Science
Science

the science

Science you can hear

Brain.fm contains patterns that shift your brain state with entrainment.

Our music sounds different—and affects you differently—than any other music.

How do we know brain.fm works?

Performance testing with placebo controls

We test our music with simple ‘games’ used to measure focused attention in psychology research. Our experiments always include a control (‘placebo’) of the same music without brain.fm technology, so we can be sure our tech is what makes the difference.

Performance testing with placebo controls

Electrical activity in the brain: EEG studies

Electroencephalography measures fluctuations in electrical current at the scalp, showing rhythmic brain activity (‘brainwaves’) and how this kind of activity shifts in response to brain.fm music.

Electrical activity in the brain: EEG studies

Neural Phase Locking after 5 minutes

Blood flow in the brain: FMRI studies

Functional magnetic resonance imaging measures blood flow in the brain, showing which brain regions and functional networks are more active in response to brain.fm versus other music.

Blood flow in the brain: FMRI studies

What makes brain.fm different?

Patented neural entrainment

Brain.fm holds patents on technology to elicit strong neural phase locking—allowing populations of neurons to engage in various kinds of coordinated activity. This makes our music unique, purpose-built to steer you into a desired mental state.

Patented neural entrainment
No Distraction
Music without distractions

Most music in the world is design to grab your attention, which leads to distraction. Instead, our process ensures that attention-grabbing elements are subdued or removed, allowing the music to sit comfortably in the background.

Binaural Beats
Brain.fm is not ‘binaural beats’!

Binaural beats produce weak neural synchrony while modulation directly in each stereo channel (used by brain.fm) has much stronger effects on brain activity. Importantly, brain.fm uses many methods to make our music work, unlike binaural beats which is just one technique!

How is brain.fm music made?

Made with science, tested with science

We use neuroscience to inform our music-making, but also use science to test the resulting music. These are two different roles of science at brain.fm, setting us apart from any other music service.

Tested with science
Scientific precision
Human warmth meets scientific precision

Music made purely by AI is often cold and boring, while human music targets your emotions, but lacks the precise features needed to affect your brain directly. brain.fm gives you the best of both worlds by adding a layer of science to human-composed music.

Affects differently
Brain.fm sounds different and affects you differently

Our science-based process results in music with a unique sound that has unique effects on your brain and performance, unlike services that just curate pre-existing music that wasn’t originally meant for that purpose.

brain.fm’s research and methods

Read our science

Stimulating music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties

Woods, KJP., Sampaio, G.,, James, T., Przysinda, E., Spencer, A.,Hewett, A., Spencer, A., Morillon, B., & Loui, P. (2021)

Modulation in background music influences sustained attention

Woods, KJP., Hewett, A., Spencer, A., Morillon, B., & Loui, P. (2019)

Headphone screening to facilitate web-based auditory experiments

Woods, KJP., et al. (2018)

research about some of the methods we use

Supporting literature

Entrainment of neural oscillations as a modifiable substrate of attention.

Calderone, D. J., Lakatos, P., Butler, P. D. & Xavier Castellanos, F. (2014)

Preferred stimulation levels in introverts and extroverts: Effects on arousal and performance.

Geen, R. G. (1984)

The differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts.

Furnham, A. & Bradley, A. (1997)

Brain arousal regulation in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Strauß, M. et al. (2018)

Cortical activity patterns in ADHD during arousal, activation and sustained attention.

Loo, S. K. et al. (2009)

Top-down beta rhythms support selective attention via interlaminar interaction: a model.

Lee, J. H., Whittington, M. A. & Kopell, N. J. (2013)

our team

Meet our team of experts

Kevin JP Woods, PhD

director of science, brain.fm

Psyche Loui, PhD

academic collaborator

professor of music & Neuroscience northeastern university

Benjamin Morillon, PhD

Benjamin Morillon, PhD

scientific advisor

Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Aix-Marseille university

Get started with
brain.fm today.

Our science-first approach creates music that sounds different and affects your brain differently than any other music.

preview of the brain.fm app