auditory stimuli for relaxation

[Christian Kaernbach <auditorylist@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Listers,

We are currently looking for good auditory stimuli for relaxation. In a 
typical experiment with galvanic skin recording we have a 15 to 20 
minutes pause between the instruction and the start of the experiment. 
The better the subject is able to relax during this period, the better 
the signal-to-noise ratio should be in the following experiment.

We consider white noise, pink noise, amplitude modulated noise, 
recordings of the roar of the surf, relaxation music, and for all these 
stimuli: mono vs. stereo, free field vs. headphones.

We know of some studies in the realm of anesthesia research. We would be 
happy to learn of any other relevant study on the effect of different 
auditory stimuli on relaxation.

BTW [side topic]: in anesthesia we found some references to "binaural 
beats" (embedding two sinusoids of slightly different frequency in pink 
noise, one in each ear). They should improve relaxation (and even 
entrain EEG rhythms). Is this serious?

Best regards,
Christian

--
Prof. Dr. Christian Kaernbach
Allgemeine Psychologie
Institut für Psychologie
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Olshausenstr. 62
D-24098 Kiel
Germany
www.kaernbach.de