Question for fluent Spanish speakers, what is "brainwave"?

Question

The SpanDict translation of "a good idea" does not seem like a perfect fit. SpanDict also offers as a definition "lamparazo" but then THAT word is not defined in the SpanDict(ionary).

Can anyone offer either an accurate (or at least a creative/inventive) solution to the problem of translating the word/concept "brainwave" ???

Answer 1

In my copy of the Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Spanish Medical Dictionary (3rd Edition) It defines brain waves in this manner:

Brain= Cerebro Waves= Ondas, ondulaciones

Descripción: Representaciones gráficas de una actividad tal como la obtenida en un encefalograma.

1. Ondas Cerebrales 2. Ondulaciones Cerebrales

Answer 2

I guess you mean "ondas cerebrales" (señales eléctricas producidas por el cerebro las cuales pueden ser grabadas y medidas / electrical signals produced by the brain which can be recorded and measured).

Answer 3

Yeah it depends on what you actually mean by 'brainwave'... in common usage it just refers to a thought or idea, usually (in my experience) with qualities of suddenness or arrival out of nowhere.

In split plural use ("we can detect his brain waves") it takes on the sciency meaning, as the brain is a hive of activity, it usually makes more sense to discuss brain waves, or the overall structure/pattern of them ("his brain wave pattern is irratic") than try to refer to a single brain wave which doesn't /really/ exist. You can record waves at a single point on the scalp/brain, but this is more like a sum of the activity local to that point.

So, just personally, if I hear the term 'brainwave' it says to me 'an idea', and if I hear "brain waves" I think of an ECG output.

Here's the Spanish Wiki page on the EEG which may be of interest to the latter

awesome! thanks for this. - miloszdom, OCT 18, 2009

Answer 4

There would appear to be two terms associated with your question.

One is the medical term and has already has been given by Iker.

The other term brainwave could possibly just be British which in this case could be translated as,

"una luminosa idea"

This may however just be a literal translation of the British word.

Answer 5

Thank you both! Once you point it out, it seems like a terribly obvious solution, but I couldn't have done it alone! Muy Gracias!

Muchas Gracias. not muy, Milo. But good try! - LAtINaPunKROcKerAConFundidA, OCT 16, 2009

Answer 6

Eddy,

I think I was indeed looking for the scientific use of the word. But you've got me curious about your "Britishism" because it looks similar to the definition provided in the SpanDict dictionary. Could you expand a little bit on how you use the term in British english? Is it an idiom? How would you use it?

Gracias!