Tech

Get high on music with these dopamine inducing headphones

by Jeremy Mersereau

We’ve all felt the odd pleasurable shudder or two while listening to Kenny Loggins on our spine-blasting bass backpacks, but wouldn’t it be great if you could get that feeling on demand? I mean, without just replaying the flute intro to “I Believe In Love” over and over.

According to Florida tech startup Nervana, now you can: they’re selling a generator and headphones that synchronize music in an electrical signal through your ear canal to the vagus nerve. This will trigger the release of that sweet, sweet neurotransmitter goodness, which doesn’t sound like it has the potential to become addictive or anything.

Nervana CEO Ami Brannon had this to say about her company’s happiness generator:

“We have a device that sends an electrical signal through the ear canal to stimulate the release of dopamine in your brain. There’s an electrical signal that’s paired with music. It follows the beat of the music, and it makes it really pleasant. Through a conductive earbud, it sends a message through the vagus nerve in your ear, which sends a message to the brain to release dopamine, your feel-good neurotransmitter that naturally occurs in the brain.”

Interesting to note: the headphones will not require FDA approval to be sold, as they’re considered a “health and wellness” device. You’d think a piece of tech that delivers an electrical current to the body’s longest cranial nerve would require some form of approval from some kind of regulatory body before hitting the market, but here we are.

Presales of the Nervana headphone and generator bundle start this spring: for only $299 USD, you too can zap your brain in time to Slayer’s “Reign In Blood” or Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage”.

[h/t Futurism]