Cognitive Neuroscience Society

The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • Annual Meeting
        • General Information
          • Accessibility at CNS
          • Code of Conduct
          • Dates and Deadlines
          • Hotel Reservations
          • Poster Printing Discount
          • Annual Meeting Workshop Policy & Application
          • Exhibit with us!
        • Program
          • Schedule Overview
          • Keynote Address
          • George A. Miller Awardee
          • Distinguished Career Contributions Awardee
          • Young Investigator Awardees
          • Invited-Symposium Sessions
          • Symposium Sessions
          • Data Blitz Session Schedule
          • Poster Schedule & Session Information
          • GSA/PFA Award Winners
          • Workshops, Socials & Special Events
        • Registration
          • Registration
          • Registration FAQ
          • Registration Policies, Cancellations & Refunds
        • News/Press
          • CNS 2023 Press Room
          • CNS 2022 Blog
          • CNS 2021 Blog
          • CNS 2020 Blog
        • Submissions
          • 2023 Poster Printing Discount
          • Submission Requirements
          • Submit a Poster
          • Submit a Symposium
          • GSA or PFA Application
          • Data Blitz
          • Frequently Asked Submission Questions
        • Archive
          • CNS 2020 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2019 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2018 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2017 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2016 Conference Videos
          • CNS 2015 Conference Videos
          • Previous Meetings Programs & Abstracts
  • About CNS
    • Boards and Committees
    • CNS Statement: Black Lives Matter
  • Membership
    • Information and Benefits
    • Join or Renew Membership
    • Membership FAQs
    • Member Discounts
    • Newsletter
      • Submit an Announcement
      • Current Newsletter
      • Newsletter FAQs
      • Past Newsletters
  • Awards
    • George A. Miller Award
    • Fred Kavli Distinguished Career Contributions Award
    • Young Investigator Award
    • Young Investigator Award Nominations
    • 2023 YIA Nomination Form
    • JoCN Travel Fellowship Award
  • News Center
    • CNS Blog
    • CNS 2023 Press Room
    • CNS 2022 Blog
    • CNS 2021 Blog
    • CNS 2020 Blog
    • CNS 2019 Blog
    • Blog Archives
    • Quick Tips for Getting Started on Twitter
    • Media Contact
  • My CNS
  • Contact Us
post

Listening to White Noise Improves Memory

January 16, 2014

800px-TV_noiseListening to a consistent “sh” noise could boost your memory, according to new research. Such white noise changes activity in the midbrain that is linked to learning and reward pathways.

Past research had suggested a link between white noise and learning in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and in people learning arithmetic. The new work, however, is the first to combine fMRI analysis with behavioral tests to understand the effects of white noise on memory in healthy adults.

In the new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanessa Rausch, Eva Bauch, and Nico Bunzeck of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf describe the effects of the white noise in the brain during a memory task. The researchers asked participants to remember gray-scale photos of various scenes while listening to either white noise, a sinus tone, no noise, or the sound of a horse running played backward.

In the first study, they found that the listening to the auditory white noise – heard as a “sh” sound – slightly improved memory of the images compared to when listening to the control sounds. In a second study, the researchers then looked at the brain activity while performing a memory task in the fMRI scanner.

“What really surprised me was the strength of effect of white noise in the mesolimbic midbrain,” Bunzeck says. This region of the brain corresponds to the pathway for dopamine – a neurotransmitter associated with reward.

The white noise enhanced connectivity in between brain regions associated with modulating dopamine and attention. The researchers found this enhanced connectivity in those participants with improved memory.

Bunzeck says that the findings suggest that white noise could be particularly useful to facilitate learning in people who have memory deficits caused by changes in the mesolimbic system, such as older adults.

Don’t rush out to play white noise to help boost your memory just yet, though. Bunzeck says that researchers still need to identify several factors that influence this link. “For instance, we suppose that some populations might benefit more than others – depending, for example, on personality or the structural integrity of their individual mesolimbic system,” he says. “Also, the effects of loudness and frequency range of auditory white noise might play an important role.”

Also, take care to note that the white noise in this study is not just any background sound, but a random signal in the auditory range that we hear as a “sh”. So working in a loud cafe would not necessarily yield the same beneficial results.

-Lisa M.P. Munoz

The paper, “White Noise Improves Learning by Modulating Activity in Dopaminergic Midbrain Regions and Right Superior Temporal Sulcus,” by Vanessa H. Rausch, Eva M. Bauch, and Nico Bunzeck, was published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience online on Dec. 17, 2013.

By lmunoz Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: dopamine, memory, whitenoise

Previous article: Press Registration Open for the CNS 2014 Annual Meeting in Boston
Next article: How Toddlers Process Environmental Feedback

Recent Posts

  • Looking Forward to Understand Working Memory
  • From the Neurology Clinic to the Lab and Back Again: Addressing Frontal Lobe Syndromes
  • When Philosophical Questions Turn to Neuroscience Experimentation
  • Groups Decisions Less Burdensome to the Brain Than Solo Ones
  • The Extra Reward of Praise from Superiors

Blog Archives

Quick Tips for Getting Started on Twitter

Cognitive Neuroscience Society
c/o Center for Mind and Brain
267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95618
916-955-6080: for CNS Membership Questions
805-450-7490: for annual meeting questions about- registration, posters, symposium
916-409-5069: Fax Line
email: meeting@cogneurosociety.org

Recent Posts

  • Looking Forward to Understand Working Memory
  • From the Neurology Clinic to the Lab and Back Again: Addressing Frontal Lobe Syndromes
  • When Philosophical Questions Turn to Neuroscience Experimentation
  • Groups Decisions Less Burdensome to the Brain Than Solo Ones
  • The Extra Reward of Praise from Superiors

Archives

Blog Archives

Previous Meeting Programs and Abstracts

Past Newsletters

All contents © Cognitive Neuroscience Society 1995-2019

Add to Calendar

Add to Calendar
04/16/2022 11:00 AM
04/16/2022 12:00 PM
America/Los_Angeles
How Prior Knowledge Shapes Encoding of New Memories
Description of the event
Grand Ballroom A
Create an Account

Login Utility