HN Reader

This is a university press release, so they first refer to a registered trademark, which I assume means they're trying to make money off it through licensing agreements:

> a unique sound called 'sound spice®'

Only at the very bottom of the release do they actually give any technical details:

> a pure tone at 100 Hz

The linked study gives more details:

> 1-min exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz

Unblinded, tiny sample size (n=10), and a ridiculous attempt to trademark a pure 100Hz tone.

I'm gonna wait for a much better study reproducing this before I put any stock in it, personally.

Afaik this isn't a new idea. This has been studied previously in the context of VR motion sickness.[0] There is a company called Otolith Labs making these kind of devices.[1] They seem to have pivoted from VR to curing chronic vertigo.

[0] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjourn...

[1] https://otolithlabs.com/nvrt-technology/

This seems quite promising: an effective treatment for a problem that frequently assails many people, and a treatment which is so simple and easy to apply.

In fact, it seems so promising, that it raises my hackles of suspicion. I would very much like to see other researchers replicate this. I am automatically more skeptical than I would be of most research because if humming a certain note were an effective treatment for motion sickness, then it would be rather surprising that people had not already discovered this property -- possibly just by listening to various pieces of music.

Just as research which suggests a surprising outcome or one inconsistent with existing theories must meet a higher bar, so too does research which suggests a simple cure that it was already possible for people to stumble across.

So quite literally mains hum, at least in countries with 50 Hz systems, since the magnetostriction effect makes the second harmonic dominant.

Ah, the calming sound of a power supply humming in the background.

So that's the reason for all those old honda civics cars full of speakers with windows shaking bass!

They are just trying to alleviate motion sickness from those old suspensions.

For those not wanting to click through a bunch of links, here is a quote of the results of the study. TL;DR a sine wave of 100Hz at conversation level.

> Results: The effect of short-term (≤5 min) exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz on motion sickness was investigated in mice and humans. A mouse study showed a long-lasting (≥120 min) alleviative effect on shaking-mediated exacerbated beam test scores by 5-min exposure to a pure tone of 85 dBZ at 100 Hz, which was ex vivo determined as a sound activating vestibular function, before shaking. Human studies further showed that 1-min exposure to a pure tone of 80–85 dBZ (= 60.9–65.9 dBA) at 100 Hz before shaking improved the increased envelope areas in posturography caused by the shakings of a swing, a driving simulator and a vehicle. Driving simulator-mediated activation of sympathetic nerves assessed by the heart rate variable (HRV) and vehicle-mediated increased scores of the MSAQ were improved by pure tone exposure before the shaking.

Design motor yacht engines to produce 100hz sound for an extra selling point.

My friend has pretty extreme motion sickness that prevents us from taking boats or buses or even sometimes taxis when traveling together. It's kind of debilitating and not that uncommon I think. More effort ought to be put into finding a cure. (I'm skeptical of this one, but worth a shot I guess.) Would be nice for VR as well.

Probably entirely placebo, but I just spun in my office chair until dizzy then pulled up a 100Hz tone, and as soon as it started playing the dizziness dropped noticeably. Again, I would guess placebo, but hey, if it works. Gotta try it on reading in the car...

A couple of years ago I discovered being able to make a headache go away by humming low notes, at frequencies that make my head resonate and teeth chatter.

Who has the mp3 medicine?

So piano music with a droning G chord for a minute.

Hope this works and VR games start playing it before motion intense parts of the games. I have built up a tolerance for the most part but some games just leave me motion sick if I am not careful.