Low frequency binaural beats in instrumental music affects verbal memory but not false recall

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-3008618/v1

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Low frequency binaural beats in instrumental music affects verbal memory but not false recall

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3008618/v1

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Binaural beats (BB) are produced when pure tones of slightly different frequencies are presented to each ear and may have therapeutic effects such as reduced anxiety and improved memory. While the effect of BB on anxiety has been investigated extensively, few studies explored the effect of BB on verbal memory and false memory. In the current double-blinded study, we investigated how BB overlaid with instrumental music affect memory for a list of words. 151 undergraduate participants (23% males) were randomized into one of three conditions to listen to a 30-min soundtrack: music with BB (n = 52), music only (n = 52), or audiobook (n = 47). The participants studied a list of fifteen words followed by a filler task. After which, the participants recall as many words as they could in any order. Two different word lists were presented before and after the listening task. We observed that while participants did not differ in their verbal recall before the listening tasks across the three conditions, those who listened to the music with BB recalled fewer words compared to those who listened to the audiobook after the listening task. In addition, although a greater proportion of participants who listened to the music with BB soundtrack produced false recall (51.9%) compared to those who listened to the music-only (50.0%) and audiobook (42.6%), the relationship between soundtrack and false recall was not statistically significant. The current findings suggest that low frequency BB in the delta/theta ranges may attenuate verbal memory particularly when listeners are exposed to BB frequency.

Verbal memory

binaural beat

sound therapy

false recall

Binaural beats are illusionary tones produced when pure tones of slightly different frequencies (e.g., 220 Hz and 224 Hz) are played to each ear and neural structures including the superior olivary complex, the brainstem, and reticular formation generate an additional tone perceived as the frequency difference between the two ears (i.e., 4 Hz), known as the binaural beat (BB; Borisyuk, Semple, & Rinzel, 2002; Smith, Marsh, & Brown, 1975; Swann, Bosanko, Cohen, Midgley, & Seed, 1982; Walton & Burkard, 2001). Listening to BB ranging from five to thirty minutes leads to the entrainment of brainwave towards the BB frequency (Huang & Charyton, 2008; Wiwatwongwana et al., 2016). The entrained brainwave contributes further downstream where low frequency BBs such as delta frequency (Wahbeh, Calabrese, Zwickey, & Zajdel, 2007) and theta frequency (Isik, Esen, Büyükerkmen, Kilinç, & Menziletoglu, 2017) were observed to reduce anxiety (Chaieb, Wilpert, Reber, & Fell, 2015b; Padmanabhan, Hildreth, & Laws, 2005) while higher frequency BBs such as beta and gamma frequencies appear to enhance memory (Beauchene, Abaid, Moran, Diana, & Leonessa, 2016) and attention respectively (Colzato, Barone, Sellaro, & Hommel, 2017).

Current Understanding of Binaural Beats Effect on Memory

A meta-analytic review reported a consistent medium effect size (g = 0.45) of BB on attention and memory including visuospatial memory, verbal working memory, visual working memory across twenty-two studies (Garcia-Argibay, Santed, & Reales, 2019b). Generally, low frequency BBs involving theta frequency appear to impair memory while beta frequency BB enhances memory (e.g., Garcia-Argibay, Santed, & Reales, 2019a). Such observations corresponds to various brain states (and electroencephalogram frequency bands) such as deep sleep (delta, <4 Hz; Harmony, 2013), increased fatigue (theta, 4-7 Hz; Craig, Tran, Wijesuriya, & Nguyen, 2012), planning or executing any bodily movements (beta, 12-30 Hz; Takahashi, Saleh, Penn, & Hatsopoulos, 2011), and focused attention (gamma, >30 Hz; Jia & Kohn, 2011). Furthermore, a review study demonstrated a double dissociation including increase in higher frequency brainwaves and decrease in lower frequency brainwaves related to better cognitive performance including verbal memory (Klimesch, 1999). Although higher brainwave frequencies appear to be related to greater cognitive performance generally, better performance in specific cognitive processes are observed across different brainwave frequencies. For instance, while delta rhythm is associated with deep sleep, increased delta rhythm is also associated with greater concentration relating to working memory tasks (Harmony, 2013) and theta rhythm is correlated with greater cognitive load (Klimesch, 1999). In another BB meta-analytic study, the researchers observed a near-moderate (g = 0.40) and mixed results particularly for theta and beta BB’s effectiveness on recognition memory, recall, and attention related tasks (Basu & Banerjee, 2022). This necessitates further investigations on low frequency BBs particularly for effects on specific cognitive abilities, specifically when brainwave entrainment may not necessarily precede BB effect, e.g., change in psychologic state such as lower depression despite a lack of brainwave entrainment through BB (Wahbeh, Calabrese, Zwickey, et al., 2007).

In the current study, we focus on the effect of delta and theta BBs on verbal memory and false memory based on the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm particularly because false memory has not been studied in relation to lower frequency BBs. The DRM paradigm is a psychological procedure used to study false memory, which refers to the phenomenon of recalling or recognizing events or information that did not actually occur and in the DRM paradigm, lists of English words are used (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). In the word list, remembering a list of semantically related words such as ‘nurse’ and ‘hospital’ induces false recall of ‘doctor’ later on (Pardilla-Delgado & Payne, 2017). Garcia-Argibay and colleagues (2019a) found that theta BBs reduced the number of correctly remembered Spanish words. While induced arousal leads to greater true memory and reduces false memory (Mirandola & Toffalini, 2016; Nielson & Correro, 2017), people with low arousal moods tend to produce more false recognition (Van Damme, 2013). In this vein, we expect individuals exposed to delta and theta BBs to produce more false recall of words in the DRM paradigm given that low frequency BB tends to lower arousal with particular reference to stress and anxiety studies (Gantt, Dadds, Burns, Glaser, & Moore, 2017; Gkolias et al., 2020; Isik et al., 2017; Parodi et al., 2021).

Aims

The current research aims to fill several gaps in the literature on BB. The key focus for the present study is to examine the effect of low-frequency BB on verbal memory and false memory outlined above. We hypothesize that people who listened to the soundtrack with low-frequency BB will produce fewer correct words, but more false memory as a group compared to people with listened to the same soundtrack without BB and those who listened to an audiobook. In addition, we adopt a dynamical approach in delivering BB where the soundtrack begins with delta BB transitioning to theta BB overlaid with instrumental music (see Figure 1). This was implemented because researchers postulated that a gradual decrement of BB frequency may facilitate entrainment in the theta range (Wahbeh, Calabrese, Zwickey, et al., 2007). Research thus far generally focused on a fixed BB frequency throughout the procedure with some including overlays using soft meditative music (Gkolias et al., 2020), pink noise (Wahbeh, Calabrese, & Zwickey, 2007), instrumental music (Le Scouranec, Poirier, Owens, & Gauthier, 2001), or without any music or sound overlays (Isik et al., 2017).

Participants

One hundred and fifty-one undergraduates (23% males) from the Singapore Institute of Technology participated in this study. The participants aged between 19 to 33 years (M = 22.83, SD = 2.76) and were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions to listen to a 30-minute soundtrack; music with binaural beats (n=52), music only (n=52), or audiobook (n=47). No significant differences were observed in terms of age (p > .05) and gender (p > .05) composition. The participants did not have a history of epilepsy, profound hearing loss, cardiovascular disorders, or diagnosed mental health conditions. Each participant was reimbursed with S$30 Starbucks vouchers at the end of the session.

The study protocol was approved by the Singapore Institute of Technology Institutional Review Board and all participants provided their written consent before the commencement of the study.

Materials and scales

Soundtracks

Three 30-minute soundtracks were created for the current study. A music company, the TENG Company Limited created two soundtracks; one containing music with binaural beats and another soundtrack containing the same music but without the binaural beats. The music company is a non-profit organization which produces east-west fusion instrumental music for their beneficiaries. The music for these two soundtracks included instruments like Chinese flute, plucked lute, Chinese fiddle, zither, guitar and piano. The binaural beats soundtrack embedded binaural beats which flow dynamically from theta to delta frequency in 30 minutes with the first 10 minutes occupied by theta wave; beginning with pure tones 110 Hz and 98 Hz in the left and right channels to 70 Hz and 69.5 Hz at the end of the soundtrack (see Figure 1). The researchers provided the third soundtrack which is an audiobook on the history of Chinese instrumental music. To ensure double blinding, the soundtracks were labelled by the Teng Company with alphabets ‘A’ to ‘C’ so that researchers did not know the contents until the data collection completed.

Memory task

Before listening to the soundtrack, the participants were shown a list of fifteen words from the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, individually presented for three seconds each (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). This was followed by a filler task requiring the participant to rate ten faces on the emotional negativity and positivity. This task was included to reduce the recency effect (better recall for the most recent words seen). The participants were then told to recall as many words as they could in any order. The same process is repeated immediately after they completed listening to the soundtrack using a different word list. In each list, the list of words was semantically related such that it induced false recall of an associating word (‘mountain’ for the first list and ‘sweet’ for the second list) which did not appear on either list.

State anxiety

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI Form Y) was used to evaluate participants’ perceived anxiety levels. It consisted twenty items measuring anxiety relating to a situation (STAI-S) (Spielberger, 1983). Participants rated themselves using a 4-point Likert scale. A higher score indicates a higher anxiety level. STAI is commonly used as a reliable and widely validated scale for anxiety (Bieling, Antony, & Swinson, 1998; Spielberger, 1983; Vitasari, Wahab, Herawan, Othman, & Sinnadurai, 2011). We included the state anxiety as a covariate given the correlation between listening to binaural beats and anxiety (Parodi et al., 2021; Wahbeh, Calabrese, & Zwickey, 2007). The STAI-S subscale was administered post-listening.

Procedure

All sessions were held in an enclosed, quiet room on the university campus, consisting of one to two participants at any one time. As part of the blinding procedure, the participants were told that the study aimed to explore “emerging relaxation techniques on reducing stress in university students” and they would be “randomized to listen to one of three audio files.” Participants listened to these audio files through headphones provided by the Teng Company. Before putting on the headphones, the participants were told “for the next 30 minutes, you will be listening to an audio track through the headphones in front of you. After you put on the headphones, please focus on the track that is playing and avoid all forms of distractions such as using your mobile phone. You may adjust the volume in front of you using the laptop if you find the volume too low or high. Do you have any questions before we begin?” All equipment was sanitized after every use. Each session took approximately 1.5 hours.

Data analysis

The dependent variables included verbal memory and false memory. Verbal memory was assessed as the number of words recalled correctly while false memory was dichotomously assessed as having recalled the word associated with each list (‘mountain’ for the first list and ‘sweet’ for the second list). For verbal memory, we conducted a two-way repeated measure ANCOVA (3 experimental conditions × 2 word lists) to determine whether listening to music with binaural beats leads to poorer verbal memory for the second word list relative to the other two conditions. The experimental condition was the between-participant variable (music with binaural beats, music-only, audiobook), the word list was the within-participant variable, and state anxiety as the covariate. Follow-up tests were conducted to determine whether the post-listening verbal memory (second word list) differed between any pair of experimental conditions. For false memory, we conducted a Pearson's chi-square goodness-of-fit test to determine whether the experimental conditions differ in terms of the production of false memory. The level of significance was fixed at p < 0.05 and we report marginal significant findings for 0.10 ≥ p ≥ 0.05. All data analyses were performed using SPSS software version 24.0.

Verbal memory

A two-way repeated measure ANCOVA (3 experimental conditions × 2 word lists) was conducted to examine whether listening to music with binaural beats leads to poorer verbal memory for the second word list relative to the other two conditions. While the number of words recalled on the first list did not differ across the three conditions [F(2, 147) = 0.62, MSE = 4.693, p = .54, 𝜂2 p = .008], the number of words recalled on the second list differed across the three conditions marginally [F(2, 147) = 2.57, MSE = 5.753, p = .08, 𝜂2 p = .034]. Specific to the current hypothesis, pairwise comparisons on the verbal memory for list two revealed that participants who listened to music with binaural beats (M = 9.06, SD = 2.58) recalled significantly fewer words compared to those who listened to an audiobook (M = 10.06, SD = 2.41), p = .045, and marginally fewer words compared to those who listened to music without binaural beats (M = 9.94, SD = 2.30), p = .062 (see Figure 2).

A Pearson's chi-square goodness-of-fit test was performed to examine whether the production of false memory was equal across the three conditions. While a greater proportion of participants who listened to the music with binaural beats soundtrack produced false recall (51.9%) compared to those who listened to the music-only (50.0%) and audiobook (42.6%), the relationship between the condition and false recall was not statistically significant, X² (2, N = 151) = 0.03, p = .98.

The current study observed that listening to low-frequency BBs overlaid with instrumental music attenuates verbal memory and may influence production of false memory. In particular, participants who listened to instrumental music containing BB recalled fewer words compared to those who listened to the same music without BB and those who listened to an audiobook, and a slightly greater proportion of participants who listened to instrumental music containing BB produced false recall (51.9%) compared to those who listened to the music-only (50.0%) and audiobook soundtracks (42.6%); noting that there was no statistical significance across the conditions in terms of false recall. Our study contributes to recent findings which found that listening to low-frequency BB either has no effect on recall (Shekar, Suryavanshi, & Nayak, 2018) or impedes recall (Garcia-Argibay et al., 2019a, 2019b) although higher BB frequencies enhances recall (Jirakittayakorn & Wongsawat, 2017).

It is worth considering how low frequency BBs could affect verbal memory in the context of associative memory and spreading activation. In the DRM paradigm, associative memory and spreading activation play a significant role in recall for words which are semantically related and the co-occurrence of false memories. Particularly, when the participants were presented with the semantically related words during encoding, the activation of one word in the list can spread or activate the associated words (Anderson, 1983; Collins & Loftus, 1975). Given that the semantic associations between the words within the DRM list create a network of interconnected nodes in memory, when participants encounter the critical lure (e.g., "doctor"), the activation from the related words (e.g., "nurse," "hospital") can spread to the critical lure, making it more accessible and increasing the likelihood of false recall although it concurrently enhances the memory for the semantically related target words (Bialystok, Dey, Sullivan, & Sommers, 2020; Chwilla, Hagoort, & Brown, 1998). On the other hand, an increase in arousal leads to greater true memory and reduces false memory (Mirandola & Toffalini, 2016; Nielson & Correro, 2017), and a decrease in arousal is associated with more false recognition (Van Damme, 2013). Relatedly, practices which enhances focused attention such as mindfulness practice do not affect spontaneous false memories although it increases the rate of provoked false memories and recognition of true memories (Rosenstreich, 2016). Taking the notion of spreading activation and arousal together, low frequency BBs could potentially affect the encoding or recall for target words while having little effect or increasing the tendency for false memories, as is observed in the present study. In contrast, high frequency BB like gamma BBs which are arousing tend to lead to better memory for words (Jirakittayakorn & Wongsawat, 2017). Further investigations comparing specific cognitive performances between low and high frequency BBs will enhance our understanding in terms of how varying BB frequency can influence both veridical and false memories.

A question remains: whether low frequency BB is affecting verbal memory through cognitive factors such as association and spreading activation or psychophysiological factors such as arousal and wakefulness. In the present study, we controlled for state anxiety, a psychophysiological factor found to be affected by BB (Garcia-Argibay et al., 2019b; Isik et al., 2017; Le Scouranec et al., 2001; Wiwatwongwana et al., 2016). Poorer recall among participants who listened to the instrumental music with low frequency BB was observed even after controlling for state anxiety. This observation lends support to the notion that the poorer recall persists beyond psychophysiological state and likely involves other cognitive mechanisms, e.g., associative memory and spreading activation. In the current study, the low frequency BB appears to affect associative memory for target words although it remains unclear whether the BB concurrently affect spreading activation for false memory. Notwithstanding this line of reasoning, verbal memory is likely an outcome involving an interplay of cognitive and psychophysiological factors; any cognitive mechanisms would require some level of arousal to operate. Thus, future research on BB effects for memory could concurrently measure such factors using additional techniques such as electroencephalogram, in particular consideration that brainwave patterns correspond to semantic memory (Lau, Holcomb, & Kuperberg, 2013).

Several limitations are worth mentioning for future investigations. One, the current study did not compare verbal memory effects between low and high BB frequencies. Given that previous study found an attention enhancing effect of high frequency BB such as gamma frequency (Jirakittayakorn & Wongsawat, 2017; Shekar et al., 2018), it will be worthwhile to delineate the effects on memory across different frequency levels of BBs. Furthermore, while higher frequency BBs appear to enhance verbal working memory (Beauchene, Abaid, Moran, Diana, & Leonessa, 2017) and free recall (Garcia-Argibay et al., 2019a), lower frequency BBs impedes working memory and recognition (Garcia-Argibay et al., 2019b). Two, we did not counterbalance the word lists preceding and following the listening task. While there might have been systematic differences in terms of the ease of recalling the words and tendency for false memory between the two lists, we nevertheless observed group differences for the second word list and not the first word list, suggesting that the BB likely affected the recall or encoding for the second word list. Three, we did not delineate the effect of BB on encoding and recall. Participants were exposed to the second word list after the listening task, meaning that either the encoding or recall was affected by the induction of the theta to delta BB. Future research aiming to delineate the encoding and recall processes can include a condition where the listening task is administered after encoding but before recall. Last, it is worth mentioning that in our post-study feedback survey, seven participants indicated discomfort during the listening tasks attributed to the headphones, the nature of the soundtrack, or personal factors such as thirst. While it is currently unclear whether discomfort during listening would impact verbal memory, future research may explore other methods of sound delivery including monaural beats which can be introduced over speakers.

A review study on auditory beat stimulation revealed that while some studies found binaural beat effect on enhancing memory and attention, other studies reported that the binaural beat effects were weak or short-lived (Chaieb, Wilpert, Reber, & Fell, 2015a). While there are reasons to speculate that associative memory and spreading activation in the context of remember lists of words can be affected by BBs beyond psychophysiological factors such as state anxiety in our study, it is partially supported by the current study and more research to uncover the cognitive mechanisms that are affected by BBs will generate insights relating to how sound therapy can be used to influence human memory to facilitate learning.

Ethical Approval

Ethical approval for research involving human subjects was sought from the Singapore Institute of Technology Institutional Review Board (SIT-IRB), reference number 2021054.

Competing interests

The first author and principal investigator (PI), PKC, receives funding from The TENG Company Ltd and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre to conduct the research. The last author, SS Wong, is the artistic director of The TENG Company Ltd and was involved in the initial conceptualization of the study. The funders were not involved in the data collection and data analysis, and the research was double blinded to minimize potential biases.

Authors' contributions

PKC wrote the main manuscript. All authors contributed to the conceptualization of the study. SS wrote the initial proposal and obtained the funding for the study. JLC, YHB, CH, and SIF collected data. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by The TENG Company Ltd and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre. The funding was used to provide incentives to the research participants and procure research tools. The authors are not funded by either funder.

Availability of data and materials

The corresponding author can be contacted via [email protected] relating to access on datasets based on the prevailing data sharing policies.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Ethical approval for research involving human subjects was sought from the Singapore Institute of Technology Institutional Review Board (SIT-IRB), reference number 2021054. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects. The first author and principal investigator (PI), PKC, receives funding from The TENG Company Ltd and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre to conduct the research. The funding was used to provide incentives to the research participants and procure research tools. The authors are not funded by either funder. The last author, SS Wong, is the artistic director of The TENG Company Ltd and was involved in the initial conceptualization of the study. The funders were not involved in the data collection and data analysis, and the research was double blinded to minimize potential biases.

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Competing interest reported. This study was funded by The TENG Company Ltd and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre. The funding was used to provide incentives to the research participants and procure research tools. The authors are not funded by either funder.

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Low frequency binaural beats in instrumental music affects verbal memory but not false recall

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Current Understanding of Binaural Beats Effect on Memory

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State anxiety

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Verbal memory

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