Named by TIME one of the “Best Inventions of 2022”, Sensate® is vibrotactile wellness device that offers a soothing mechanism known as Somacoustics, pairing infrasonic resonance with aural soundscapes, promoting relaxation and calmness.
You place the device on the middle of your chest, plug in your (ideally noise cancelling) headphones and click play on the app. The vibrations on your chest are designed to calm your vagus nerve (the nerve that links your brain to your vital organs and which regulates stress reactions in the body).
The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which governs such functions as heart rate, and immune response. Sensate is betting on using infrasonic waves to tone the vagus nerves.
The purpose of this pilot was to determine to what extent, if any, Sensate influences the autonomic nervous system and cortical brain activity. The testing took place in our Lisbon-based Research Lab, and involved a sample of 20 participants
Since we’re trying to paint the fullest sensory picture, we have approached the study by defining these states through a mix of psychological and physiological markers.
It was hypothesized that a Sensate session can influence the autonomic nervous system thereby affecting several biomarkers as follows:
This was a single site, observational pilot. A single group (Within Subject) design was implemented. The study followed an ABA design where all individuals will receive a pre-treatment period of no sound, no Sensate activity for 10-minutes (A-1), a single, 20-minute Sensate Session (B), and a 10-minute post treatment period of no sound, no Sensate activity (A-2).
This pilot was divided in two:
- Study 1: with a sample composed by 20 subjects (between 21-64 yo) male and female excluding subjects with anxiety (PSS scale < 22);
- Study 2: with a sample composed by 20 subjects (between 21-64 yo) male and female and including subjects with anxiety (PSS scale >22);
With this study, we can claim the following:
1. Sensate downregulates the Peripheral Nervous system improving Vagal Nerve Tone
Study 1:68% of the population drop their heart rate with a mean difference of 4.91 bpm (a drop of 6.8%) and a p value = 0.018 between before the Sensate experience and after;
2. Sensate downregulates the Central Nervous System inducing a meditative and sleeping state
55% of the population increased Theta in the frontal lobe (executive functioning) with a mean difference of 2.47 mV (an increase of 32.5%) and a p value = 0.017 during the Sensate experience compared with after the Sensate Experience.