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Comment by ClearAndPresent | Hacker News Reader

Paul's animation wasn't playing at an even rate for me, for some reason, so I created two video versions (8Hz and 12Hz) with the 16 second on/off period, starting with an off period, running for 254 seconds, as per the paper. These versions end with an an additional off period, as a 'cool down' from the flicker.

Framerate of 24Hz differs from the 120Hz as presented in the paper, but here there is no 40Hz flicker attempt so it shouldn't be an issue.

Compression may affect the edges of the lines, but downloads are enabled.

8Hz version - https://vimeo.com/1023278230/8ad6db6234

12Hz version - https://vimeo.com/1023275135/378186db55

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I stared at the 8hz one, for the entire duration, and I feel a calm afterward, however I'm not sure if this is because I stopped doing/thinking for a few minutes with measured breathing or if it is me noticing the difference now that there's a lack of stimuli after the video ends.

What measurements or tests can I do to judge whether something is happening, or has happened after watching the videos?

The idea that watching a video triggers some waste clearing mechanism is pretty wild.

Makes me think of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash where a datafile can be a narcotic or mind virus. Maybe that's not such a crazy idea?

> The idea that watching a video triggers some waste clearing mechanism is pretty wild.

It kind of makes sense. We can look at images of food and get a physical reaction like hunger, or look at macabre images and feel disgust, or stare at animations for one minute and then be affected for many minutes afterwards when we look away.

It doesn't surprise me we're still discovering new mechanisms for triggering physical reactions in our bodies.

Edit: I do agree it's pretty wild regardless :) Especially wild if we're finally discovering mechanisms that have useful effects, not just "fun" effects like visual distortion.

Not wild at all. think of brain cancer (AKA GBM AKA glioblastoms multiforme).

The more you think, the more blood to the brain, the faster the cancer grows.

Think about it.

You can also watch a video that will add waste to your brain.

Wow! So a visual effect similar to some psychadelic hallucinations is associated with brain cleaning!

Also, I've been at concerts where the light show guy seems to have reverse-engineered the filters our brains use to process raw signal into "images", and could use the lights to create just the raw primitives.

A few hours of that and it was like I was learning to see all over again, a tune-up/calibration of my visual system.

It's like the Brown Noise for your brain!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ijI4HjTGkw

What are you supposed to look at? The center red dot?

Would be interesting to find out if there could be an desired effect of this in conjunction with binaural beats.

What is the difference or use cases for 8Hz vs. 12Hz?

My understanding from the paper is there is no difference between 4, 8, 12, and 40Hz frequencies on the neurobiologcial effects, but I found the 8Hz a bit less comfortable than the 12, so I uploaded both.

Do these need to be full screen with your face close to the screen to fill my field of vision, or would it work just as well watching it in a smaller window, on an iPad or even on a phone?

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