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Stimulating music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties

View ORCID ProfileKevin JP Woods, Gonçalo Sampaio, Tedra James, Emily Przysinda, Adam Hewett, View ORCID ProfileAndrea E Spencer, View ORCID ProfileBenjamin Morillon, View ORCID ProfilePsyche Loui
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.01.462777
Kevin JP Woods
1Brain.fm
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Gonçalo Sampaio
2Wesleyan University
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Tedra James
2Wesleyan University
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Emily Przysinda
2Wesleyan University
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Adam Hewett
1Brain.fm
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Andrea E Spencer
3Boston University
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Benjamin Morillon
4Aix-Marseille University
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Psyche Loui
5Northeastern University
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ABSTRACT

Background music is widely used to sustain attention, but little is known about what musical properties aid attention. This may be due to inter-individual variability in neural responses to music. We test the hypothesis that music can sustain attention by affecting oscillations via acoustic amplitude modulation, differentially for those with varying levels of attentional difficulty. We first show that heavily-modulated music improves sustained attention for participants with more ADHD symptoms. FMRI showed this music elicited greater activity in attentional networks in this group only, and EEG showed greater stimulus-brain coupling for this group in response to the heavily-modulated music. Finally, we parametrically manipulated the depth and rate of amplitude modulations inserted in otherwise-identical music, and found that beta-range modulations helped more than other frequency ranges for participants with more ADHD symptoms. Results suggest the possibility of an oscillation-based neural mechanism for targeted music to support improved cognitive performance.

Competing Interest Statement

Kevin JP Woods is an employee of Brain.fm. Adam Hewett was an employee of Brain.fm when the work was conducted.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted October 03, 2021.
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Stimulating music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties
Kevin JP Woods, Gonçalo Sampaio, Tedra James, Emily Przysinda, Adam Hewett, Andrea E Spencer, Benjamin Morillon, Psyche Loui
bioRxiv 2021.10.01.462777; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.01.462777
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Stimulating music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties
Kevin JP Woods, Gonçalo Sampaio, Tedra James, Emily Przysinda, Adam Hewett, Andrea E Spencer, Benjamin Morillon, Psyche Loui
bioRxiv 2021.10.01.462777; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.01.462777

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