Efficacy of binaural auditory beats in cognition, anxiety, and pain perception: a meta-analysis
Efficacy of binaural auditory beats in cognition, anxiety, and pain perception: a meta-analysis
Binaural auditory beats are a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when presenting separately to each ear two tones that slightly differ in their frequency. It has been suggested that binaural beats can influence cognition and mental states among others. The objective of this meta-analysis was to study the effect of binaural beats on memory, attention, anxiety, and analgesia. Twenty-two studies met our inclusion criteria for this meta-analysis. The results, based on 35 effect sizes, showed an overall medium, significant, consistent effect size (g = 0.45). Meta-regression results indicated that it does not seem to be necessary to mask binaural beats with white noise or pink noise in terms of effectiveness, obtaining similar effects with unmasked binaural beats. Moreover, the findings suggest that binaural-beat exposure before, and before and during the task produces superior results than exposure during the task. Time under exposure contributed significantly to the model indicating that longer periods are advisable to ensure maximum effectiveness. Our meta-analysis adds to the growing evidence that binaural-beat exposure is an effective way to affect cognition over and above reducing anxiety levels and the perception of pain without prior training, and that the direction and the magnitude of the effect depends upon the frequency used, time under exposure, and the moment in which the exposure takes place.
357–372
Garcia-Argibay, Miguel
e5a6941e-4dcc-401a-9de4-09557c8856ef
Santed, Miguel A.
0632a98f-3dc7-4f13-b87e-dc914d9e50e5
Reales, José M.
5d600206-cca8-41c2-970b-4c40daf9eaf2
2 August 2018
Garcia-Argibay, Miguel
e5a6941e-4dcc-401a-9de4-09557c8856ef
Santed, Miguel A.
0632a98f-3dc7-4f13-b87e-dc914d9e50e5
Reales, José M.
5d600206-cca8-41c2-970b-4c40daf9eaf2
Garcia-Argibay, Miguel, Santed, Miguel A. and Reales, José M.
(2018)
Efficacy of binaural auditory beats in cognition, anxiety, and pain perception: a meta-analysis.
Psychological Research, 83, .
(doi:10.1007/s00426-018-1066-8).
Abstract
Binaural auditory beats are a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when presenting separately to each ear two tones that slightly differ in their frequency. It has been suggested that binaural beats can influence cognition and mental states among others. The objective of this meta-analysis was to study the effect of binaural beats on memory, attention, anxiety, and analgesia. Twenty-two studies met our inclusion criteria for this meta-analysis. The results, based on 35 effect sizes, showed an overall medium, significant, consistent effect size (g = 0.45). Meta-regression results indicated that it does not seem to be necessary to mask binaural beats with white noise or pink noise in terms of effectiveness, obtaining similar effects with unmasked binaural beats. Moreover, the findings suggest that binaural-beat exposure before, and before and during the task produces superior results than exposure during the task. Time under exposure contributed significantly to the model indicating that longer periods are advisable to ensure maximum effectiveness. Our meta-analysis adds to the growing evidence that binaural-beat exposure is an effective way to affect cognition over and above reducing anxiety levels and the perception of pain without prior training, and that the direction and the magnitude of the effect depends upon the frequency used, time under exposure, and the moment in which the exposure takes place.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 26 July 2018
Published date: 2 August 2018
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 488754
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488754
ISSN: 0340-0727
PURE UUID: 087ecbaf-4cda-4b8b-89e8-007c8a1caf3a
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 05 Apr 2024 16:36
Last modified: 10 Apr 2024 02:15
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Miguel Garcia-Argibay
Author:
Miguel A. Santed
Author:
José M. Reales
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics