SSTIM Controlled Vocabulary

Top concept of the frequency band scheme: the set of all EEG-derived neural oscillation bands and sub-bands used in BSC protocol design. A grouping root, not a stimulation target in itself.

8–13 Hz. Relaxation, stress reduction, calm alertness.

The canonical 10 Hz calming and meditation target (Berger's classic alpha peak / typical individual alpha frequency). Distinguished from broad alpha because multiple protocols specifically target this frequency. 10 Hz sits exactly on the shared boundary of the two alpha sub-bands — the inclusive upper bound of low-alpha (8–10 Hz) and the inclusive lower bound of high-alpha (10–13 Hz) — so it is associatively related (skos:related) to both, not filed under either. skos:related is used rather than a cross-scheme mapping property such as skos:broadMatch because all three concepts are in this same scheme.

The source spans several sensory modalities; every canonical modality it actually supports is still listed explicitly.

Sensory modality does not apply to this source (for example a paced-breathing intervention with no sensory delivery claim).

The source does not report, or the extraction did not establish, the sensory modality.

Presented in the surrounding environment toward sensory receptors, without a body-mounted interface.

Delivered into the epidural space.

Applied from outside the body without breaching the skin.

Delivered by a surgically placed device remaining in the body.

Delivered from within the cranial cavity.

Delivered into the intrathecal space.

Delivered through a needle or comparable skin puncture without a permanent implant.

Distributed through the body as a whole rather than applied at an identified site.

An agent infused at or near an identified target rather than distributed systemically.

Delivered across the skull toward an intracranial target.

Delivered across intact skin.

15–30 Hz. Active cognition, alertness.

Preset exposes complex controls, unusual routing, or demanding parameter combinations intended for experienced users or supervised demonstrations.

Preset requires attention, headphones, visual focus, or altered situational awareness that is incompatible with operating a vehicle or machinery.

Preset is designed for a low-arousal context and may reduce alertness; it must not be used during safety-critical activity.

Preset contains evocative sound, imagery, isolation, or social content that some users may experience as emotionally intense.

Preset contains flashing or rapid contrast modulation and therefore requires the platform's photosensitivity safeguards and an explicit avoid option.

Preset contains sustained, repetitive, visually demanding, or high-load stimulation that may be uncomfortable when the user is fatigued.

Preset uses comparatively strong, dense, bright, loud, fast, or multimodal parameters and requires conservative initial settings.

Preset is designed specifically for a quiet pre-rest context and is not intended for tasks requiring sustained alertness.

Preset combines density, intensity, motion, contrast, or multiple modalities in a way that can be difficult for sensory-sensitive users.

Caution requiring an explicit stop, avoid, or disable action when the stated trigger or context applies.

Context or experience guidance that should be visible but does not normally require blocking playback.

Caution that should be shown before use and may warrant a setting or timing adjustment.

Caution requiring prominent confirmation, reduced intensity, closer monitoring, or avoidance by sensitive users.

Preset is designed with comparatively activating, bright, rapid, or attention-demanding parameters and may not suit low-arousal contexts.

Preset requests a breathing cadence below 3 cycles per minute, outside the ordinary BSC guided-breathing range and unsuitable for forced following.

A mechanical fact about what the product does (e.g. "plays binaural beats and isochronic tones; guides paced breathing"). Permitted on every surface.

A subjective, non-universal experience report (e.g. "many people find sessions relaxing"). Hedged and non-universal; permitted on every surface.

A general wellness/function statement with no disease language (e.g. "supports relaxation and focus"). Permitted publicly; watch for drift toward C3.

A claim that affects a body function (e.g. "improves sleep", "reduces stress"). Borderline on both the medical-device and misleading-advertising vectors; assertable publicly only with at least moderate evidence.

A named-condition or symptom claim (e.g. relieves anxiety, depression, migraine, pain, suicidal ideation). Medical-device intended-purpose language; NOT publicly assertable. The underlying observation belongs in evidence-quarantine (a low-tier EvidenceClaim) and may motivate a study, never a public claim.

A magnitude or comparative-superiority claim (e.g. "20% IQ boost", "resolves X in 3 sessions"). Requires strong (RCT-grade) evidence; absent that, not publicly assertable.

The cited evidence is insufficient to determine whether the relation holds.

The cited evidence is mixed: some studies support the relation and others do not.

The body of cited evidence, on balance, does not support (or refutes) the asserted relation.

The body of cited evidence, on balance, supports the asserted relation.

0.5–4 Hz. Deep sleep, heavy down-regulation.

Individual case descriptions without systematic comparison.

Controlled comparison without randomized allocation.

The source aggregates studies of several designs (typical of reviews).

Observational design without experimenter-controlled allocation.

Controlled experiment in a preclinical model rather than human participants.

Randomized allocation to intervention and control conditions.

The underlying design was not reported or has not been extracted.

The measured outcome decreased relative to the comparator.

The measured outcome increased relative to the comparator.

No measurable change in the outcome relative to the comparator.

The proposition asserts the absence of an effect within an explicit scope, backed by evidence that tested it.

The proposition asserts a relation, difference, or response within an explicit scope.

The proposition states that no eligible evidence was found within a documented search scope as of a date. Requires an evidence search record basis.

The proposition asserts that no evidence or mechanism exists at all. Never conformant: a finite search cannot support it. Present in the vocabulary so validation can name and reject it.

30–42 Hz. Higher-frequency cognitive activation.

The specific 40 Hz target associated with the GENUS/Iaccarino neuroimmune research lineage (emerging, preclinical and early human multisensory). Distinct from general gamma: evidence base, modality cautions, and claim language are different. Do not generalize all gamma designs as neuroprotection-oriented.

Wellness goals with comparatively stronger evidence and conservative design. Guided breathing often appropriate. Warm, lower-complexity character.

Experiential, playful, intense, or recreational sonic worlds. High personality, diverse design, bloom intentional. No medical implication.

Cognitive performance, focus, work, creativity. Background (minimal, no breathing) and Active (engaging, breathing may apply) sub-types.

Meaningful user needs where evidence is promising but limited, mixed, indirect, or modality-mismatched. Explicit limitation statements required in techDesc.

Meditation, contemplative, altered-state, and perceptual exploration. May progressively reduce grounding. Claims remain conservative.

10–13 Hz. Upper portion of the alpha band.

25–30 Hz. Upper portion of the beta band.

2–4 Hz. Upper portion of the delta band.

6–8 Hz. Upper portion of the theta band.

Determined independent under a named policy, with recorded conflict disclosure.

Determined not independent under a named policy, with recorded conflict disclosure.

No independence determination has been made.

8–10 Hz. Lower portion of the alpha band.

15–20 Hz. Lower portion of the beta band.

0.5–2 Hz. Lower portion of the delta band.

4–6 Hz. Lower portion of the theta band.

Proposed mechanism in which structured, low-demand sensory content serves as an attentional reference. Whether it changes mind-wandering or task focus is protocol- and context-dependent and must be represented by a separate evidence claim.

Synchronization of movement timing and motor-cortical activity to an external auditory beat (beat-based timing, sensorimotor synchronization). Primary proposed mechanism for rhythmic auditory cueing of gait and cadence.

Proposed mechanism category for paced-breathing protocols that coordinate respiratory timing with respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart-rate variability, and baroreflex dynamics. Used for Martigli breathing oscillation; protocol-specific effects require separate evidence claims.

Delivery of a stimulus time-locked to a measured phase of an ongoing endogenous oscillation (e.g. sound bursts at the up-phase of sleep slow oscillations) to reinforce that rhythm. Requires real-time sensing; the basis of closed-loop auditory stimulation.

Proposed mechanism category derived from GENUS research in which specific 40 Hz stimulation protocols were associated with microglial and amyloid-related changes in particular mouse models. Human relevance, protocol transfer, and modality generalization remain uncertain and require claim-level evidence.

Reduction of the perceptual salience of a target sound (or tinnitus percept) by overlapping or spectrally shaped sound, and reshaping of tonotopic activity via lateral inhibition. Proposed basis for masking and notched-sound approaches.

Activation of skin and deep-tissue mechanoreceptors (e.g. Pacinian corpuscles) by low-frequency vibration delivered through body transducers. Couples a somatosensory pathway alongside any auditory percept; primary mechanism for vibroacoustic stimulation.

Convergence and mutual enhancement of temporally congruent inputs across modalities (e.g. light and sound pulsed at the same rate), which can yield a larger or more reliable response than any single modality. Proposed basis for audiovisual and audio-tactile entrainment; the GENUS multisensory-over-unisensory finding rests on it. Contested in magnitude and modality-specific.

Threshold-dynamics mechanism in which an appropriately calibrated noise level can change detection of an otherwise subthreshold signal. It is not entrainment and requires no periodic forcing; any improvement claim is condition- and evidence-specific.

Proposed propagation of frequency-following response from subcortical centers to cortical oscillatory networks via thalamocortical loops. More contested than subcortical FFR.

A family of explicitly proposed, evidence-qualified pathways by which focused ultrasound may modulate neural activity, spanning candidate acoustic-radiation-force, membrane, and mechanosensitive-ion-channel accounts.

No candidate pathway is treated as universally established, and this mechanism term never decides sensory typing. Absence of an audible percept is deliberately not part of the definition: auditory confounds in human transcranial-ultrasound protocols are a real, protocol-dependent evidence question, recorded through exposure channels and outcome concepts rather than by definition.

20–25 Hz. Middle portion of the beta band.

Evidence from auditory-only stimulation. Applies directly to BSC presets.

Evidence from combined audiovisual stimulation. Applies to BSC with one tier discount for auditory-only claims.

The auditory sensory modality: perception of sound via the ear and auditory pathway. The primary BSC delivery channel.

Evidence from paced breathing / HRV biofeedback. Applies directly to Martigli breathing guidance component.

Evidence from mixed or unspecified modalities. Must state indirectness in techDesc.

Delivered indirectly via paced breathing guidance that engages respiratory and cardiac interoception.

Evidence from combined multisensory stimulation (e.g. GENUS audiovisual, audio-tactile). Modality-specific results do not transfer directly to any single channel; apply a tier discount for single-modality claims.

Requires dedicated hardware. Outside current BSC scope.

Evidence from animal or in-vitro studies. Maximum tier contribution: Tier 3 for human wellness claims.

Systematic review or meta-analysis. Tag used alongside AUD/AV/BREATH/GENERAL to note the evidence synthesis level.

The somatosensory modality: body-perceived sensation including touch, pressure, vibration, and related cutaneous and deep-tissue sensation. In SSTIM this is the superordinate body-sense channel — the tactile percept is a sub-modality, the haptic actuator (e.g. the Web Vibration API) is the device-delivery path, and vibrotactile is the driving mechanism (P5.5 convention; ADR 0019).

BSC delivers somatosensory stimulation through the haptic actuator path (Web Vibration API on Android; unavailable on iOS Safari). Device capability, perceived modality, and mechanism are modeled separately in the exposure module (ADR 0010).

Evidence from tactile / vibrotactile stimulation (e.g. vibrotactile pulse, SSSEP, vibroacoustic). Applies directly to tactile techniques; one tier discount for auditory-only claims.

Evidence from visual-only stimulation (e.g. photic/flicker driving, SSVEP). Applies directly to visual techniques; one tier discount for auditory-only claims.

Requires dedicated hardware (e.g. galvanic vestibular stimulation). Outside current BSC scope.

The visual sensory modality: perception of light, color, and motion via the eye and visual pathway.

Findings produced by simulation or computational modeling.

Findings produced with human participants.

Findings produced in vitro.

The source aggregates findings across several models or stages.

Findings produced in a non-human animal model. Replaces the modality-tag misuse of PRECLINICAL as a modality.

The model or stage was not reported or has not been extracted.

The explicit declaration that the reviewer declared no conflict of interest. Case-specific disclosures are separate ConflictDisclosure records.

No permutation. Pure repetition. Lowest cognitive engagement; habituation risk for long sessions.

Alternating reversal — ascending and descending passes alternate with period 2 cycles.

Cyclic right shift. Systematic downward pitch drift over N cycles.

Cyclic left shift at each cycle boundary. Systematic upward pitch drift over N cycles.

Uniform random permutation (Fisher-Yates) at each cycle boundary. Maximum cross-cycle unpredictability. Highest cognitive engagement.

The startle reflex elicited by a sudden intense acoustic stimulus.

A steady-state neural response frequency-tagged to a periodic auditory stimulus.

Change in autonomic neural regulation.

Change in functional connectivity or in plasticity.

A neural response evoked or driven by an applied stimulus.

These are response forms, not causal mechanisms. They replace the mechanism-scheme entries deprecated in 0.9.0: a measurable evoked response describes what happens, while how it arises remains a separate mechanism and evidence question.

Change in neuronal excitability or firing.

A neural response that follows the periodicity of an applied stimulus.

Change in neurochemical or neurotransmitter signaling.

Change in the amplitude, frequency, or phase of neural oscillations.

A reflex response elicited by an applied stimulus.

A steady-state neural response frequency-tagged to a periodic somatosensory stimulus.

Change in synaptic transmission.

Change in the temporal alignment or coordination of neural activity.

A steady-state neural response frequency-tagged to a periodic visual stimulus.

Self-report collected after a declared delay from session completion; the timestamp is required to make the delay interpretable.

Self-report collected shortly after stimulus delivery ends.

Self-report collected before stimulus delivery begins, usable as a within-session baseline without implying causation.

The review confirms the assessment revision under the named rubric.

Derived workflow summary (ADR 0027): the prior review decision was invalidated, or an explicit re-review trigger exists without a replacement decision.

Derived workflow summary (ADR 0027): no current review decision exists under the named rubric. Not authoritative data; derived from EvidenceReviewDecision records in the 0.7 compatibility view only.

The review rejects the assessment revision under the named rubric.

The review requests a new assessment revision.

Derived workflow summary (ADR 0027): a current recorded review decision exists, regardless of its outcome or independence. Independence is a property of the review activity, never implied by this value.

The reviewer is external to the authoring organization. Never implies independence by itself.

The reviewer belongs to the same organization as the assessed work's authors.

The reviewer is the author of the assessed work.

The reviewer's relationship to the assessed work is not established.

Engagement of a neural target by a chemical or pharmacological agent acting on neural tissue.

Engagement of a neural target without canonical sensory receptor transduction.

Asserting this route positively identifies such a route; it does not prove the technique is non-sensory, because a hybrid may also declare an intended sensory route.

Engagement of a neural target through canonical sensory receptor transduction and afferent processing.

Within the neuromodulation population this is not a redundant value: it is the fact that distinguishes the sensory-route overlap from approaches that bypass canonical sensory transduction. Conscious perception is not required.

Engagement of a neural target through an intermediate physiological process that is not canonical sensory transduction, such as a vascular, endocrine, or muscular pathway.

Direct physical interaction with neural tissue by an applied electric current or field, magnetic field, acoustic energy, or comparable physical means.

Both an intended cortical tACS interaction and a competing peripheral-nerve explanation use this broad route; they are separated by the intended target site versus the evaluated outcome target site, not by inventing two routes.

This scope axis does not apply to the proposition.

The sources did not report a value for this scope axis.

The value of this scope axis is unknown.

12–15 Hz. Sensorimotor rhythm. Focused calm, sustained attention.

A survey of the literature without a documented systematic protocol or quantitative synthesis.

A quantitative synthesis of results across studies.

A review without a systematic search and selection protocol.

An original empirical study, not a synthesis of other studies.

A review with a documented systematic search, selection, and appraisal protocol. Matches the narrower meaning the legacy REVIEW tag claimed.

An instructional source synthesizing established methods and findings.

The auditory neural system as a distributed target.

The autonomic nervous system as a distributed target.

The gustatory neural system as a distributed target.

The interoceptive neural system as a distributed target.

The motor nervous system as a distributed target.

The olfactory neural system as a distributed target.

The proprioceptive neural system as a distributed target.

The sensory nervous system as a distributed target.

The somatosensory neural system as a distributed target.

The vestibular neural system as a distributed target.

The visual neural system as a distributed target.

The brain as a broad stimulation target.

The brain and spinal cord as a broad stimulation target.

Cortical tissue as a stimulation target.

A cranial nerve as a stimulation target.

Kept as a separate seed category rather than a blanket child of the peripheral nervous system, because cranial-nerve anatomy is not uniformly peripheral.

A subcortical or deep brain structure as a stimulation target.

A peripheral nerve as a stimulation target.

Neural tissue outside the brain and spinal cord as a broad stimulation target.

The spinal cord as a stimulation target.

Whisper-like textures, close foley, brushing, and tapping sounds intended to evoke an autonomous sensory meridian response.

High affective value, low scientific precision; suited to experiential rather than clean-entrainment contexts.

Intense, abrupt sounds (with or without a prepulse) used to elicit and probe the acoustic startle reflex and sensorimotor gating.

A research/clinical assessment domain (e.g. prepulse inhibition), not a comfortable wellness experience.

A carrier tone or noise whose amplitude (loudness) is sinusoidally modulated at a target rate. The canonical stimulus for evoking auditory steady-state responses at the modulation frequency.

Well-established ASSR/entrainment stimulus; the modulation rate, not the carrier, sets the response frequency.

An auditory pulse train (isochronic, monaural, or binaural) and a vibrotactile pulse delivered in phase at the same target rate, so hearing and touch are driven together. Cross-modal: auditory and somatosensory steady-state responses plus multisensory integration.

A natural pairing for the BSC breathing/haptic pulse — the isOn breathing-reference voice already drives both the visual breathing animation and the haptic pulse. The tactile channel is Android-only via the Web Vibration API.

Light and sound pulsed at the same target rate (the classic 'mind machine' / AVE configuration), so auditory and visual driving reinforce one another. Cross-modal: it engages auditory and visual steady-state responses together with multisensory integration.

Combines the auditory and visual flicker constraints; the visual channel is subject to photosensitivity limits. Reported effects on state and EEG are mixed across studies; frame conservatively. At 40 Hz this is the multisensory GENUS configuration.

Stimuli built around auditory illusions — Shepard tones, the missing fundamental, combination tones, binaural spatial illusions — used compositionally.

Mostly aesthetic/compositional; not evidence-bearing neuromodulation unless validated separately.

Two sine tones at slightly different frequencies presented dichotically (one per ear), producing a perceived beat at their difference frequency that arises centrally rather than in the air.

The most-studied consumer auditory-entrainment technique; effects on EEG and state are reported but mixed across studies.

White, pink, or brown noise presented as a continuous broadband stimulus; a vehicle for stochastic resonance and for masking.

Repeated short impulses (clicks, ticks, grains) presented at a target rate to drive steady-state responses.

Strong for probing entrainment, but clicks are perceptually salient and can become fatiguing relative to smoother stimuli.

Sounds delivered at a precise phase of a measured brain or sleep rhythm using EEG or sleep sensors, to reinforce that oscillation.

Strong conceptual fit for sleep slow-oscillation work; requires real-time sensing, so not a client-only lightweight feature.

A steady or slowly changing full-field colour — a coloured light wash or whole-screen field, e.g. a Ganzfeld — used as an ambient visual environment rather than as a periodic driver.

Aesthetic/ambient device; any calming effect is attentional and contextual. A steady (non-flickering) field is not entrainment.

Electrical stimulation delivered by surgically implanted intracranial electrodes to a deep brain structure with the objective of altering its activity.

A clinical neurosurgical method, catalogued so the ontology can describe the implanted-electrode route. It is emphatically outside any consumer or wellness context.

Rhythms with long-range (1/f) correlated variability rather than rigid periodicity, often used to evoke a more natural sense of timing in movement cueing.

Recent gait-cueing work distinguishes regular beats from fractal variability; less direct as brainwave entrainment.

A tone whose pitch sweeps over time — vibrato, chirps, adaptive glissandi. Spans both fast modulation (which can evoke frequency-following responses) and slow, breathing-rate modulation (which engages autonomic rather than entrainment pathways).

Typed as the generic technique because entrainment status depends on rate. Slow breathing-paced FM should be distinguished from non-breathing FM voices.

Auditory stimulation at 40 Hz — 40 Hz clicks, amplitude-modulated tones, or noise — delivered with the defining objective of modulating gamma-band neural oscillatory dynamics, associated with the GENUS research lineage.

The neural-modulation objective is definitional here, which is why this concept occupies the sensory-route neuromodulation overlap: it is both sensory stimulation and neuromodulation, entering through canonical auditory transduction. Membership asserts intent and route, never that modulation occurs. Human auditory-only evidence is limited; the stronger findings are preclinical and multisensory. Frame as gamma/auditory support or research-facing, never as a treatment for any condition.

Infusion of a neuromodulatory agent into the intrathecal space, targeted at an identified central nervous system site with the objective of altering its activity or function.

The populated chemical example, included because an empty route category would not demonstrate that the model works. It qualifies as neuromodulation only because the neuromodulatory objective and the identified neural target are definitional; ordinary systemic neuroactive pharmacotherapy does not qualify, since drug administration alone is insufficient.

A single tone switched on and off at evenly spaced intervals (a gated pulse train) at a target rate; a monaural, single-channel entrainment stimulus.

Two close-frequency tones summed in a single channel, producing a physically present amplitude beat at their difference frequency. Distinct from binaural beats, where the beat is a neural construct from dichotic presentation.

Entrainment to the higher-order structure of music — tempo, meter, groove, harmonic rhythm, and phrase cycles — rather than to a single modulation frequency.

High experiential value; less precise as EEG-band stimulation. Typically a musical layer around clearer entrainment voices.

Music or noise with a spectral notch removed around a target frequency, or otherwise spectrally tailored for masking and residual inhibition; associated with tinnitus-oriented sound approaches.

Condition-specific (tinnitus); evidence is mixed and claims need care. Not a generic wellness soundscape.

Periodic visual flicker — a light source or whole-screen field switched or modulated at a target rate — used to drive occipital rhythms at the flicker frequency. The visual counterpart of isochronic/amplitude-modulated auditory entrainment; at alpha rates it can also evoke stroboscopic imagery (the 'flicker' / Dreamachine phenomenon).

Subject to photosensitivity exposure limits — model the flicker rate and the photosensitivity comfort boundary via the exposure module (sstim-ex:hasFlickerRateHz, sstim-ex:boundaryPhotosensitivity, ADR 0011). Avoid high-contrast full-field flicker around 15–25 Hz in unscreened users. At 40 Hz this is the GENUS visual-gamma case (preclinical-strongest, contested in humans), which additionally invokes sstim-v:mechGamma40.

Music or tones retuned so that a named reference note (commonly A4) is set to a non-standard frequency such as 432 Hz instead of the standard 440 Hz.

A property of the carrier / absolute pitch, orthogonal to any modulation or beat frequency — not brainwave entrainment. Parametrize a stimulus channel with sstim-ex:referencePitchNote / referencePitchHz / retunedFromReferenceHz / pitchShiftCents. Any effect claim must be modeled as music-listening / tuning-preference / psychoacoustic / expectation-mediated, with its own EvidenceAssessmentClaim kept disjoint from EntrainmentBasedTechnique and FrequencyBand evidence.

Repeated magnetic pulses applied by a coil over the scalp, inducing an electric field in underlying tissue, with the objective of altering cortical activity or excitability.

Typed as neuromodulation because the modulation objective is definitional for the repetitive protocol. A single-pulse probe used only to elicit and measure a response is stimulation without being neuromodulation, since measuring is not modulating. The induced electric field is an established physical transformation and belongs in the exposure or device description, not in a proposed mechanism; how that field produces a neural response remains an evidence question.

A metronome, drum, footstep, or music-based beat used to entrain movement timing and cadence (rhythmic auditory stimulation, RAS).

Well studied for gait, notably Parkinsonian gait; relevant to movement, walking, and rehabilitation-adjacent uses.

Intentional auditory roughness from closely spaced frequencies, deep amplitude modulation, or harmonic interference, used as a textural/affective device.

A perceptual/aesthetic device; can be activating, so it is generally avoided in calming, sleep, or overload-sensitive contexts.

Music or tones tuned to so-called 'Solfeggio frequencies' (e.g. 432 Hz, 528 Hz) or other arbitrary tunings claimed to carry special healing properties. A specific folk-claim case of reference-pitch retuning.

Mapping a physiological or behavioral signal (heart rate, HRV, breathing, motion, gait, attention state) into sound, so the listener hears and can regulate that state.

Requires sensors or user interaction; well suited to adaptive sessions and research.

Structured spatial trajectories of sound — HRTF motion, orbiting sources, lateral sweeps, dichotic streams, spatial alternation — rather than simple left/right crossfades.

Below-threshold or masked spoken messages (affirmations, suggestions) intended to influence behavior or mood without conscious perception.

An oscillating electric current applied through scalp electrodes with the objective of altering the amplitude, frequency, or phase of cortical oscillations.

The direct non-sensory analogue of sensory entrainment: periodic, and targeting oscillatory dynamics. Its intended route is a physical cortical interaction, but reported effects can also arise through transcutaneous peripheral-nerve stimulation. That competing account is an evidence question, recorded on an outcome concept via sstim:outcomeNeuralTargetSite, and it never rewrites this declared intended route.

A weak constant electric current applied through scalp electrodes with the objective of altering cortical excitability.

Applied electric current is not by itself brain stimulation — peripheral, muscular, and cardiac applications share the medium and are separated here by route, approach, and target.

Application of spatially focused acoustic energy to an identified neural target with the objective of altering its activity or function.

Defined by its intended focused neural target, not by the categorical absence of an audible percept. Auditory or somatosensory co-stimulation and confounds are protocol-dependent and belong in exposure profiles and evidence records; they do not decide the technique's primary class. Requires dedicated hardware and is not consumer web/mobile feasible. Catalogued so the ontology can describe it, never because BSC Lab delivers it.

Electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve, by an implanted device or through the skin at an accessible branch, with the objective of altering autonomic neural regulation.

Shows why route, approach, and target must stay independent: implanted and transcutaneous variants share a target and a route while differing in approach. Targeting a cranial nerve and the autonomic system says nothing about entering through a sensory system.

Low-frequency sound delivered through body transducers, chairs, beds, or wearables, so it is felt as well as heard.

Cross-modal: auditory plus tactile-mechanical. Studied in contexts such as fibromyalgia; best treated as its own (partly somatosensory) modality, not pure audio.

Rhythmic vibrotactile pulses delivered to the skin (wrist, fingertips, torso, or a wearable) at a target rate to drive somatosensory cortical rhythms. The tactile counterpart of isochronic auditory entrainment; deliverable on consumer hardware via the Web Vibration API.

Distinct from vibroacoustic stimulation: here the pulse rate — not low-frequency audio energy — is the driver, and the percept is primarily tactile. Web Vibration API is Android-only; absent on iOS Safari (sstim-v:modalitySomatosensory scope note).

Semantic or phonetic vocal stimulation — guided audio, breath counting, mantra or chant repetition — which can also pace breathing.

Powerful experiential layer but semantically intrusive; many designs avoid voice by default to keep stimuli non-distracting.

A closed-loop stimulus whose temporal structure is adjusted in response to a measured signal. Outside current BSC delivery scope; reserved for future biofeedback-driven implementations.

A stimulus with no repeating period, e.g. calibrated noise for stochastic resonance or a shuffled Symmetry sequence.

An agent administered as a single discrete dose.

An agent administered continuously over time.

Applied continuously at a sustained level rather than as discrete events, such as a constant direct current.

Applied in separated episodes on a schedule rather than continuously.

A stimulus repeating at a fixed period, e.g. an isochronic pulse train or a steady binaural beat.

Discrete pulses delivered in trains or bursts.

Combinable with a carrier periodicity value: a pulse train may itself be periodic or irregular.

A stimulus that is nearly periodic but slowly modulated, e.g. a Martigli sweep whose breathing period decelerates over the session.

A single discrete application, such as one pulse.

4–8 Hz. Meditation, creativity, memory, sleep onset, chronic pain support.

Tier 2. Anecdotal reports and case series. No systematic data.

Tier 6. Systematic reviews/meta-analyses with high GRADE confidence; replicated across populations and laboratories.

Tier 4. Multiple studies with generally consistent results; some methodological limitations.

Tier 3. Small controlled studies with directionally consistent results but limited replication.

Tier 1. Theoretical basis only; no controlled human studies.

Tier 5. Multiple high-quality RCTs or meta-analyses with consistent results and adequate samples.

Two dichotic sine tones producing a binaural beat at |fr - fl| Hz.

Single tone with sinusoidal frequency oscillation following a decelerating breathing arc.

Binaural beat combined with Martigli oscillation. Constant beat frequency despite sweeping carriers.

Log-distributed pitch sequence with algebraic group permutation at each cycle. Includes isochronic special case (noctaves=0).