Abstract
Binaural beats represent the auditory experience of an oscillating sound that occurs when two sounds with neighboring frequencies are presented to one’s left and right ear separately. Binaural beats have been shown to impact information processing via their putative role in increasing neural synchronization. Recent studies of feature-repetition effects demonstrated interactions between perceptual features and action-related features: repeating only some, but not all features of a perception–action episode hinders performance. These partial-repetition (or binding) costs point to the existence of temporary episodic bindings (event files) that are automatically retrieved by repeating at least one of their features. Given that neural synchronization in the gamma band has been associated with visual feature bindings, we investigated whether the impact of binaural beats extends to the top-down control of feature bindings. Healthy adults listened to gamma-frequency (40 Hz) binaural beats or to a constant tone of 340 Hz (control condition) for ten minutes before and during a feature-repetition task. While the size of visuomotor binding costs (indicating the binding of visual and action features) was unaffected by the binaural beats, the size of visual feature binding costs (which refer to the binding between the two visual features) was considerably smaller during gamma-frequency binaural beats exposure than during the control condition. Our results suggest that binaural beats enhance selectivity in updating episodic memory traces and further strengthen the hypothesis that neural activity in the gamma band is critically associated with the control of feature binding.
Highlights
Binaural beats represent the auditory experience of an oscillating sound that occurs when two sounds with neighboring frequencies are presented to one’s left and right ear separately
It was shown that the auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) to binaural beats emerged from the superior temporal, posterior parietal, and frontal cortices, in addition to the auditory cortex
Replicating earlier findings (Hommel 1998; Hommel and Colzato 2004; Colzato et al 2012, 2013b), the analysis of reaction times (RTs) revealed a significant interaction between Response and Shape, F(1.38) = 65.48, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.63: repeating one but not the other feature slowed down responses (479 vs. 449 ms)
Summary
Binaural beats represent the auditory experience of an oscillating sound that occurs when two sounds with neighboring frequencies are presented to one’s left and right ear separately. Binaural beats are perceived as periodic loudness fluctuations of a sound (Karino et al 2006). The experience of such oscillations is described as hearing a sound with a frequency equal to the difference in frequencies between the original tones (Oster 1973). When the left ear is presented with a tone of 320 Hz, and the right ear with a tone of 360 Hz, the subject will perceive a tone that oscillates at a frequency of 40 Hz (i.e., 40 beats per second).
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