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The felid purr: A healing mechanism?
Abstract
A current hypothesis suggests the purr indicates contentment, however, cats purr when they are severely injured or frightened. Forty‐four felids were recorded including cheetahs, ocelots, pumas, domestic cats, and servals. A Sony TCD‐D8 Digital Audio Recorder (DAT) and Statham Radio microphones recorded the purrs. FFTs and spectrographs were performed using National Instrument’s Polynesia. An accelerometer was also used to measure domestic cat purrs. Every felid in the study generated strong frequencies between 25 and 150 Hz. Purr frequencies correspond to vibrational/electrical frequencies used in treatment for bone growth/fractures, pain, edema, muscle growth/strain, joint flexibility, dyspnea, and wounds. Domestic cats, servals, ocelots, and pumas produce fundamental, dominant, or strong frequencies at exactly 25 Hz and 50 Hz, the two low frequencies that best promote bone growth/fracture healing [Chen et al., Zhong. Wai Ke Za Zhi. 32, 217–219 (1994)]. These four species have a strong harmonic exactly at, or within 2 Hz of 100 Hz, a frequency used therapeutically for pain, edema, wounds, and dyspnea. An internal healing mechanism would be advantageous, increasing recovery time and keeping muscles and bone strong when sedentary. [Published with permission from the New Zealand Veterinary Journal; work supported by Endevco.]
... Last, although we are not using human touch, massage indeed reduces aggressiveness in some populations, e.g., adolescents [3]. Figure 2: System diagram. celerometer triggers a tactile actuator (Clark Synthesis TST239 Tactile Transducer) installed in a stool, producing vibrations between 20-50Hz, the range of frequency of feline purring that produces therapeutic effects for joints and promotes increased bone density and growth [6]. Generally, lower carrier frequencies tend to reduce perceived valence and arousal, while a slower envelope frequency results in higher valence [7]. ...
Using technology to convey information and feelings between people is a key goal of many interactive systems, typically with the highest connection fidelity possible. However, the choices made during design and implementation inevitably impact how the communication is perceived. As part of the Empathy Mirror project [4], we explore using technology to instead invert the expressed physical aggression of one participant into a soothing massage for another. Participants take out their aggression on a punching bag. The system detects the magnitude of the blows, and processes them into vibrations rendered via a massage seat to a second participant. Participants reflect on how technology can subvert our intentions, such that the receiver's perception may be very different from what the sender originally communicated. In this case, the most aggressive action is to remove themselves from the exhibit, leaving the receiver with no positive vibes, effectively nullifying the ability to be hostile.
... Ο ρεγ- χασμός της γάτας δεν πρέπει να παραπλανά τον κλινι κό, καθώς η ΰπαρξή του δεν αποκλείει την παρουσία πόνου. Ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει η άποψη ερευνητών για τις επουλωτικές ιδιότητες του ρεγχασμοΰ στα αι λουροειδή γενικότερα, αφοΰ η συχνότητα των εκπε μπόμενων ήχων είναι ίδια με τη συχνότητα που χρησι μοποιείται για την προαγωγή της ανάπτυξης οστίτη ιστοΰ και της πώρωσης των καταγμάτων σε μερικές μορφές φυσικοθεραπείας (von Muggenthaler 2001). ...
Although cats are very popular pets, pain in this species is often underestimated. The reasons for this may include difficulties in pain recognition, unfamiliarity with the use of opioids or non-steroidal analgesic drugs, and with the application of local analgesic techniques. Proper pain management should always be undertaken mainly for medical and humane purposes. Pre-emptive and multimodal analgesia can aid significanly in postoperative pain alleviation. Nowadays, the veterinarian's armamentarium is equipped with a variety of agents in order to alleviate pain in cats. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are often as effective as opioids. The latter are now used successfully for pain management in cats. Both classes provide safe analgesia, taking into account the differences in metabolism between cats and other species. Adjunctive analgesic therapy may be provided with the use of ketamine or a2-adrenergic receptor agonists. Loco-regional analgesic techniques can be used to effectively manage pain in a variety of clinical settings.
... Cats of course purr when being affectionate, but they also purr when giving birth to kittens and mending from physical trauma. 115 This conjecture is supported by the fact that broken felid bones take significantly less time to heal than broken dog bones, and that low frequency vibrations in the range of cat purrs are used to heal complex fractures in humans. 116 Purring and healing is not specific to felids; some birds, notably puffins and storm petrels also purr to their eggs, enabling them to hatch. ...
“In the beginning was the word…” and so begins one of many accounts of The Creation wherein the fabric of the cosmos is woven by the voice of God.1 All world peoples from the Aborigines of Australia to the Zulu of Zimbabwe describe the beginning of the universe through sound: The totemic beings weave the Songlines across Australia; The Chameleons of Yemen and Madagascar sing into the primordial forest to bring the world into existence; the Quiché Mayan Popul Vuh tells of the Guacamatz—the givers of light, who consult, and while they speak their deep understanding brings forth the dawn. They speak about the forests and about the nature of life; how the waters will flow and how crops would be sown—and these things appear from their words. In the first hogon of the Glittering World, the Holy People of the Diné sing the Blessing Song from which creation emerges; and for the ancient Sumerians, the power of creation consisted primarily of the divine word. “All the creator had to do was make his or her plans, utter the word, and pronounce the name”2—a pronouncement echoed in the Koran, explaining that Allah need only to say “Be” and It shall become—dispelling any doubt one might have in divine miracles.3
... Cats of course purr when being affectionate, but they also purr when giving birth to kittens and mending from physical trauma. 115 This conjecture is supported by the fact that broken felid bones take signifi cantly less time to heal than broken dog bones, and that low frequency vibrations in the range of cat purrs are used to heal complex fractures in humans. 116 Purring and healing is not specifi c to felids; some birds, notably puffi ns and storm petrels also purr to their eggs, enabling them to hatch. ...
Throughout history, hearing and sound perception have been typically framed in the context of how sound conveys information and how that information influences the listener. "Hear Where We Are" inverts this premise and examines how humans and other hearing animals use sound to establish acoustical relationships with their surroundings. This simple inversion reveals a panoply of possibilities by which we can re-evaluate how hearing animals use, produce, and perceive sound. Nuance in vocalizations become signals of enticement or boundary setting; silence becomes a field ripe in auditory possibilities; predator/prey relationships are infused with acoustic deception, and sounds that have been considered territorial cues become the fabric of cooperative acoustical communities. This inversion also expands the context of sound perception into a larger perspective that centers on biological adaptation within acoustic habitats. Here, the rapid synchronized flight patterns of flocking birds and the tight maneuvering of schooling fish becomes an acoustic engagement. Likewise, when stridulating crickets synchronize their summer evening chirrups, it has more to do with the 'cricket community' monitoring their collective boundaries rather than individual crickets establishing 'personal' territory or breeding fitness. In "Hear Where We Are" the author continuously challenges many of the bio-acoustic orthodoxies, reframing the entire inquiry into sound perception and communication. By moving beyond our common assumptions, many of the mysteries of acoustical behavior become revealed, exposing a fresh and fertile panorama of acoustical experience and adaptation.
Anxiety disorders affect approximately one third of people during their lifetimes and are the ninth leading cause of global disability. Current treatments focus on therapy and pharmacological interventions. However, therapy is costly and pharmacological interventions often have undesirable side-effects. Healthy people also regularly suffer periods of anxiety. Therefore, a non-pharmacological, intuitive, home intervention would be complementary to other treatments and beneficial for non-clinical groups. Existing at-home anxiety aids, such as guided meditations, typically employ visual and/or audio stimuli to guide the user into a calmer state. However, the tactile sense has the potential to be a more natural modality to target in an anxiety-calming device. The tactile domain is relatively under-explored, but we suggest that there are manifold physiological and affective qualities of touch that lend it to the task. In this study we demonstrate that haptic technology can offer an enjoyable, effective and widely accessible alternative for easing state anxiety. We describe a novel huggable haptic interface that pneumatically simulates slow breathing. We discuss the development of this interface through a focus group evaluating five prototypes with embedded behaviours (‘breathing’, ‘purring’, ‘heartbeat’ and ‘illumination’). Ratings indicated that the ‘breathing’ prototype was most pleasant to interact with and participants described this prototype as ‘calming’ and ‘soothing’, reminding them of a person breathing. This prototype was developed into an ergonomic huggable cushion containing a pneumatic chamber powered by an external pump allowing the cushion to ‘breathe’. A mixed-design experiment (n = 129) inducing anxiety through a group mathematics test found that the device was effective at reducing pre-test anxiety compared to a control (no intervention) condition and that this reduction in anxiety was indistinguishable from that of a guided meditation. Our findings highlight the efficacy of this interface, demonstrating that haptic technologies can be effective at easing anxiety. We suggest that the field should be explored in more depth to capture the nuances of different modalities in relation to specific situations and trait characteristics.
While dancing in raves and parties people tend to spontaneously vocalize vowels which accurately resemble what is commonly known as Chakra Toning Sounds. This sonic observation raises the hypothesis that people instinctively and intuitively heal themselves by balancing and activating their own chakras with their voice. To test and verify this hypothesis a survey was conducted in which 96 participants were asked to share their experience about the voices they produce and hear in raves and parties while dancing. The majority of participants reported to use their voice and hear others use their voice with Chakra Toning Sounds. An interesting observation suggests that a communal effect is created by this action, in which self healing informs and encourages communal (group) healing, possibly underlying collaborative and collective healing.
Es folgen 43 Fragen zum Themengebiet HNO – allgemeine Aspekte. Beispiele sind:
- Besteht ein Zusammenhang zwischen der allergischen Rhinitis und der chronischen Rhinosinusitis?
- Wie funktioniert die akustische Rhinometrie?
- Warum schwindeln die Alten?
Perioperative pain control has been increasingly implemented nowadays in cats undergoing various surgical procedures. However, effective analgesia provided in cats undergoing surgery is complicated because of the difficulties in pain recognition, unfamiliarity with analgesic techniques and drugs, limited availability of analgesics such as opioids, and lack of published studies evaluating the effectiveness of these drugs in the feline patients. Ovariohysterectomy, castration, onychectomy, limb amputations, thoracic, oncologic and reconstructive surgeries are among surgical procedures that require acute or chronic pain control. Perioperative multimodal and preemptive analgesia may include opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), α2 agonists, ketamine and regional blocks. They may all provide safe analgesia, taking into account the differences in metabolism between cats and other species. Apart from routine pharmaceutical treatment novel surgical techniques have been devised to achieve pain relief in cats. This article reviews the physiology and pathophysiology of pain in cats undergoing minor and major surgical procedures and discusses pain diagnosis and management strategies for pain control in the feline patient. The effect of surgical technique on feline pain control is also reviewed.
We aimed to examine the early effects of prepubertal ovariohysterectomy (P-OHE) on bone loss and proximal physeal closure in cats. Fourteen kittens randomly underwent P-OHE or sham operations (S-OP) at three months (mo) of age and were allocated to group I and group II. Each mo between four and nine mo of age, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans were performed to determine the total body bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC). Proximal radial physeal closure and radial length were determined by radiography. Bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP), carboxy-terminal collagen teleopeptide (CTX), 17-β estradiol, progesterone, calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) were measured in the serum samples. No significant differences were observed between the groups in terms of BMD, BMC, BAP, BAP/CTX, P, progesterone and body weight (BW) (between 4 and 9mo) and for Ca (between 5 and 9mo) and for CTX levels (between 4 and 8mo). The 17-β estradiol was significantly higher at 6, 8 and 9mo of age in the S-OP group due to puberty (P=0.02, P=0.03 and P=0.02 respectively). Although there was a significant difference (P=0.0002) between the P-OHE and S-OP groups in terms of the proximal radial physeal closure times (7.43±0.20mo and 6.14±0.14mo, respectively), no significant difference was observed for the mean radius length (10.59±0.10cm and 10.06±0.27cm, respectively) at the last evaluation time. In conclusion, prepubertal ovariohysterectomized cats do not have any osteoporotic risks until nine mo of age and exhibit a delayed physeal closure time without a change in radius length.
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