A Comparison of the Effects of Binaural Beats of Audible and Inaudible Frequencies on Brainwaves

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to observe the effects of audible and inaudible binaural beat stimuli on alpha power elicitation and compare the differences in triggering effects depending on sound perception. Experiments were conducted on healthy male and female subjects (11 males and 10 females, mean age of 24.6 ± 1.8). To induce alpha waves, audible (250 Hz) or non-audible baseline sound frequencies (18,000 Hz) were presented to the left ear, and a frequency 10 Hz higher than the baseline was presented to the right ear. There were two experimental phases: a rest phase (5 min) in which no stimulus was presented and a stimulation phase (5 min) in which the binaural beat stimulus was presented. An electroencephalogram was measured at a sampling rate of 500 Hz, and relative alpha power values were calculated for each phase in each brain area. In the central regions, both baseline frequencies (audible and inaudible) increased the relative alpha power during the stimulation phase compared with the rest phase, and there were no differences between the two baseline frequencies. In the frontal and central regions, there was a greater increase in relative alpha power in the audible case compared with the inaudible case.