Measuring and Modeling the Effect of Audio on Human Focus in Everyday Environments Using Brain-Computer Interface Technology

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of audio listened to through headphones on subjectively reported human focus levels, and to identify through objective measures the properties that contribute most to increasing and decreasing focus in people within their regular, everyday environment. Participants (N = 62, 18–65 years) performed various tasks on a tablet computer while listening to either no audio (silence), popular audio playlists designed to increase focus (pre-recorded music arranged in a particular sequence of songs), or engineered soundscapes that were personalized to individual listeners (digital audio composed in real-time based on input parameters such as heart rate, time of day, location, etc.). Audio stimuli were delivered to participants through headphones while their brain signals were simultaneously recorded by a portable electroencephalography headband. Participants completed four 1-h long sessions at home during which different audio played continuously in the background. Using brain-computer interface technology for brain decoding and based on an individual’s self-report of their focus, we obtained individual focus levels over time and used this data to analyze the effects of various properties of the sounds contained in the audio content. We found that while participants were working, personalized soundscapes increased their focus significantly above silence (p = 0.008), while music playlists did not have a significant effect. For the young adult demographic (18–36 years), all audio tested was significantly better than silence at producing focus (p = 0.001–0.009). Personalized soundscapes increased focus the most relative to silence, but playlists of pre-recorded songs also increased focus significantly during specific time intervals. Ultimately we found it is possible to accurately predict human focus levels a priori based on physical properties of audio content. We then applied this finding to compare between music genres and revealed that classical music, engineered soundscapes, and natural sounds were the best genres for increasing focus, while pop and hip-hop were the worst. These insights can enable human and artificial intelligence composers to produce increases or decreases in listener focus with high temporal (millisecond) precision. Future research will include real-time adaptation of audio for other functional objectives beyond affecting focus, such as affecting listener enjoyment, drowsiness, stress and memory.

Mental health applications and their use by university students

“…They demonstrated that the effects of music reduce the subjective experience of anxiety, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure. Haruvi et al (2022) went further in their study of the positive effects of music, examining its influence on a person's level of concentration. In their study, they divided respondents into three groups and assigned several tasks on a tablet to each of them.…”

Biological Principles for Music and Health

“…Specifically, engaging these networks with high-groove rhythms may provide an efficient way to disrupt maladaptive patterns of brain activity associated with self-focused negative rumination [112][113][114] . Related to this hypothesis, there is growing evidence that groove is important for understanding effects of music on cognition, alongside affect, particularly in the context of work 110,[115][116][117][118] . For example, in one recent study, listening to a high-groove drum loop for just 3 minutes was found to be more effective than noise at improving performance on a subsequent behavioral task measuring context-dependent response inhibition (a "Stroop" test).…”

“…However, the issue of mismatch between what a person likes and their treatment goals remains significant here as well. For example, listening to strongly preferred or popular music while attempting to focus tends to decrease task performance 115,117,118 , and similarly, listening to sad music when depressed can increase negative affect [248][249][250] (but see [251][252][253] ). Nevertheless, there are cases in which tailoring musical interventions to idiosyncratic preferences should be prioritized.…”