
only cover the main lobes because they are the most important in regards to what we
will be looking at later.

Diagram of the brain showing the different lobes.

I’ll start with the back of the brain, the occipital lobe. This lobe is responsible for
visual analysis and the brain’s ability to recognize objects. This is the lobe that is
responsible for our vision, so any damage to this area can result in vision loss even
though there is no damage to the eyes.

The temporal lobe is located on both sides of our head, right above our ears. This
lobe is very important for hearing, memory, learning, and interpreting language into
meaning. Certain emotion is also processed, along with some vision.

The parietal lobe is responsible for understanding sensory information from touch,
taste, pain, pressure, etc, while interpreting it’s meaning. Through these sensory
inputs, it helps coordinate spatial relations so that we can make sense of the physical
world around us. They can also process language to a certain extent.

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The frontal lobe has a diverse range of functions, it is responsible for reasoning,
judgment, creativity, planning, impulse control, and more. Damage to the frontal
lobe can result in sudden risk taking behavior and uncontrollable impulses, along
with the diminished ability to learn new things.

The Five Types of Brainwaves

Now that a basic understanding of the primary functions of the brain have been
explained, we can start looking at some brainwaves. For a long time, we have only
known of four different kinds of brainwaves, with the last one (gamma waves)
recently being discovered.

The types of brainwaves and their associated meanings.

Types of brainwaves shown on a graph (note amplitude and frequency).

Let’s start with delta waves, the slowest brainwaves of the five. These waves are
characteristic of a very deep sleep, on a graph they are seen as high amplitude and
low frequency waves. When these waves are seen, they can be interpreted anywhere
from a usual sleep cycle to a coma depending on the frequency of the waves.

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Next, we have theta waves. These waves have a great amplitude and low frequency,
but not as low as delta waves. Daydreaming and doing repetitive tasks can throw
your brainwaves into a theta state, because they require almost no conscious effort.
However, unlike delta waves, you are still conscious when your brain produced Theta
waves. Letting your mind drift and fall into a state of deep relaxation is a quick way
to experience theta waves in their prime.

The next type of brainwave is alpha waves. As you probably guessed, these waves are
faster than the previous two types, with a lower amplitude. Being in an alpha state
does not require focus, but it does require low conscious effort, like taking the time to
reflect on something. Or simply walking home from school, and letting your brain
process all the learning you took part in that day. Like theta waves, alpha waves are
still a sign of being in a relaxed state.

After that, we have beta waves. This time, you must be in a very focused and activity
engaged state to produce these waves. Continuing with the pattern, these waves are
much more frequent and have a lower amplitude than the previous three. Beta waves
are very common in your life during the day, since anything from doing homework,
teaching a class, giving a speech, to having a good conversation generates beta waves.

Finally, we have our gamma waves, which are the fastest out of the five. These waves
have the most to do with learning, attention, and long term memory retention. In
this state, they are very frequent and have the lowest amplitude out of the all five as
well. Gamma waves produce the feeling of being “in the zone” and known for linking
information in all parts of the brain, since you need to be in a state of high
concentration to have them.

The 10–20 System

Working with the Muse headband, you will probably notice common markings on
your readings no matter which software you use, like the ones on the y-axis of the
graph shown below.

Common readings from the Muselsl Python library.

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What do the TP9, AF7, AF8, etc, values represent? These symbols are actually
associated with specific parts of your brain as part of the 10–20 system used for
EEGs, a system that is used internationally. The EEG (electroencephalogram) is a
device that measures brain activity, which means Muse headbands are also defined as
EEGs. Because of this, using the 10–20 system markings make sense in this case, as
with many new portable devices that measure brain activity/waves.

The reference for the positioning of electrodes in EEGs.

The “10” and “20” in the name represent the space between each electrode (either
10% or 20%) relative to specific land markings (not necessary to get into), as seen in
the diagram to the side.

Every single odd number you see on the diagram will always be associated with the
left side of the brain, and vice versa with even numbers. This gives us a really fast
interpretation of which side of the brain we should be focusing on.

Next, all letters are associated with their corresponding lobe, for example, if you see
O2, the “O” would indicate this electrode is found on the occipital lobe. There are a
few things to note with the letters, the first is that “A” means ears, so A1 and A2
would be the left ear and right ear, respectfully. Also, if you see a combination of
letters, it means that the electrode is between those two lobes.

Let’s consider the first marking back on the Muselsl graph, TP9. The letters tell us
that this sensor is in between the temporal and parietal lobes. The number “9” tells

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us that it is located on the left side of the brain. Judging by this information, you can
tell exactly what state this part of your brain is in by analyzing the frequency of waves
(alpha,beta,etc.) and associating them with their specific markings.

The other marking that the Muse headband focuses on is the AF7 and AF8. “AF” in
this case means that this sensor is in between the pre-frontal lobe (the very “front” of
frontal lobe) and frontal lobe. The seven and eight represent left and right sides of the
brain, as mentioned above.

Readings from Emotiv Pro software for neurotech (just an example, not real results).

These readings to the side are from the Emotiv Pro software used with their own
compatible sensors. By now, you should be able to recognize where each sensor is
located and interpret the meaning of the waves if they are slow or fast (in case you
wanted to test what you know).

Regardless, these are the basics of reading and interpreting EEG results with your
own devices. Having a good understanding of the brain can be really important even
if you are just using these devices to help your meditation practices. These readings
can give us so many valuable insights as to how our brain is functioning and if it is
generally in a healthy state.

Brain Science Technology Health Neuroscience

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