The Effects of Binaural and Monoaural Beat Stimulation on Cognitive Functioning in Subjects with Different Levels of Emotionality

Abstract

Today, binaural and monaural beats are offered over the Internet or by mental health institutes to improve wellbeing or cognitive functioning. This improvement is explained by the assumption that the brain adapts its brainwave frequency to the frequency of the auditory beat. The present study examined the effects of binaural and monaural beat stimulation on attention and working memory in high and low emotional participants. A group of 24 participants (16 females, 8 males) between 19 and 31 years old (M = 22.33, SD = 3.42) performed a Flanker task to measure attention and a Klingberg task to measure working memory while listening to white noise (WN), 40 Hz gamma binaural beat (BB) and 40 Hz gamma monaural beat (MB). Speed of performance on all three levels of difficulty of the Flanker attention task was faster under the BB and MB condition than under WN. No differences were found between BB and MB conditions. With respect to the quality of performance on the Flanker attention task and the Klingberg working memory task no significant differences under the WN, MB, and BB condition were found. Finally, as participants with low or high emotionality did not respond differently to BB and MB under any of the conditions, effects of BB and MB seem similar in high and low emotional participants. The present study supports the notion that faster attention processing may equally be attributed to the influence of BB and MB. Further research is recommended to gain more insight in the role of factors such as duration of stimulation of BB and MB, frequency range, most appropriate carrier tones, and the role of personality traits.

A Review of Binaural Bates and the Brain

“…Application of 40 Hz gamma BB and MB for the assessment of attention (Flanker task) and working memory (Klingberg task) in high and low emotional participants showed that listening to BB at beta (15 Hz) range during the N-back task altered network connections and resulted in improvement of the accuracy of performance (Beauchene et al 2017). Another study found that both BB and MB similarly enhanced the speed of performance in the attention task and their effects were also similar in high and low emotional participants (Engelbregt et al 2019). In a study on the attentional blink (AB) using MEG recordings, it was shown that gamma (40-Hz) BB stimulation during training enhanced the attentional blink task outcomes.…”

Digital Addiction and Sleep

“…This may open perspectives for the treatment of pathological memory processes in addiction, including digital addiction . In addition, there is now growing evidence that binaural-beat exposure may be a choice for minimally invasive, effective therapy of anxiety syndromes and sleep disorders [ 168 , 169 , 170 ], including those associated with internet addiction disorder [ 171 , 172 ]. The therapy can be administered without prior training and consists of presenting two tones with different sound frequencies separately but simultaneously to each ear.…”

The Effect of 40 Hz Binaural Beats on Working Memory

“…Many teams have used white noise, pink noise or blank tape as control groups in their studies and found no significant differences in the experimental results produced by these control groups [8,10,[39][40][41][42]. The results of the significance analysis of the scores of the evaluation indexes of different noises by Wu et al showed that there was no significant difference between the subjective evaluation scores of pink noise and white noise.…”

“…Several studies have confirmed that BB have a range of effects on behavior and cognition. For example, Le Scouarnec, Brady [5] and Steven et al suggest that delta and theta band frequencies BB can reduce anxiety, promote deep meditation and increase hypnotic susceptibility; Lane [6] et al demonstrated that beta BB helped increase alertness as well as improve mood; Carlo Lovati's team demonstrated that theta and alpha BB improved migraines [7]; Gerardo Gálvez et al applied 14 Hz BB in a double-blind randomized controlled study in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and showed that beta-band frequencies BB can effectively affect brain activity and improve cognitive performance in Parkinson's patients [8]; In addition, previous work in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has shown that beta BB can also be used in brainwave induction therapy for ADHD and has a facilitative effect on the behavioral performance of children with ADHD [9]; Hessel Engelbregt et al examined the effects of 40 Hz BB and monaural beats (MB) stimulation on attention and working memory in high and low mood participants and found that participants' reaction times were faster when receiving 40 Hz BB, possibly due to the increased speed of attentional processing by gamma-frequency BB [10].…”