Brainwave Entrainment Research Articles

The "effects of wind turbine sound on working memory" (a pre-registration plan)

Although research on the effects of wind turbine sound (WTS) over mental health factors is increasing, very little attention has been given to the potential effects of WTS over subtle cognitive processes, such as concentration or memory. The "brainwave entrainment hypothesis" is rooted in neuropsychological research demonstrating that brain oscillations are modulated by external rhythms. In addition, perceived annoyance to wind turbines seems to be a phenomenon in which both visual and psychological variables interact with acoustic stimulation. However, annoyance is a concept rarely operationalised in the literature. Our study aims to experimentally assess the effects of WTS on working memory. Working memory is recognised as a basic process, playing a crucial role in unconscious everyday processes (e.g., perceiving an object's trajectory despite input interruptions when blinking), as well as deliberate processes (e.g., carrying out arithmetic operations). By exploring variations in performance during a memory task, while being exposed to WTS samples, we could highlight acoustic characteristics of the WTS stimuli that interfere-or not-with cognitive processes. These data, combined with within-block ratings of annoyance, can provide us with index of annoyance directly related to the acoustic properties present in WTS recordings.

Association of Fear and Anxiety Scales in Pediatric Dental Patients Using Brainwave Entrainment: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background Dental fear and anxiety are significant issues among pediatric patients, often complicating dental treatments. Various tools measure these emotional responses, including subjective scales such as the Visual Facial Anxiety Scale (VFAS) and Children Fear Scale (CFS), and objective scales such as Venham's Anxiety Scale (VAS) and FranklBehavior Rating Scale (FBRS). This study explores the association between these measures in children subjected to brainwave entrainment (BWE) therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the association between subjective and objective fear and anxiety measures in pediatric dental patients within both the brainwave entrainment (BWE) intervention group and control group. Methods This randomized controlled trial included pediatric participants aged seven to 12 years reporting to the department for dental treatment. Participants were randomized into two following groups: an experimental group receiving BWE therapy and a control group receiving traditional behavioral management. Fear and anxiety levels were measured using subjective and objective scales before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using Spearman's correlation to examine the associations between these scales, with statistical significance set at p<0.05. Results Post-intervention analysis revealed significant correlations between subjective and objective measures of fear and anxiety in both groups. In the BWE group (N=126), there was a moderate positive correlation between the VFAS and VAS (rho=0.540, p<0.001) and a strong negative correlation between the CFS and FBRS (rho=-0.666, p<0.001).The control group (N=126) showed stronger correlations, rho=0.778 for anxiety scales and rho=-0.817 for fear and behavior scales (p<0.001). Combined data analysis from both groups (N=252) confirmed strong correlations. Conclusion This study found a significant association between subjective and objective measures of fear and anxiety in pediatric dental patients within both the brainwave entrainment (BWE) intervention group and control group. Thereby proving that self-reporting behavioral scales are useful for quickly assessing anxiety in pediatric dental settings.

Role of visual brainwave entrainment on the resting state brainwaves of children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The relationship between brainwave oscillations and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)-related cognitive challenges is a trending proposition in the field of Cognitive Neuroscience. Studies suggest the role of brainwave oscillations in the symptom expressions of ADHD-diagnosed children. Intervention studies have further suggested the scope of brain stimulation techniques in improving cognition. The current manuscript explored the effect of changes in the brainwaves post-sensory entrainment on cognitive performance of children. We calculated each participant’s brainwave difference and ratios of theta, alpha, and beta power after the entrainment sessions. Further, we explored possible correlations between these values and the psychometric scores. The beta resting state showed the strongest association with selective attention performance of all participants. Theta-beta ratio (TBR) showed an inverse correlation with selective attention and working memory performances. The theta frequency was associated with decreased working performance in children without ADHD. Our findings also suggest a predominant role of TBR than the theta-alpha ratio in determining the cognitive performance of children with ADHD. The individual differences in the entrainment reception were attributed to the participant’s age, IQ, and their innate baseline frequencies. The implications of our findings can initiate substantiating brainwave-based entrainment sessions as a therapeutic modality to improve cognition among children.

Effectiveness of brainwave entrainment on pre-operative fear and anxiety in pediatric dental patients: a randomized controlled trial.

The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of brainwave entrainment on pre-operative fear and anxiety in pediatric dental patients. The study protocol received approval from the Institutional Ethical Committee under reference number 3010/IEC/2021. Pediatric patients (252) aged from 7 to 12years, who reported to the dental department were randomized pre-operatively and presented either with brainwave entrainment (experimental), delivered using a "David delight plus device" or a standard behavior management protocol (control). Baseline and post-assessment of anxiety and fear levels were done using the Visual Facial Anxiety Scale and Frankl's behavior rating scale with Wright's modification. Vitals such as blood pressure and pulse rate were also measured. The study sample (n = 252) comprised 118 females and 134 males. The non-significant differences for values of (VFAS1, FRS1, HR1, and BP1) indicated similar baseline characteristics. In the brainwave entrainment group, the p values of the Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test (p < 0.01) between the two-timepoints indicated a statistical difference for the values of (VFAS1, FBRS1, HR1, BP1) and (VFAS2, FBRS2, HR2, BP2). Brainwave entrainment effectively reduces pre-operative fear and anxiety in pediatric dental patients. Therefore, they can be a non-pharmacological and non-invasive behavior management aid. Clinical Trial Registry of India database CTRI/2023/03/051066.

Visual Entrainment Improving Working Memory of Children With and Without ADHD/ASD: Preliminary Observations

Background: Children, especially those with neurodevelopmental disorders, often experience challenges in memory functioning. This literature directs to the imperative implications of working memory (WM), especially in academics. Objective: Given the distinct nature of WM in children and those with neurodevelopmental disorders, our study explored the role of alpha and beta visual entrainment on their WM performances. Methods: NCPs ( n = 19) and CPs with ADHD and comorbid conditions of autism ( n = 15) participated in our study. We adopted a repeated measure intervention-based design along with alpha-and-beta visual entrainment. Pretest, posttest, and follow-up data were collected using digit span tests. Electroencephalography (EEG) was further recorded during the entrainment phase. We administered statistical and coherence factor analysis to derive our results. Results: We observed that experimental participants performed better following the visual entrainment sessions. We further observed that alpha entrainment affected the digit span scores among clinical participants, whereas beta entrainment affected the performance of the nonclinical group. The entrainment effects additionally varied depending on the participant’s clinical symptoms. However, we found negligible long-term entrainment effects on their WM. Conclusion: Our observations explore the probability of individual effects of alpha and beta entrainment sessions on children’s WM performances and open an avenue for further research in the clinical domain. The study suggests translating brainwave entrainment into an intervention to promote cognition among children, especially those with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Outcome measures of brainwave entrainment using delta wave stimulation in individuals with tinnitus having normal hearing sensitivity.

The current study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of delta frequency binaural beats stimulation in treatment of individuals with tinnitus having normal hearing sensitivity. Twenty-four individuals who reported bothersome tinnitus in the presence of clinically normal hearing were grouped into two (I and II). The group was provided with delta frequency binaural beats and II was provided with white noise stimulation (both of 20min duration) for 30days. Post 30days, the re-assessment of tinnitus handicap, depression, anxiety, and quality of life parameters were performed and compared with that of pre-treatment scores. A considerable reduction of tinnitus handicap scores, depression and anxiety levels were observed for both the groups, except for the quality-of-life parameters. However, few of the participants showed limited or negligible improvement post-treatment. On comparison of reduction of scores observed across the groups, there was a higher reduction of scores observed for group I when compared to group II. The current study was an initial attempt to study the efficacy of binaural beats in treatment of individuals with tinnitus having normal hearing. Apart from a few individuals, the delta wave stimulation acted as a helpful tool in improving tinnitus borne distress symptoms in such patients with normal hearing.The results of the present study put forward the scope of adapting binaural beats stimulation for the treatment of individuals presenting with tinnitus having normal hearing sensitivity. This technique could be adopted into clinical practice after extensive research involving an extended treatment duration on a larger population.

Entrainment: Transcendental Condition that Affected with Musical

This research examines the phenomenon of entrainment, which is associated with atmospheric phenomenon in meteorology, and is now also used in a person’s psychological and neurological state that leads to a state of brainwave synchronization (neural entrainment). In the most extreme conditions, this neural oscillation process will make a person enter the transcendental phase. This research is examined through a qualitative method by conducting a literature study of a number of studies on the phenomenon of entrainment. The findings obtained by researchers and academics related to entrainment can be a source of evidence for this research. The results of the research conducted found that entrainment can be the most logical explanation to explain a number of transcendental phenomenon associated with traditional or modern music. Entrainment is also a scientific explanation for the phenomenon of being possessed by spirit in a number of traditional arts in Indonesia and entrainment also affects human behavior which can reach the most extreme phase when affected by music to the subconscious level. This article is not sufficient to provide a significant explanation for the phenomenon of trance in some traditional Indonesian arts. More proofs, experiments, and literature studies are needed to strengthen the explanation of the phenomenon scientifically.

The Effect of Alpha Binaural Beats Auditory Stimulation on Quantitative Electroencephalography (QEEG) and Pain Intensity among Tension-Type Headache Patients

Tension-type headaches, the most prevalent primary headaches affecting 2-5% of the population, significantly impact sufferers' well-being. These headaches present a persistent health challenge, constituting a considerable portion of neurologist outpatient visits. Effectively managing tension-type headaches remains challenging and can lead to notable morbidity if untreated. Treatment typically involves prophylactic pharmacological therapy alongside non-pharmacological interventions. Among non-medication therapies, brainwave entrainment using binaural beats emerges as a promising option for chronic headaches. This experimental research employed a pre-test and post-test design over a 5-day period (30 minutes daily) to assess Alpha Binaural Beats Auditory stimulation's impact on the QEEG pattern and pain intensity reduction in tension-type headache patients. The study, involving 32 participants, revealed a statistically significant increase in relative alpha wave power (p-value of 0.000) and a significant decrease in relative beta wave power (p-value of 0.045) after exposure to alpha binaural beats. Additionally, the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) recorded a statistically significant decrease in pain intensity (p-value of 0.000). These findings suggest that Alpha binaural beats contribute to increased alpha wave activity, decreased beta wave activity in the QEEG pattern, and a substantial reduction in pain intensity associated with tension-type headaches. However, further research is needed to explore cumulative effects and long-term sustainability in tension-type headache patients, advancing our understanding and application of this therapy.

The Effect of Brainwave Synchronization Using Binaural Beats on Improving Working Memory and Reducing the Severity of Symptoms in Women With Obsessive-compulsive Disorder.

Binaural beats are one of the new methods of brainwave synchronization. However, there is little knowledge about its clinical applications. The positive effect of this method on executive functions, such as attention and working memory, in the γ band has been mainly confirmed in healthy individuals. Still, its effectiveness on disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), with a prominent cognitive profile, has not been established. Therefore, the present study was conducted to examine the effect of binaural beats on working memory and the severity of OCD symptoms in the γ band in the affected women. Twenty-nine OCD women aged 25-40 years referring to psychological clinics in Tehran City, Iran, were selected by convenience sampling. After completing the symptom checklist 90 (SCL90) and the Yale-Brown severity scale (SS), the participants were given the Wechsler memory scale (WMS) digit repetition subtests. Then, they were randomly assigned to the experimental (n=15) and control (n=14) groups. The audio file of the binaural beats in the γ band was provided to the experimental group. The participants in the control group listened to the normal (no-wave) audio file. Both groups listened to the audio files for two weeks, three times a week, for 30 minutes each time. The Yale-Brown SS and digit repetition in post-test and one-month follow-up periods were obtained from both groups. According to the results, the severity of OCD symptoms was significantly reduced in the post-test and follow-up stages by the γ binaural beats (P<0.05). Also, the working memory function was improved, although it was not statistically significant (P>0.05). The results of this study show that binaural beats can be used as a complementary treatment to reduce the severity of OCD symptoms. Also, it seems that the patients' working memory is strengthened with this method.

Long-lasting forms of plasticity through patterned ultrasound-induced brainwave entrainment.

Achieving long-lasting neuronal modulation with low-intensity, low-frequency ultrasound is challenging. Here, we devised theta burst ultrasound stimulation (TBUS) with gamma bursts for brain entrainment and modulation of neuronal plasticity in the mouse motor cortex. We demonstrate that two types of TBUS, intermittent and continuous TBUS, induce bidirectional long-term potentiation or depression-like plasticity, respectively, as evidenced by changes in motor-evoked potentials. These effects depended on molecular pathways associated with long-term plasticity, including N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor/tropomyosin receptor kinase B activation, as well as de novo protein synthesis. Notably, bestrophin-1 and transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 play important roles in these enduring effects. Moreover, pretraining TBUS enhances the acquisition of previously unidentified motor skills. Our study unveils a promising protocol for ultrasound neuromodulation, enabling noninvasive and sustained modulation of brain function.

Effect of Brainwave Entrainment on Perception of Anxiety during Dental Treatment: A Pilot Study

Effect of Brainwave Entrainment on Perception of Anxiety during Dental Treatment: A Pilot Study

Study of Brainwave Entrainment Induced by 1-h-Long 40-Hz Flickering Stimulation

Study of Brainwave Entrainment Induced by 1-h-Long 40-Hz Flickering Stimulation

Effects of acoustic neurostimulation in healthy adults on symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and sleep quality: a randomized clinical study

Aim: To evaluate the application of an acoustic neurostimulation program with binaural beats and isochronic tones isolated or in association, and its effects on sleep, depression, anxiety, and stress in healthy workers. Methods: A randomized, single-blind, parallel-group clinical trial, using acoustic neurostimulation with binaural beats, isochronic tones, or a combination of these in the 10 Hz range (alpha) performed with daily 20-minute sessions for 21 days. Changes in brainwave patterns were assessed by electroencephalogram (EEG). Psycho-emotional state was assessed with the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 Items (DASS-21), and sleep quality with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). In addition, salivary cortisol levels were evaluated as a biomarker of stress. Results: The data revealed distinct patterns of brainwave modulation via brainwave entrainment (BWE) techniques. Binaural beats and isochronic tones, alone and in combination, effectively increased alpha brainwaves in the temporoparietal region. However, when assessing theta brainwave frequencies in the same region, only binaural beats showed a significant effect. Furthermore, in the prefrontal cortex, an elevation in beta waves was exclusively observed with the use of binaural beats. These findings underscore the specificity of BWE techniques on different brainwave frequencies and regions. The study demonstrated marked improvements in several symptoms related to stress, depression, anxiety, assessed by psychometry with DASS-21 and related to sleep quality assessed by the PSQI. Conclusions: These results indicate that 10 Hz acoustic neurostimulation in the alpha range, whether through binaural beats, isochronic tones, or a combination of both, can significantly influence brainwave patterns and intensity. Notably, participants exhibited decrease in symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety, coupled with improved sleep quality. These data suggest that alpha acoustic neurostimulation holds promise as an effective intervention for bolstering mood, mental health, and overall emotional well-being [Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (ReBec, ensaiosclinicos.gov.br) identifier: RBR-10yj42dj].

Preliminary Insight on Neural Correlates of Quranic Impacts on Cognition: A Review

Perception and synchronization of rhythms are vital for human health and social functioning, and cognition, which calls for rhythmic acoustic stimulation as a potential therapy. Quranic sound contains high energy and rhythmic structure of sound signal which has a soothing effect, comfort human feeling and evokes the limbic and reward systems. However, less is known about how the neural interaction between brain rhythms and sound rhythms. Here we review the Quranic listening effects on human cognition from the neuronal correlates perspective. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was used to review articles from no earlier than 2000 for scientific reports in the English language. Navigation terms used were ‘Quran and cognition’, ‘Quran and memory’ and ‘Quran and attention’. Nine papers were fulfilled our criteria and assessed. We discussed issues related to the neural correlations regarding Quranic impacts on cognition. Three main factors contribute to the effects of the Quranic listening on human cognition: linguistic rhythms, physical aspect, and neuroscientific aspect. The neuroscientific aspect delineated the brain activation due to brainwave entrainment, event-related desynchronization and synaptic plasticity, which were associated with attention, memory and speech fluency. Quranic recitation contains rhythmical sound and physical characteristics that interact with the human’s auditory system, producing changes in the brain oscillations and improving cognitive performance such as attention, memory and speech fluency. Instead of a conclusion, it is hoped that this review entices other researchers to explore further scientific and health benefits of the Holy Quran.

Deep learning Binary/Multi classification for music's brainwave entrainment beats.

The last two decades have seen the emergence of a brand-new kind of music known as digital brain stimulant, also known as instrumental music or music without lyrics, which mostly comprises entrainment beats. While listening to it has the same ability to affect the brain as taking medication, it also has the risk of having a negative impact or encouraging unwanted behavior. This sparked the interest of a large number of studies in the psychological and physiological effects of music's brainwave entrainment beats on listeners. These studies started to categorize and examine how musical beats affected brainwave entrainment by looking at electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Although this categorization represents a step forward for the early research efforts, it is constrained by the difficulty of having each musical track and conducting EEG tests on humans exposed to distortion due to noise in order to determine its influence. The work proposed in this article continues to explore this topic but in a novel, simple, accurate, and reliable categorization procedure based on the music signal elements themselves rather than dependent on EEG. VGGish and YAMNET based transfer deep learning models, are tuned to handle a straightforward, accurate real-time detector for the existence of the music beats inside music files with accuracy of 98.5 and 98.4, respectively. Despite the fact that they yield results that are equivalent, the YAMNET model is more suited for use with mobile devices due to its low power consumption and low latency. The article also proposes modified version of VGGish and YAMNET binary classifying models called BW-VGGish and BW-YAMNET respectively. The modification was to turn the binary classification into multi-classification. These multi-classifiers handle the classification of the influence of music beats (five different brain waves) on human brainwave entrainment with average accuracy of 94.5% and 94.5%, respectively. Since there was a lack of datasets addressing this kind of music, two datasets, the Brainwave Entrainment Beats (BWEB) dataset and the Brainwave Music Manipulation (BWMM) dataset, were generated for classification training and testing. The re-testing on a sample of music files that have their impact on brain waves (with their EEG) in an earlier study is done to strengthen the validity of the proposed work and to overcome the potential limitation of utilizing a music dataset that is not proved with its EEG. The success of the suggested models was demonstrated.

Effects of gamma frequency binaural beats on attention and anxiety

Binaural beats (BB) are an auditory phenomenon produced from a combination of two sine waves with slightly different frequencies presented to each ear. Previous research has implicated the role of BBs through brainwave entrainment in potentially giving rise to benefits ranging from enhanced memory and attention to reduced anxiety and stress. Here, we investigated the effect of gamma (40-Hz) BBs on attention using the attention network test (ANT), a previously unused task that assesses three subtypes of attention: Alerting, Orienting, and Executive Control.Fifty-eight healthy adults performed the ANT remotely under the exposure of 340-Hz BBs and a 380-Hz control tone. All completed a rating scale for levels of anxiety before and after each exposure. Performance on the ANT task (reaction time and error rates) between BB and control groups was evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests.We found no significant differences in Reaction Time (RT), Error Rate (ER), or the efficacy of the Attention Networks (AN) between the experimental and control conditions (p > 0.05). We found no effect of BB on self-rated measures of anxiety. Our findings do not provide evidence for improvement in attention with gamma BB.

User experiences of pre-sleep sensory alpha brainwave entrainment for people with chronic pain and sleep disturbance.

Aim: To explore the user experiences of pre-sleep alpha entrainment via a smartphone-enabled audio or visual stimulation program for people with chronic pain and sleep disturbance. Materials & methods: Semi-structured interviews were held with 27 participants completing a feasibility study of pre-sleep entrainment use for 4weeks. Transcriptions were subject to template analysis. Results: Five top-level themes generated from this analysis are presented. These report on participants' impressions of the pain-sleep relationship, their previous experiences of strategies for these symptoms, their expectations and their experience of use and perceived impact on symptoms of audiovisual alpha entrainment. Conclusion: Pre-sleep audiovisual alpha entrainment was acceptable to individuals with chronic pain and sleep disturbance and perceived to have symptomatic benefits.

The Effectiveness of Brainwave Entrainment by Binaural Beats on the Sleep Quality

Background and Objective: Binaural beats are important because these methods are non-invasive intervention methods on sleep. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of brainwave entrainment via binaural beats on the improvement of sleep disorders.&#x0D; Materials and Methods: An experimental method with pre-test and post-test design was adopted to fulfill the purpose of the present study. The population of the study included all the people aged 20 to 40 years who referred to psychiatric clinics due to insomnia in Tehran, Iran, in 2019. Among this population, a sample size of 24 people was selected using convenience sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (12 people in each group). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) were used to collect the required data. An aural synchronizer was also used as an intervention in the experimental group. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the hypotheses.&#x0D; Results: The mean age of the participants in the experimental and control groups was 29.5 and 33.0 years, respectively. The calculated effect size of this treatment was 0.46 for sleep quality and 0.43 for the insomnia. Further, the findings showed that synchronization through binaural beats had the greatest effect on the sleep latency component of PSQI.&#x0D; Conclusion: Synchronization of brain waves by binaural beats had a significant effect on improving the total score of sleep quality and insomnia.

Engagement and Arousal effects in predicting the increase of cognitive functioning following a neuromodulation program.

Background and aim:Research in the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) has increased exponentially over the past few years, demonstrating their effectiveness and application in several areas. The main purpose of the present paper was to explore the relevance of user engagement during interaction with a BCI prototype (Neuro-Upper, NU), which aimed at brainwave synchronization through audio-visual entrainment, in the improvement of cognitive performance.Methods:This paper presents findings on data collected from a sample of 18 subjects with clinical disorders who completed about 55 consecutive sessions of 30 min of audio-visual stimulation. The relationship between engagement and improvement of cognitive function (measured through the Intelligence Quotient - IQ) during NU neuromodulation was evaluated through the Index of Cognitive Engagement (ICE) measured by the Pope ratio (Beta / (Alpha + Theta), and Arousal [(High Beta + Low Beta) / (High Alpha + Low Alpha)].Results:A significant correlation between engagement and IQ improvement, but no correlation between arousal and IQ improvement emerged, as expected.Conclusions:Future research aiming at clarifying the role of arousal in psychological disorders and related symptoms will be essential. (www.actabiomedica.it)

Using Heartfulness Meditation and Brainwave Entrainment to Improve Teenage Mental Wellbeing.

Teenagers are highly susceptible to mental health issues and this problem has been exacerbated by the quarantine restrictions of COVID-19. This study evaluated the use of Heartfulness Meditation and Audio Brainwave Entrainment to help teenagers cope with mental health issues. It used 30-min Heartfulness meditation and 15-min brainwave entrainment sessions with binaural beats and isochronic tones three times a week for 4 weeks. Using a pretest-posttest methodology, participants were asked to complete a survey battery including the Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Index, Perceived Stress Scale, Patient Health Question-9, Profile of Mood States, and Cambridge Brain Health assessment. Participants (n = 40) were divided into four experimental groups: the control group (n = 9), Audio Brainwave Entrainment group (n = 9), Heartfulness Meditation group (n = 10), and a combined group (n = 12), for a 4-week intervention. Data were analyzed with paired t-tests. The singular Audio Brainwave Entrainment group did not see statistically significant improvements, nor did any of the intervention groups for brain health (p > 0.05). This study, however, proved the efficacy of a 4-week Heartfulness Meditation program to regulate overall mood (p = 0.00132), stress levels (p = 0.0089), state depression (POMS; p = 0.0037), and anger (p = 0.002). Results also suggest adding Audio Brainwave Entrainment to Heartfulness Meditation may improve sleep quality (p = 0.0377) and stress levels (p = 0.00016).