With the growing understanding of cognitive processes comes a great variety of other opportunities. One of these opportunities is exploited by various commercial organizations in the form of “Binaural Beats”.  These binaural beats are used to alter one’s brain wave frequency, and by doing so, altering one’s state of mind. The underlying mechanism relies on the fact that our brain produces certain frequencies of brain waves when exposed to two separate tones with slightly different frequencies; in a sense, binaural beats entrain brainwaves by their specific frequencies.                            

Exploiting this fact, various organizations have made claims ranging from reducing anxiety, improving health, reducing pain and increasing alertness or concentration through the exposure to binaural beats. Of course, when companies make such claims, proper scientific research has to be conducted to verify the reliability and assess possible risks. Fortunately, researching binaural beats should be very feasible with the proper utilization of an EEG device, as the most important variable that needs to be measured is the alteration of brain wave frequencies.

Therefore, our research will focus on experiencing the effects of binaural beats first hand and observing these effects through an EEG device. Furthermore, an attempt will be made to explain these effects in a proper neuroscientific context.                    

The final report of our group can be see here: research report Kappa