Sustained attention in attention-deficit subjects and the impact of binaural beat stimulation evaluated by behavior and EEG

Alves-Castro, Gabriel; Bonnefond, Anne; Pham, Bich-Thuy; Hutt, Axel · 2025 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1007/s00221-025-07154-0

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Summary

This study investigates whether binaural beat (BB) stimulation improves sustained attention in individuals with attention deficits compared to neurotypical controls. Motivated by conflicting literature on auditory beat stimulation and the widespread commercial promotion of BBs as cognitive enhancers, the researchers aimed to evaluate behavioral and electrophysiological impacts using standardized experimental parameters. The study specifically addressed the lack of gender-controlled and individually calibrated auditory stimuli in prior research. The experiment involved 14 male university students divided into a control group (low inattention scores) and an inattention group (high inattention scores) based on the Adult Self-Report Scale. Participants performed the Continuous Temporal Expectancy Task (CTET), a visual sustained attention task requiring detection of rare, longer-duration target images. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded simultaneously. Participants underwent three auditory conditions: pink noise (control), monoaural beats, and binaural beats (500 Hz carrier, 15 Hz beat frequency). Crucially, sound pressure levels were individually calibrated to each participant’s comfortable hearing threshold. Statistical analyses included non-parametric tests for behavioral metrics (reaction time, relative error) and EEG features (P300 amplitude, spectral power in $\delta$, $\alpha$, $\theta$, and $\beta$ bands, and $\theta/\beta$ ratios). Behavioral results indicated that the inattention group exhibited significantly longer reaction times and higher relative errors than controls under noise stimulation. Under BB stimulation, neurotypical subjects showed increased reaction times compared to noise, whereas the inattention group’s reaction times remained unchanged. EEG analysis revealed inverse electrophysiological biomarkers between groups under noise: neurotypicals displayed larger frontal P300 and $\alpha$-power, and lower parietal $\theta/\beta$ ratios in correct trials versus missed trials, while the inattention group showed the opposite pattern. BB stimulation disrupted these distinct patterns. In the inattention group, BBs induced a heterogeneous brain activity response and a positive correlation between frontal/parietal $\delta$- and $\alpha$-power in the 6 seconds preceding targets, a relationship not observed in controls. The study concludes that binaural beat stimulation does not improve sustained attention in subjects with attention deficits. Instead, BBs appear to disrupt the distinct behavioral and electrophysiological markers that differentiate neurotypical from attention-deficit subjects under noise conditions. The findings challenge the efficacy of BBs as a cognitive enhancement tool and highlight the importance of individualized auditory calibration and gender-controlled cohorts in neurostimulation research. The results suggest that BBs may interfere with the neural mechanisms underlying attentional engagement rather than facilitating them.

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• neuro workload indices