Measuring Neural Resonance Profiles Induced by Binaural Beats and their Relationship with Personality and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Prior research has identified that binaural beats are associated with improvements in cognitive functioning (e.g., Kraus & Porubanová, 2015) and that binaural beats enhance oscillation in the brain (e.g., Fields, 2022). However, extant research has focused almost exclusively on a single canonical frequency band (e.g., theta, alpha) or isolated frequencies (e.g., 40 Hz) at a time, so little is known about patterns of neural resonance across the frequency spectrum and how these resonance profiles may be associated with differences in cognitive processes and personality variables. Furthermore, no study has systematically mapped resonance profiles across the oscillatory spectrum. Thus, the present study aimed to determine whether neural resonance profiles could reliably be measured using binaural beats to induce neural entrainment. We thus examined whether binaural beats would induce an increase in oscillatory power above that observed while listening to a pure tone at specific frequencies. We further aimed to address how any measured neural resonance profiles may correlate with relatively stable dimensions of personality. Participants (N = 57, Mage = 18.8, SDage = 0.94) were randomly presented with binaural beat stimuli, ranging from 1 to 50 Hz, as well as a pure tone stimulus while EEG was recorded. All participants evidenced a resonance profile with an average of 11.3 significant peak frequencies. Furthermore, the number of resonance peaks at each frequency within each canonical band was different from what would be expected by chance. Peak gamma frequency was identified to negatively correlate with conscientiousness (⍴ = -.32, p = .020), and peak alpha frequency negatively correlated with extraversion (⍴ = -.34, p = .024). These results suggest that binaural beats can effectively influence neural oscillatory behavior and may serve as a mechanism for modulating cognitive, affective, and social functioning.