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

Abstract

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.