Auditory stimulation at individual gamma frequency enhances cognitive performance

Personalized auditory gamma stimulation may sharpen human cognition; however, behavioral evidence remains sparse. Here, we recruited 29 healthy adults (15 men; age range, 20-49 years) with no self-reported history of psychiatric disorders, and identified each participant's dominant gamma frequency (IGF), and then investigated whether auditory stimulation at that frequency-delivered through individualized IGF music-modulated cognitive performance. We first estimated each participant's IGF based on electroencephalogram during a 5‑min chirp‑music sweep. The identified frequency was embedded into a musical track (IGF music); a spectrally matched track lacking gamma enhancement served as control music. Participants completed five immediate recall trials and a long-delay-free recall of a verbal learning task, a visual change‑detection task, a card matching game, and a bivalent shape task while listening to either music track (within‑subject). Linear mixed-effects models revealed that IGF music increased word recall in the fifth immediate recall trial and reduced inverse efficiency in incongruent trials of the bivalent-shaped task, whereas other outcomes were unchanged. Therefore, auditory gamma stimuli may improve short-term memory and executive control. These findings highlight the potential of individualized sensory stimulation as a promising, non-invasive approach to ameliorate cognitive impairments associated with various neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.