Four Studies on Neureka!, Happiness, Attention, Memory & Health

The brain produces brainwaves for everything it does. Research shows when we feel good feelings such as happiness and love, the brain produces brainwaves around 40 cycles per second, which the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer processes to create Neureka!. A special protocol in the Trainer reads the raw brainwave information from the sensors on the person’s head and shows the level of Neureka! on the PC screen. New studies show a person can learn to increase the amount of the Neureka! produced by the brain. The more Neureka! they produce, the more good feelings, like happy, loving and grateful, they feel. See the researcher, Dr. Rubik, speak on training Neureka! 40 Hertz here.

Study 1: What Does Neureka! Feel Like?

In this study, researchers asked the subjects to raise their level of Neureka! using neurofeedback with the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer for 15 minutes. Then the researcher asked the subjects to describe what it felt like, in their own words, when they could see the level of brainwave output had changed.

All of the subjects used very positive words to describe what it felt like to be at higher Neureka! levels. There were some fascinating descriptions, all but one very positive. They used words such as: love, compassion and joy.

In the next part of the study, a researcher read words aloud to the subjects and they asked the subjects to create the feeling or idea inside themselves and watch the screen on the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer. Then they rated how the measured levels of Neureka! they saw on the screen compared to the intensity of what they felt. They reported remarkably strong relationships to happiness, love, gratitude, satisfaction, awareness and other experiences.

Three Seconds to Happiness

Then the researchers asked each subject to make the Neureka! levels as high as they could in 3 seconds, using the neurofeedback from the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer. The researchers gave the subjects their own words they had used to describe their feelings in the first part of the experiment to help them raise the levels of Neureka! brainwaves in this part.

The subjects were able to raise their levels of Neureka! brainwave output in a 3 second trial. Some raised it by 28% over the baseline.

More information on this study is available here.

Study 2: Create the Feelings

In this study, researchers read words related to positive emotions to subjects who were asked to feel that way for just 6 seconds. The researchers used the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer neurofeedback system to measure and record the levels of the Neureka! for the subjects as they felt these emotions. With all of the positive words, the test subjects showed a significant increase above the baseline levels in their Neureka! output,. The highest increases in Neureka! values were for the words “happy” and “joy”.

The brain produced more Neureka! when the subject felt positive emotions.

Study 3: Positive vs. Negative Feelings

In this study, subjects created internal states related to the positive, negative or neutral words read to them. The Neureka! associated with positive emotions was significantly higher than the Neureka! during negative or neutral emotions.

In one of the test cycles, the researchers said “unhappy” after testing “happy”. That pair showed the greatest difference in Neureka! output level from the subjects.

These studies show how the levels of Neureka! relate to positive feelings.

Study 4: Enhancing Happiness, Thinking, and Memory

The 4th study we are reporting showed people who used Neureka! neurofeedback training with the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer, had positive results in 3 main areas. In just 5 hours of training–25 minutes for each session–the subjects showed positive changes. They reported being happier, they showed better brain function, and they felt less depressed.

Dr. Estate Sokhadze carried out this study at the University of Louisville. The subjects watched DVD’s with beautiful scenes from the BBC series, Planet Earth, during their training sessions. When they raised their Neureka! values, the size of the DVD picture on the PC screen grew at the same time. The researchers asked the subjects to make the picture grow as much as possible. All of the subjects learned to raise their Neureka! values.

Growing Happiness

The study used a question to rate happiness, which was used in an earlier study done in Australia, called HILDA [Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey]. In that study, they asked the subjects, to rate how happy they were from 1 to 6 – (6) all of the time, (5) most of the time, (4) a good bit of the time, (3) some of the time, (2) a little of the time, and (1) none of the time.

In our study, not counting the subjects who already said they were happy [rating themselves at (5) or above], the other subjects in the lower happiness ranges rated their happiness 50% higher as a group after Neureka! training with the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer.

Feeling Less Depressed

The study included another test called the Beck Depression Inventory, a very well known and accepted measure of depressed mood. The subjects improved their scores by an average of 35%, showing that they felt better. This is not about the serious condition called clinical depression, which has to be diagnosed by a professional.

Better Brain Function

When the subjects had finished all the training sessions, the researchers rechecked them with a short computerized test called the MicroCog. The MicroCog was developed at Harvard to look for difficulties in thinking and general brain function. The results seem to show the subjects improved in two main areas: General Cognitive Functioning and Memory. This indicates a very selective improvement in brain function, particularly centered around memory accuracy.

Happiness and Health

The Australian study on happiness, “HILDA” [Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey], showed an interesting relationship between happiness and health. In 2001 they asked the subjects to rate how happy they were. Three years later, in 2004, the researchers asked the same subjects to rate their health, with the question: “In general, would you say your health is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?”. The people who rated themselves in the upper ranges of happiness in 2001 were much healthier in 2004. Those happier ones had more than 50% odds to be in better overall health in 2004 than the others who had reported they were less happy in 2001.

The results of this study may also indicate that Neureka! training with the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer can improve long-term health. We used the same question about happiness that they did in the HILDA study, and showed major improvements. Health and happiness seem to be connected. For example, there are studies connecting heart disease and immune system function to the level of happiness. This could mean that people who become happier after our training may also become healthier.

Our hypothesis was that the results of the study might also indicate this training can improve long-term health. A follow-up survey taken after the study showed the subjects had remained just as happy for 4 months without additional efffort.

Overall, this study showed people can learn to raise their Neureka! level using neurofeedback with the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer. When they do, they report they are happier, and tests show their brains work better and they feel less depressed. They also appeared to raise their long-term “set-point” of happiness, as they stayed at the same level of happiness for 4 months.

For more information on this study, click here.