Brain Stimulation

Ever wondered how background music impacts your attention? The latest research delves into this, exploring the fascinating connection between music, focus, and cognitive performance. The study suggests that heavily-modulated music could be the key to enhancing sustained attention, especially for those with ADHD symptoms. Using brain imaging techniques like fMRI and EEG, researchers uncovered that this type of music sparked greater neural activity and improved stimulus-brain coupling.

¿Te has preguntado alguna vez cómo la música de fondo afecta tu atención? La investigación más reciente profundiza en este tema, explorando la fascinante conexión entre la música, la concentración y el rendimiento cognitivo. El estudio sugiere que la música altamente modulada podría ser la clave para mejorar la atención sostenida, especialmente en aquellos con síntomas de TDAH. Utilizando técnicas de imágenes cerebrales como fMRI y EEG, los investigadores descubrieron que este tipo de música desencadenaba una mayor actividad neural y mejoraba el acoplamiento estímulo-cerebro.

Czy kiedykolwiek zastanawiałeś się, jak muzyka w tle wpływa na twoją koncentrację? Najnowsze badania eksplorują fascynujące połączenie pomiędzy muzyką, skupieniem a zdolnością poznawczą. Wyniki badania sugerują, że intensywnie modulowana muzyka może być kluczem do poprawy długotrwałej koncentracji, zwłaszcza u osób z objawami ADHD. Korzystając z technik obrazowania mózgu, takich jak fMRI i EEG, badacze odkryli, że taki rodzaj muzyki wywołuje większą aktywność neuronalną i poprawia reakcję między bodźcem a mózgiem.

Keywords · 🗝️

fMRI stands for functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and is a neuroimaging technique used to measure and map brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. It is based on the principle that neural activity in the brain is coupled with changes in blood flow and oxygen levels. When a specific area of the brain is more active, it requires more oxygen, leading to an increase in blood flow to that region.

EEG stands for electroencephalogram. It is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that measures electrical activity in the brain over time. EEG records the fluctuations in electrical potentials on the scalp, generated by the firing of neurons in the brain. The resulting data, known as an electroencephalogram, provides information about brain function and activity.

Experiment · 🔬

Stimulating music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties

Background music is widely used to sustain attention, but little is known about what musical properties aid attention. This may be due to inter-individual variability in neural responses to music. We test the hypothesis that music can sustain attention by affecting oscillations via acoustic amplitude modulation, differentially for those with varying levels of attentional difficulty. We first show that heavily-modulated music improves sustained attention for participants with more ADHD symptoms. FMRI showed this music elicited greater activity in attentional networks in this group only, and EEG showed greater stimulus-brain coupling for this group in response to the heavily-modulated music. Finally, we parametrically manipulated the depth and rate of amplitude modulations inserted in otherwise-identical music, and found that beta-range modulations helped more than other frequency ranges for participants with more ADHD symptoms. Results suggest the possibility of an oscillation-based neural mechanism for targeted music to support improved cognitive performance. ### Competing Interest Statement Kevin JP Woods is an employee of Brain.fm. Adam Hewett was an employee of Brain.fm when the work was conducted.

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AM+Music (i.e. music with fast amplitude modulations), Control-Music (with slow amplitude modulations), and Pink Noise.

Solution · 🎧

Music to Focus Better - Brain.fm

Use Brain.fm’s functional music to help you focus relax and sleep better, using cutting edge neuroscience to get results.

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Playlist · 🎵