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

Abstract

Recent research on binaural beat stimulation has raised the question whether it can improve sustained attention. Neurotypicals and subjects with attention deficits of single gender performed a visual attention task under auditory noise, monoaural and binaural beat stimulation, while recording electroencephalographic activity. We found that subjects with attention deficits perform with longer reaction times than neurotypical subjects. To explore EEG activity, two periods of interest were distinguished: before a correct detection and before a miss, supposed to reflect respectively moments of engagement versus disengagement of attention. Under noise stimulation, neurotypicals have larger frontal ERP-components P300 and α-spectral power and lower parietal [Formula: see text] spectral power ratio in correct trials than in missed trials, whereas subjects with attention deficits show the inverse relation. Moreover, neurotypicals exhibit a negative relation of frontal δ-power and [Formula: see text] ratio in a time window of 6s before targets, whereas subjects with attention deficits show positively related δ- and α-power in this time window. Binaural beats diversify these results. Neurotypical subjects respond with a longer reaction time compared to noise stimulation, while attention-deficit subjects respond equally. Moreover, frontal P300 and α-power and parietal [Formula: see text] ratio resemble corresponding results under noise stimulation, whereas brain activity in subjects with attention deficits is rather heterogeneous. In addition, in attention-deficit subjects frontal and parietal δ- and α-power are positively related in a 6s time window before targets. In sum, under noise stimulation we found behavioral and electrophysiological biomarkers, which were inverse in neurotypicals and subjects with attention deficits. Binaural beats break up these relations in both subject groups and they have not been found to be beneficial, neither in behavior nor in electrophysiological biomarkers.