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Auditory driving of the autonomic nervous system: Listening to theta-frequency binaural beats post-exercise increases parasympathetic activation and sympathetic withdrawal

McConnell PA, Froeliger B, Garland EL, Ives JC, Sforzo GA. · Frontiers in Psychology · 2014 · randomised controlled trial, double blind

Original publication · Original publication · Original publication

Attributed extracts from the research record

“Acute exposure to theta-frequency binaural beats in a young, healthy sample of college students resulted in increased parasympathetic activation, increased sympathetic withdrawal, and increased self-reported relaxation post-exercise.”
“Binaural-beat-associated HRV appeared to be more tightly coupled with self-reported relaxation than placebo-associated HRV.”
“These findings support the putative clinical effectiveness of binaural beats in their own right, the effects of which may be synergistically enhanced through combination with other therapeutic factors such as verbal guidance and music.”

Evidence and provenance

Chapter Trust Factor uses a minimum of three distinct qualifying studies. Publication records retain their own evidence and assessment.

Study design and assessment
design
randomised controlled trial, double blind
assessment
Not recorded
trust Factor
score
3
scope
Paper
status
assessed
randomized Controlled Trial
true
blinding
double
peer Reviewed
true
basis
Randomized controlled design recorded in the publication-specific design or bibliographic indexing.
sources

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25452734/ · https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248 · https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248/full

review Scope
Existing publication-specific assessments and bibliographic indexing; no blanket full-text appraisal.
assessed At
2026-10-27
jadad
status
unassessed
score
Not recorded
evidence
Not recorded
Topics and recorded topic scores
  1. key
    sound:i
    title
    Brain entrainment, pain, anxiety and heart-rate variability
    collection
    sound
    trust Score
    3
Citation snapshot and identifiers
id
pmid-25452734
doi
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248
pmid
25452734
citation Snapshot
Not recorded
citations By Collection
sound
37
Complete approved library record
id
pmid-25452734
publication Key
Not recorded
aliases
None recorded
title
Auditory driving of the autonomic nervous system: Listening to theta-frequency binaural beats post-exercise increases parasympathetic activation and sympathetic withdrawal
journal
Frontiers in Psychology
publisher Family
frontiers
publisher Family Label
Frontiers
neurotransmitters
None recorded
year
2014
authors
McConnell PA, Froeliger B, Garland EL, Ives JC, Sforzo GA.
design
randomised controlled trial, double blind
kind
Journal article
identity Conflict
Not recorded
doi
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248
pmid
25452734
urls

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248/full · https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248 · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25452734/

collections

sound

categories

Heart rate & autonomic · Clinical & self-report

targets
None recorded
priority
1
quotes

“Acute exposure to theta-frequency binaural beats in a young, healthy sample of college students resulted in increased parasympathetic activation, increased sympathetic withdrawal, and increased self-reported relaxation post-exercise.” · “Binaural-beat-associated HRV appeared to be more tightly coupled with self-reported relaxation than placebo-associated HRV.” · “These findings support the putative clinical effectiveness of binaural beats in their own right, the effects of which may be synergistically enhanced through combination with other therapeutic factors such as verbal guidance and music.”

summary
limitation
citation Count
37
paper Trust Assessment
score
3
scope
Paper
status
assessed
randomized Controlled Trial
true
blinding
double
peer Reviewed
true
basis
Randomized controlled design recorded in the publication-specific design or bibliographic indexing.
sources

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25452734/ · https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248 · https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248/full

review Scope
Existing publication-specific assessments and bibliographic indexing; no blanket full-text appraisal.
assessed At
2026-10-27
citations By Collection
sound
37
topics
  1. key
    sound:i
    title
    Brain entrainment, pain, anxiety and heart-rate variability
    collection
    sound
    trust Score
    3
journal Key
frontiersinpsychology
journal Label
Frontiers in Psychology
chapter Entries
  1. id
    i-pmid-25452734
    record Id
    pmid-25452734
    title
    Auditory driving of the autonomic nervous system: Listening to theta-frequency binaural beats post-exercise increases parasympathetic activation and sympathetic withdrawal
    journal
    Frontiers in Psychology
    year
    2014
    authors
    McConnell PA, Froeliger B, Garland EL, Ives JC, Sforzo GA.
    design
    randomised controlled trial, double blind
    urls

    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248/full · https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248 · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25452734/

    quotes
      1. text
        “Acute exposure to theta-frequency binaural beats in a young, healthy sample of college students resulted in increased parasympathetic activation, increased sympathetic withdrawal, and increased self-reported relaxation post-exercise.”
        emphasis
        false
      1. text
        “Binaural-beat-associated HRV appeared to be more tightly coupled with self-reported relaxation than placebo-associated HRV.”
        emphasis
        false
      1. text
        “These findings support the putative clinical effectiveness of binaural beats in their own right, the effects of which may be synergistically enhanced through combination with other therapeutic factors such as verbal guidance and music.”
        emphasis
        false
    citation Count
    37
    source Pages

    6

    targets
    None recorded
    categories

    Heart rate & autonomic · Clinical & self-report

    doi
    10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248
    pmid
    25452734
    paper Trust Assessment
    score
    3
    scope
    Paper
    status
    assessed
    randomized Controlled Trial
    true
    blinding
    double
    peer Reviewed
    true
    basis
    Randomized controlled design recorded in the publication-specific design or bibliographic indexing.
    sources

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25452734/ · https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248 · https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01248/full

    review Scope
    Existing publication-specific assessments and bibliographic indexing; no blanket full-text appraisal.
    assessed At
    2026-10-27
    collection
    sound
    chapter Number
    1
    topic Id
    i
    topic Title
    Brain entrainment, pain, anxiety and heart-rate variability
    trust Score
    3
jadad
status
unassessed
score
Not recorded
condition Evidence
None recorded
conditions
None recorded
topic Trust Scores

3

full Text
status
open-license
retrieval Available
true
url
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC4231835/fullTextXML
pmcid
PMC4231835
rights
license
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
statement

Copyright © 2014 McConnell, Froeliger, Garland, Ives and Sforzo. 2014 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

sha256
602bc7c19aba1ecd782c80ce69276ca85e62172cce36ef4e6ddbca285707b063
checked At
2026-10-24

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