“Binaural beats” are a specially designed type of sound intended to boost your concentration, enhance your creativity, and improve your mood. Listening to binaural beats is free, safe, and increasingly popular; proponents claim it can help maintain good mental health. Read on to learn more about binaural beats.
What Are Binaural Beats?
Binaural beats are an auditory illusion perceived by the brain when two slightly different frequencies of sound are played into each ear (bi – two, aural- ear).
When wearing earphones that are playing slightly different notes in each ear, our brain perceives the volume to pulse (oscillate) at a fixed rate. This is called a ‘beat.’
The same phenomenon arises when tuning two guitar strings. As the frequencies get closer together, we begin to hear a slow pulsing beat between the notes of the two strings.
The rate (frequency) of a beat is equal to the difference between the two frequencies being played. For example, if you listened to two frequencies at 200 Hz and 210 Hz, the beat would arise at a frequency of 10 Hz (or 10 “beats” per second).
But how could this affect the brain? To answer this question, we first need to know about brain waves.
Proponents:
- May reduce anxiety and improve mood
- May improve focus, attention, and memory
- May increase creativity and cognitive flexibility
- May help you enter a meditative state
- Linked to improved sleep quality
Skeptics:
- May increase feelings of depression
- Some participants reported negative emotions (anger, confusion, anxiety)
- Available studies are small and low quality
Rhythm & Your Brain
The part of our brains that first processes sound inputs from both ears is called the superior olivary complex, which is located in the brain stem. This brain area allows us to identify the direction of sounds [1].
Fig (a): Schematic depiction of the seeds in the auditory pathway: Primary auditory cortex (PAC); medial geniculate nucleus (MGN); inferior colliculus (IC); and superior olivary complex (SOC) [2].
The superior olivary complex can be ‘tricked’ into hearing a beat when it senses two close frequencies; it responds by synchronizing neuronal activity in other parts of the brain. In other words, this part of the brain acts like the conductor of an orchestra, coordinating and synchronizing the activities of many neurons throughout the rest of the brain.
This synchronization of neural activity across different brain areas is called “entrainment” and is the main way that binaural beats cause changes in our brain waves [
