Such claims become convincing when they not only replicate, but survive increasingly rigorous methodology, without suffering from the “decline effect” to either clinical or statistical insignificance.
Steven Novella looked at binaural beats in 2020 noting:Īpplying my usual criteria to the claim that binaural beats improves memory, I would say the current research is suggestive but not definitive, genuinely warranting further research. Is there something to the evidence? Possibly. Neither form of beat had any effect on mood (it did not study memory or cognition). However, monaural (control) beats entrained the brain more strongly than binaural beats. Another study, this one with only 16 participants, was published in 2020 using similar controls and concluded that binaural beats could entrain the brain to some extent. The authors conclude that binaural beats are not an entrainment tool, nor do they have any clinically meaningful effects.
#BINAURAL BEATS AROUSAL FREQUENCY SKIN#
No effects on EEG activity were detected and no effects on heart rate or skin conductance (as a proxy for arousal) were found. It used a “placebo” which was an acoustically-generated beat. This 2017 study which was not included in the meta-analysis (it missed the search cutoff by a month) examined if binaural beats could affect EEG activity at the same frequency of the beat stimulation. I also looked at some of the more widely cited papers. It concluded that there was robust evidence of a modest effect of binaural beats on memory, attention, anxiety, and analgesia. It included a total of 22 studies after applying search criteria. Meta-analyses can be hit or miss, especially if the underlying trials themselves were poorly done. PubMed has one meta-analysis published in 2018. I could find no systematic reviews published in PubMed or cited elsewhere. The published evidence for binaural beats to affect brain activity or emotions seems positive, but not consistently so, with the strongest evidence looking less impressive. Proponents claim that binaural beats can induce these brain waves, and consequently, these effects. The intent is to use different frequencies of binaural beats with the goal of triggering the brain waves that naturally occur during different activities, ranging from delta waves (0.5-4 Hz, deep sleep) through theta (4-7 Hz, meditation, and REM sleep), alpha (7-13 Hz, relaxation), beta (13-30 Hz, concentration/alertness), and gamma (30-50Hz, arousal). The idea, which has not been proven, is that the beats will nudge brain cells into firing at the same frequency, a term called “entrainment”. Binaural beats can be contrasted with monaural beat which are physically generated and objectively heard in either ear.īinaural beats date back to the their discovery in 1839, and there has been considerable interest in them since, with the hypothesis that they could possibly induce effects in the brain. This appears to originate in the auditory cortex and the brain stem. For example, if one ear hears a 440Hz tone and the other hears a 480Hz tone, then the brain will perceive a 40Hz beat. The beat that you perceive is the frequency difference between the two waves. The beating you are perceiving is being entirely generated within your brain. But remove one earphone, or the other, and the effect disappears. If you listen with headphones, the sound should be gently pulsating. Each ear must receive a dedicated tone for this to work – so you need headphones. When two different sound tones that are close, but not identical, in pitch are played together (one in each ear), your brain interprets a “beat”.
Some of the claims (actually, almost all of the claims) sounded too good to be true so I did a deeper dive – presented here for your reading and listening enjoyment. Spotify has hundreds ( possibly thousands) of tracks and playlists with binaural beats, many with claims to improve focus, offer stress relief, promote lucid dreams, and even boost your love life (who knew that 528 Hz was such an important frequency?).
I stumbled across binaural beats which are decidedly not new, but were new to me. For the past few weeks I’ve been working in a noisy environment, so I was experimenting with different white noise playlists that could give me some acoustic peace. In most cases, I find music and sounds distracting, especially when I need to concentrate. Some background music I can tolerate, but only when I know it so well it disappears into the background. Some people love headphones while they work at their computer. Headphones allow us to trick our brains into perceiving a sound that doesn’t actually exist.
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