Hersencentrum Mental Health Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Exp Brain Res. 2021 Sep;239(9):2781-2791. doi: 10.1007/s00221-021-06155-z. Epub 2021 Jul 10.
Nowadays a popular technique to improve mood and cognition is auditory beat stimulation (ABS), which is thought to induce a frequency-following response of brainwaves. The main types of ABS are monaural beats (MB) and binaural beats (BB). BB involves the presentation of a specific frequency to one ear and another frequency to the other ear which may induce neural entrainment. A difference between the frequencies of 40 Hz is assumed to improve cognition. The present study examined the effect of 40 Hz binaural beats (BB) and monaural beats (MB) on attention and electroencephalography (EEG). A total of 25 first-year psychology students (11 males, 14 females) performed a Flanker task while EEG was recorded during the 5 min-presentation of pink noise (PN), MB and BB. With respect to attention, as measured by the Flanker task, the number of false responses in the BB condition was smaller than that in the PN condition while the number of false responses in the MB condition was larger as compared to the PN condition. As there was no association of BB with a consistent increase in absolute 40 or 45 Hz power compared to PN or MB, EEG recordings could not confirm the hypothesized neural entrainment in the brain. Overall, the current findings show that listening to 40 Hz BB improves attention but do not show the occurrence of neural entrainment. Future research is recommended to include a larger sample, to use a broader cognitive test battery and to present auditory beats with a longer duration.
如今，一种改善情绪和认知的流行技术是听觉节拍刺激（ABS），它被认为可以诱导脑电波的跟随频率反应。ABS 的主要类型是单耳节拍（MB）和双耳节拍（BB）。BB 涉及向一只耳朵呈现特定频率，向另一只耳朵呈现另一个频率，这可能会引起神经同步。假设 40Hz 的频率差异可以改善认知。本研究考察了 40Hz 双耳节拍（BB）和单耳节拍（MB）对注意力和脑电图（EEG）的影响。共有 25 名一年级心理学学生（11 名男性，14 名女性）在 5 分钟呈现粉红噪声（PN）、MB 和 BB 的过程中进行了 Flanker 任务，同时记录了 EEG。就注意力而言，如 Flanker 任务所测量的，BB 条件下的错误反应数量比 PN 条件下少，而 MB 条件下的错误反应数量比 PN 条件下多。由于 BB 与 40 或 45Hz 绝对功率的一致增加没有关联，与 PN 或 MB 相比，EEG 记录无法证实大脑中假设的神经同步。总的来说，目前的研究结果表明，听 40Hz 的 BB 可以提高注意力，但没有显示出神经同步的发生。建议未来的研究包括更大的样本，使用更广泛的认知测试组合，并呈现更长时间的听觉节拍。
