How music can improve cognitive function in ADHD

If you’ve ever popped in your AirPods to focus in a noisy office, you’re not alone.

Almost 80% of adults listen to music while working, with playlists for concentration becoming increasingly popular on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.

However, people have mixed feelings about how music affects their productivity. While some find background music essential, others can’t concentrate with any sound playing.

New research led by Psyche Loui, an associate professor of music and head of the Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics (MIND) Laboratory at Northeastern University, sheds light on this debate.

Loui collaborated with Brain.fm, a company that designs music specifically to improve focus, to study how particular musical characteristics influence attention. Their findings suggest that music, when designed with certain elements, can boost concentration, especially for people with attention difficulties like ADHD.

The study highlights how music affects the brain’s ability to stay focused. Loui’s goal is not only to understand how music benefits the brain but also to use it as a tool to explore how the brain functions.

Published in Communication Biology, the research tested the effectiveness of “rapid modulations” in music—a technique that involves quickly adjusting sound signals to make loud parts louder and quiet parts quieter.

To study this, researchers measured brain activity in about 40 participants using EEG and MRI scans while they listened to Brain.fm’s music during tasks requiring sustained attention. Participants also completed the tasks while listening to non-Brain.fm music, pink noise, or silence.

The Brain.fm music, which was a driving, electronic instrumental piece with heavy bass and rising synthesizer scales, showed greater activation in the brain’s attention networks.

The researchers then experimented with increasing the intensity of the rapid modulations in the music. They found that participants who had struggled with attention in earlier tests benefited even more from the intensified modulations.

This suggests that music tailored to enhance certain brain functions can significantly help individuals with attention challenges.

Why does this work? Loui explains that the brain naturally operates in rhythmic patterns. Music with specific frequencies can align with the brain’s rhythms, helping to synchronize and boost attentional activity. This effect, known as “phase locking,” was observed in the study as the participants’ brains synchronized with the modulations in the music.

Interestingly, these benefits aren’t limited to people with ADHD. Anyone who struggles with occasional lapses in focus can gain from listening to this type of music.

Loui points out that even people without a formal ADHD diagnosis may experience moments of inattention or difficulty concentrating, especially when trying to complete demanding tasks. In such cases, background music tailored to enhance focus can be a useful tool.

This research builds on earlier findings that music created for specific purposes can have measurable cognitive benefits.

Loui sees music as a form of brain stimulation and believes there’s potential to design music for other uses, such as improving sleep, supporting exercise, or enhancing relaxation. However, more studies are needed to refine and expand these applications.

For now, Loui offers simple advice for selecting music to boost focus: choose fast-paced, energizing music that excites you without being distracting, and avoid songs with lyrics.

The study emphasizes that music, when designed with a clear purpose, can do more than entertain—it can help us harness the power of our brains to stay focused and productive. Whether you’re working in a noisy office or tackling a long to-do list at home, the right music might just be the secret ingredient to getting things done.

For more information about ADHD, please see recent studies about Nutrition’s role in managing ADHD: what you need to know and results showing that Food additives and ADHD: what parents should know.

If you care about ADHD, please read studies about 5 signs you have ADHD, not laziness, and new drug to reduce daydreaming, fatigue, and brain sluggishness in ADHD.

The research findings can be found in Communications Biology.