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1- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
2- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
3- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. Department of Cognitive Rehabilitation, Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Brain and Cognition Clinic, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract:  
Background: Binaural beats is one of the new methods of brainwave synchronization that there is little knowledge about its clinical applications. The positive effect of this method on executive functions, such as attention and working memory, in gamma band has been mainly confirmed in healthy individuals, but its effectiveness on disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), with a prominent cognitive profile, has not been investigated. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of binaural beats on working memory and the severity of OCD symptoms in gamma band in the affected women.
Method: Twenty-nine OCD women aged 25-40 years referring to psychological clinics in Tehran were selected by convenient method. After completing the symptom checklist 90 (SCL90) and the Yale-Brown severity scale (SS), participants were given the Wechsler memory scale (WMS) digit repetition subtests. Then, they were randomly assigned to the two experimental (n=15) and control (n=14) groups. The audio file of the binaural beats in gamma band was provided to the experimental group. The participants in the control group listened to the normal (no-wave) audio file. Both groups listened to the audio files for two weeks, three times a week, for 30 minutes each time. The Yale-Brown SS and digit repetition in posttest and one-month follow-up periods were obtained again from both groups.
Results: According to the results, the severity of OCD symptoms was significantly reduced by the gamma binaural beats in posttest and follow-up stages (p<0.05). Also, the working memory function was improved, although it was not statistically significant (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The results of this study show that binaural beats can be used as a complementary treatment to reduce the severity of OCD symptoms. Also, it seems that the patients’ working memory is strengthened with this method.
Type of Study: Original | Subject: Cognitive Neuroscience
Received: 2022/05/30 | Accepted: 2022/08/21

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