Effect of binaural beats on mental fatigue

Abstract

The brain processes a binaural beat when two tones of slightly different frequencies are played in each ear at the same time. Few binaural beats studies have examined its effectiveness in reducing mental fatigue, particularly in occupational settings. After analysing current interventions of mental fatigue in clinical and non-clinical settings, we examined how listening to binaural beats while carrying out a dual-task affects the perceived workload and levels of mental fatigue based on behavioural and physiological measures. 70 undergraduate participants were assigned to one of two conditions – the layered binaural beats condition or the control condition. Participants underwent a concurrent visual search and memory task, which was made to induce task saturation. During the task, their heart rates were monitored via a photoplethysmogram (PPG) to obtain Heart Rate Variability (HRV) correlates. The NASA Task Load Index was administered after the completion of the task. The findings demonstrate that there were no significant differences in both behavioural and physiological measures across both conditions, pointing towards the limited effectiveness of the effect of binaural beats in reducing mental fatigue. Similarly, analysis of the NASA TLX workload scores indicated that both groups showed non-significant differences in workload perception. Despite the non-significant results, future studies can involve more ecologically valid tasks to further evaluate the possible effects of binaural beats in reducing mental fatigue. Further experimentation can also be conducted using neuroimaging techniques and through observed changes in brain activation to examine the effects of binaural beats more accurately. Keywords: binaural beats, mental fatigue, task saturation, cognitive load