Background Music, Amplitude Modulation Improves Focus for ADHD Brains: New Study

March 21, 2025Music 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.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.The amplitude-modulation music in the research was provided by 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. Participants who received AM + Music as the first music condition significantly outperformed those who received other music conditions first during the initial experiment.