Someone Actually Invented Headphones That Get You Stoned

Headphones

Cannabis enthusiasts who like to get stoned while listening to music can take their auditory experiences to entirely new highs thanks to a set of recently released headphones that harness electrical impulses to stimulate the listener’s brain.

The new device, which is called Nervana, is a combination of an electrical sound generator and ear buds that work together to give listeners a cerebral experience very similar to the feeling of getting high from cannabis.

Via Getty

“Nervana is the only consumer product that synchronizes nerve stimulation with sound, allowing the user to experience qualities of music never felt before,” the company says on its website.

The makers of the new listening device claim that Nervana uses electrical impulses to stimulate parts of the brain that are linked to the release of pleasure-inducing neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.

As listeners’ brains begin releasing these chemicals, they may experience pleasurable mood changes that some have compared to the feeling of being high from using marijuana.

To start, the Nervana Generator uses internal circuitry to analyze soundwaves and then translate them into electrical impulses designed to stimulate certain parts of the listener’s brain.

Nervana users can link the Generator to a source of digital music, or they can tell the machine to translate ambient sounds through its built-in microphone.

Via Nervana

This means that users can experience not only musical recordings through the device but live music and even ambient sound as well.

The specialized electrical signals created in the Generator then travel through the Nervana Headphones, which have been engineered to route these signals into the listener’s ears.

“A central signal-processing circuit receives both music and stimulation signals and routes those messages appropriately to the two earbuds,” the Nervana website explains.

” deliver electrical stimulation to the inside surface of the ear canal and, thereby, the Vagus nerve,” which the company says plays a key role in the release of mood-altering chemicals inside the brain.

Nervana was the winner of Techstars “Lifestyle and Digital Health” competition at this year’s CES, and although the device isn’t yet available for purchase, presales are set to begin later this spring.