Background Music, Amplitude Modulation Improves Focus for ADHD Brains: New Study
Background music and stimulating music with amplitude modulation may improve sustained attention for adults with ADHD symptoms, suggests two new studies.
March 21, 2025
Music exerts powerful, and largely positive, forces on the brain regions responsible for decision-making, memory, mood, and comprehension, according to decades of research. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 But what types of music work best for individuals with ADHD? Two new studies suggest that stimulating music, and specifically songs with strong, targeted amplitude modulations, promotes attention and improves cognition in adults with ADHD symptoms.
Why ADHD Brains Prefer Stimulating Music
A peer-reviewed study published in the journal Communications Biology found that music with strong, targeted amplitude modulations (AM + Music) sustains attention for people with ADHD symptoms by engaging the brain regions responsible for cognitive control. 5
“We were interested to see if music with different acoustic properties would affect people differently depending on their attentional capacity,” the researchers wrote. “If so, people with attentional deficits, such as symptoms of ADHD, may need specifically designed focus music.”
For the study, researchers conducted four experiments that measured participants’ sustained attention while completing tasks and listening to either AM + Music, control music (with slow amplitude modulations), or pink noise.
Participants who received AM + Music as the first music condition significantly outperformed those who received other music conditions first during the initial experiment. The researchers measured the sustained attention of the 83 participants with ADHD using the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), a computerized task that tests and measures consistent focus.
“People with ADHD benefit from ‘rhythmic entrainment,’ using strong, steady rhythms to imprint structure and consistency,” said Roberto Olivardia, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and Clinical Instructor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. “This assists with regulation of attention and behavior.” Olivardia discussed the Communications Biology study in a presentation at the 2024 Annual International Conference on ADHD titled “We Got the Beat: The Impact of Music on ADHD.”
The researchers then reproduced the same task and background conditions in two neuroimaging experiments using fMRI and EEG to study the brain’s response to the different types of music and task-related activities. These results showed significantly higher activation in multiple brain regions related to executive function during the AM + Music condition than in the other two conditions.
Forty participants had their EEGs recorded while they performed the SART task under the same three background music conditions. The EEG measurements revealed greater stimulus brain-coupling (where two or more brains exhibit synchronized neural activity) during the presence of AM + Music.
“These results suggested that amplitude modulation could underlie the difference in performance observed in the first experiment and the differences in functional network activity observed in the second experiment,” the researchers wrote.
What Is Amplitude Modulation?
Amplitude modulation is a technique for creating sounds and effects, such as tremolo, vibrato, or phasing (when multiple musicians perform the same musical pattern at different times).
“All music contains modulation to some degree, but it isn’t controlled to impact brainwaves systematically,” Psyche Loui, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Creativity and Creative Practice and Director of the Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics Laboratory (MIND Lab) at Northeastern University, told ADDitude.
Loui describes low modulation levels as barely perceptible, “like a gentle thrumming,” and high levels might be quite noticeable, like a “distant helicopter.”
“Higher levels of modulation will have a stronger effect on the brain but may be considered intrusive or annoying to neurotypical people,” says Loui, a lead researcher on the study.
The study’s final experiment included patented music from Brain.fm, a functional music app that combines original compositions with audio technology developed through a collaboration with researchers at MIND lab and funded, in part, by the U.S. National Science Foundation, that differed only in the rate or depth of amplitude modulation.
Brain.fm’s music includes targeted amplitude modulation — rhythmic pulses not typically found in music — designed to impact the brain patterns associated with cognitive control. The music does not contain any vocals or strong melodies.
The researchers found that participants who were more likely to have ADHD, based on self-reported symptoms, performed significantly better over time listening to heavily modulated music than did participants without ADHD symptoms.
“We know that these modulations in music drive neural oscillations (brainwaves) at the same fast rates, namely, Beta waves (12-20Hz),” Loui says. “Our current hypothesis as to why this helps is that ADHD brains need a boost in these brainwaves to function best. The ADHD brain needs strong stimulation to really kick it into gear, so to speak.
“Brain.fm adds modulation to music that is strong, regular, and most importantly, faster than modulation you would find naturally in music,” she continues. “The music consistently encourages your brainwaves to stay in a pattern associated with focus.”
While the study’s results suggest that listening to heavily modulated music could increase focus and sustained attention in people exhibiting ADHD symptoms, it does not rule out alternative types of music.
“All types of music can sustain attention for someone with ADHD,” Olivardia says. “It is really an individual decision and depends on context. When reading, I listen to instrumental music. When trying to go to sleep, Enya is my go-to. When writing, it is often loud, cacophonous punk music. It is whatever grounds someone.”
Charting Differences in Music Preferences
A recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that the music listening habits of young adults with ADHD symptoms differ from those of their neurotypical peers during both less cognitively demanding activities (e.g., cleaning, cooking, or engaging in sports) and more cognitively demanding activities (e.g., studying, learning, writing, problem-solving, etc.). 6
The study found that young adults with ADHD symptoms listen to significantly more background music (BM) while studying and engaging in sports and other less cognitively demanding activities than do their neurotypical peers. The amount of time spent listening to BM while participating in more cognitively demanding activities did not significantly differ between the two groups.
Based on online survey responses, researchers found significant differences between the study’s control group (316 young adults) and its ADHD group (118 young adults likely to have ADHD based on self-reports) regarding preferences for certain musical characteristics and styles. The ADHD group had a significantly stronger preference for stimulating music compared with the control group during more and less cognitively demanding activities; a higher percentage of the control group reported preferring relaxing music.
“Young adults screened with ADHD may seek additional stimulation to maintain their cognitive engagement, especially during activities like studying, where mind wandering can be more common due to its boring and monotonous nature,” the researchers wrote.
During More Cognitively Demanding Activities
The ADHD group preferred listening to:
- classical or opera (36.4%)
- pop (32.2%)
- alternative or indie (25.4%)
The control group preferred listening to:
- pop (44.9%)
- classical or opera (34.8%)
- jazz or blues (27.2%)
During Less Cognitively Demanding Activities
The ADHD group preferred listening to:
- pop (53.3%)
- rap or hip-hop (33.9%)
- popular songs from their culture (30.5%)
The control group preferred listening to:
- pop (57.9%)
- dance/techno/electronic music (34.5%)
- popular songs from their culture (28.8%)
Select Your Soundtrack
Check out the ADDitude Spotify channel for playlists by and for ADHD brains based on suggestions from ADDitude readers and editors.
Brain.fm is offering a free 30-day trial to ADDitude readers at https://go.brain.fm/additude
Yearly ($5.83/month, $69.99/year) and monthly ($9.99) subscriptions are available.
View Article Sources
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2 Kraus, N. and B. Chandrasekaran. (2010). Music training for the development of auditory skills. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11(8): p. 599-605. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2882
3 Chanda, M.L., Levitin, D.J. (2013). The neurochemistry of music. Trends Cogn Sci. 17(4):179-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007
4 Zimmermann, M. B., Diers, K., Strunz, L., Scherbaum, N., and Mette, C. (2019). Listening to Mozart improves current mood in adult ADHD – a randomized controlled pilot study. Front. Psychol 10:1104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007
5 Woods, K.J.P., Sampaio, G., James, T. et al. (2024). Rapid modulation in music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties. Commun Biol. 7, 1376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007
6 Lachance, K., & Gosselin, N. (2025). Listening habits and subjective effects of background music in young adults with and without ADHD. Frontiers in Psychology15, 1508181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007
