It is a commonly accepted statement that children with ADHD need reduced environmental distraction and silence to perform better. On the contrary, some studies indicate that listening to music before or during a task could improve attentional performance better than silence [35,37,38]. In the case of children with neurotypical development, they also improved their performance with background music [12] except in reading comprehension tasks, where calm music distracted them, while people with ADHD improved their performance [38]. However, the effect of background music on attentional improvement could be modulated by the arousal state of participants, musical elements (eg, tempo, loudness, or the presence or absence of lyrics) [12,42], or difficult task outcome [35,36,43]. In one study [42], the tempo of a song was distorted (faster vs slower), finding performance improvements in slower tempo or silent conditions in children with ADHD, depending on the type of task. Regarding tasks, results suggest that in the case of ADHD, external stimulation with music can help adjust arousal to an optimal level in monotonous tasks. However, when the task is complex, external stimulation may worsen performance [35]. In hard tasks, some studies suggest that white noise may be effective in specific tasks like speech recognition, reading, writing speed, and working memory [36,56]. According to the cognitive-energetic model of ADHD arousal [57] or optimal stimulation theory [58], the distractibility of children with ADHD is a functional attempt to modulate themselves. Silence could generate a major seeking of novelty or stimulation [35] or even provoke distressing mood states during wait times in adults with ADHD [43]. Regarding style of music, the rhythmic and intense beat of rock music stimulate greater brain arousal that overrides environmental distractions [40], while relaxing music decreases HRV, affected in ADHD [38], and decreases negative mood [43].
Found out recently that daft punk music is very similar to adhd study music and the world made a little more sense.
ADHD study music? Is that really a thing?
https://youtu.be/sMNdKnEJbqw
Know of a white paper on it?
Edit excerpt of info on music for adhd:
https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e37742/
No clue, just stumbled upon it.
Thank you for this. Wow.
Np, share it around.
Based on this, is it any surprise that I (ADHD) listen to trance so much lol?
Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I’ve never heard of this but I’ll be god damned if I don’t play this while I work tomorrow.