Eliminating the attentional blink through binaural beats: A case for tailored cognitive enhancement

Enhancing human cognitive performance is a topic that continues to spark scientific interest. Studies into cognitive enhancement techniques often fail to take inter-individual differences into account, however, which leads to underestimation of the effectiveness of these techniques. The current stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Susan A. Reedijk, Anne eBolders, Lorenza S Colzato, Bernhard eHommel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-06-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychiatry
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00082/full
Description
Summary:Enhancing human cognitive performance is a topic that continues to spark scientific interest. Studies into cognitive enhancement techniques often fail to take inter-individual differences into account, however, which leads to underestimation of the effectiveness of these techniques. The current study investigated the effect of binaural beats, a cognitive enhancement technique, on attentional control in an attentional blink task. As predicted from a neurocognitive approach to cognitive control, high-frequency binaural beats eliminated the attentional blink, but only in individuals with low spontaneous eye-blink rates (indicating low striatal dopamine levels). This suggests that the way in which cognitive enhancement techniques, such as binaural beats, affect cognitive performance depends on inter-individual differences.
ISSN:1664-0640