Massage and music therapies attenuate frontal EEG asymmetry in depressed adolescents

EEG asymmetry, specifically greater relative right frontal activation, is associated with negative affect. Depressed adults show stable patterns of this asymmetry. The present study assessed the effects of massage therapy and music therapy on frontal EEG asymmetry in depressed adolescents. Thirty adolescents with greater relative right frontal EEG activation and symptoms of depression were given either massage therapy (n = 14) or music therapy (n = 16). EEG was recorded for three-minute periods before, during, and after therapy. Frontal EEG asymmetry was significantly attenuated during and after the massage and music sessions.     

不同类型音乐对悲伤情绪舒缓作用的EEG研究

该研究采用EEG法探究音乐对悲伤情绪舒缓作用。选取中国古典、流行、摇滚及班得瑞音乐及悲伤影片。播放影片诱发悲伤情绪后,用音乐进行舒缓,同步采集脑电,分析得脑电功率谱(PS)及重心频率(GF)。结果表明,影片显著降低了GF及α频段PS;古典音乐GF最高,且诱发的α段PS最高,摇滚乐最低;脑对音乐加工的性别差异显著,半球差异不显著;主观体验悲伤度与α波PS显著负相关。所选音乐均具情绪舒缓作用,中国古典音乐最佳;α波PS,可作为反映悲伤-快乐情绪体验变化的脑电指标。     

Instrumental and vocal music effects on EEG and EKG in neonates of depressed and non-depressed mothers

Neonates (M age = 16 days) born to depressed and non-depressed mothers were randomly assigned to hear an audiotaped lullaby of instrumental music with vocals or without vocals. Neonatal EEG and EKG were recorded for 2 min (baseline) of silence and for 2 min of one or the other music presentation. Neonates of non-depressed mothers showed greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry to both types of music, suggesting a withdrawal response. Neonates of depressed mothers on the other hand showed greater relative left frontal EEG asymmetry to the instrumental without vocal segment, suggesting an approach response, and greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry to the instrumental with vocal segment, suggesting a withdrawal response. Heart rate decelerations occurred following the music onset for both groups of infants, however, compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, infants of depressed mothers showed a delayed heart rate deceleration, suggesting slower processing and/or delayed attention. These findings suggest that neonates of depressed and non-depressed mothers show different EKG and EEG responses to instrumental music with versus without vocals.     

感知音乐音质的EEG探究

欣赏音乐是一种审美的体验活动,不同的音质会使人产生不同的感受。为探究音乐和EEG的关系,本文选用音乐《黑人舞曲》,运用主成分分析等方法,研究了11位在校大学生在欣赏不同音质音乐时的EEG特征。结果发现:在欣赏不同音质音乐时大脑皮层右颞等处快波功率差异显著。大脑对音乐的精细加工与大脑右颞等区的电活动密切相关。     

EEG alpha desynchronization in musicians and nonmusicians in response to changes in melody, tempo, and key in classical music

Two experiments were performed to examine musicians' and nonmusicians' electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to changes in major dimensions (tempo, melody, and key) of classical music. In Exp. 1, 12 nonmusicians' and 12 musicians' EEGs during melody and tempo changes in classical music showed more alpha desynchronization in the left hemisphere (F3) for changes in tempo than in the right. For melody, the nonmusicians were more right-sided (F4) than left in activation, and musicians showed no left-right differences. In Exp. 2, 18 musicians' and 18 nonmusicians' EEG after a key change in classical music showed that distant key changes elicited more right frontal (F4) alpha desynchronization than left. Musicians showed more reaction to key changes than nonmusicians and instructions to attend to key changes had no significant effect. Classical music, given its well-defined structure, offers a unique set of stimuli to study the brain. Results support the concept of hierarchical modularity in music processing that may be automatic.     

Combining EEG,MIDI, and motion capture techniques for investigating musical performance

This article describes a setup for the simultaneous recording of electrophysiological data (EEG), musical data (MIDI), and three-dimensional movement data. Previously, each of these three different kinds of measurements, conducted sequentially, has been proven to provide important information about different aspects of music performance as an example of a demanding multisensory motor skill. With the method described here, it is possible to record brain-related activity and movement data simultaneously, with accurate timing resolution and at relatively low costs. EEG and MIDI data were synchronized with a modified version of the FTAP software, sending synchronization signals to the EEG recording device simultaneously with keypress events. Similarly, a motion capture system sent synchronization signals simultaneously with each recorded frame. The setup can be used for studies investigating cognitive and motor processes during music performance and music-like tasks—for example, in the domains of motor control, learning, music therapy, or musical emotions. Thus, this setup offers a promising possibility of a more behaviorally driven analysis of brain activity.     

Development of frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rate (ECG) responses to affective musical stimuli during the first 12 months of post-natal life

We examined the development of infants' regional electrocortical (EEG) and heart rate (ECG) responses to affective musical stimuli during the first 12 months of post-natal life. Separate groups of infants were seen at 3 (n=33), 6 (n=42), 9 (n=52), and 12 (n=40) months of age at which time regional EEG and ECG responses were continuously recorded during a baseline condition and during the presentation of three orchestral pieces that were known to vary in affective valence and intensity (happy, sad, fear). Overall, there were two important findings. First, we found that although the overall amount of EEG 4-8 Hz power increased between 3 and 12 months, the distribution of EEG power changed across age, with the younger infants (3- and 6-month-olds) showing no difference between frontal and parietal regions, but the older infants (9- and 12-month-olds) showing relatively more activation at frontal than at parietal sites. This development likely reflects the maturation of frontal lobe function. Second, we found that the presentation of affective music significantly increased brain activity at 3 months of age, had seemingly little effect at 6 and 9 months, and significantly attenuated brain activity at 12 months. Findings suggest that there is a clear developmental change in the effect of music on brain activity in the first year, with music having a "calming" influence on infants by the end of the first year of life.     

音乐对情感词加工的情感/意义双启动效应

本研究在前人研究的基础上进一步探讨音乐对情感词的启动机制。采用内隐情感启动范式,运用脑电技术考察多种情感类型的音乐片段对情感意义一致或不一致的词加工的启动影响。行为实验结果显示,音乐对情感词产生启动效应。脑电实验的结果发现,音乐对情感词的启动效应表现为早晚两个子成分的N400效应,首先是音乐直接引发的情绪产生第一个启动,表现为早成分的N400;其次是音乐通过联想引发的情感语义而产生第二个启动,表现为晚成分的N400。据此可以认为,音乐对情感词的启动是双启动模式。     

音乐意义传递的神经证据——基于启动范式的发现与思考

使用语义启动(semantic priming)、概念启动(conceptual priming)、情感启动(affective priming)以及和声启动(harmonic priming)四种启动范式及其变式,认知神经科学的研究证实:音乐能够传递不同的意义,其主要的神经证据是两大脑电指标:对应于外在音乐意义(extra-musical meaning)的N400与对应于内在音乐意义(intra-musical meaning)的N5。对4种启动范式的分析发现:1)音乐以"语义"与"非语义"两种形式为媒介传递意义;2)启动范式的核心特征即是对基于"音乐知觉与图式"的"期望匹配与不匹配效应"的操作。与此同时,近期的研究表明N400与N5间的关系并非完全的"彼此独立",而是倾向于共存与共变,甚至是一个成分的两种表达。未来研究在进一步厘清音乐内、外在意义深层关联的同时,有必要将音乐意义传递的神经科学研究纳入到更为宏阔的时代、地域与社会性背景之中。     

Relative alpha desynchronization and synchronization during perception of music

Relative desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS) of the 8–10 Hz and 10–12 Hz alpha freqency bands elicited by music were studied in ten musically untrained right-handed subjects. The subjects listened to two five-minute musical excerpts representing two different musical genres, popular and classical, presented both foward and backward. ERD/ERS of the two alpha frequency bands was examined during the first four minutes of stimulus presentation using one-minute time windows. The results demonstrated that both the 8–10 Hz and the 10–12Hz frequency band exhibited reactivity to musical stimuli. The responses of the 8–10Hz and 10–12 Hz alpha frequency bands were dissimilar, dymanic and dependent on both time and stimulation type. The dynamics of these changes over time may explain some discrepancies in earlier EEG studies during listening to music.     

Beneficial effects of a music listening intervention on neural speech processing in 0–28-month-old children at risk for dyslexia

Familial risk for developmental dyslexia can compromise auditory and speech processing and subsequent language and literacy development. According to the phonological deficit theory, supporting phonological development during the sensitive infancy period could prevent or ameliorate future dyslexic symptoms. Music is an established method for supporting auditory and speech processing and even language and literacy, but no previous studies have investigated its benefits for infants at risk for developmental language and reading disorders. We pseudo-randomized N∼150 infants at risk for dyslexia to vocal or instrumental music listening interventions at 0–6 months, or to a no-intervention control group. Music listening was used as an easy-to-administer, cost-effective intervention in early infancy. Mismatch responses (MMRs) elicited by speech-sound changes were recorded with electroencephalogram (EEG) before (at birth) and after (at 6 months) the intervention and at a 28 months follow-up. We expected particularly the vocal intervention to promote phonological development, evidenced by enhanced speech-sound MMRs and their fast maturation. We found enhanced positive MMR amplitudes in the vocal music listening intervention group after but not prior to the intervention. Other music activities reported by parents did not differ between the three groups, indicating that the group effects were attributable to the intervention. The results speak for the use of vocal music in early infancy to support speech processing and subsequent language development in infants at developmental risk.

Research Highlights

• Dyslexia-risk infants were pseudo-randomly assigned to a vocal or instrumental music listening intervention at home from birth to 6 months of age.
• Neural mismatch responses (MMRs) to speech-sound changes were enhanced in the vocal music intervention group after but not prior to the intervention.
• Even passive vocal music listening in early infancy can support phonological development known to be deficient in dyslexia-risk.

     

Enculturation to musical pitch structure in young children: evidence from behavioral and electrophysiological methods

Children learn the structure of the music of their culture similarly to how they learn the language to which they are exposed in their daily environment. Furthermore, as with language, children acquire this musical knowledge without formal instruction. Two critical aspects of musical pitch structure in Western tonal music are key membership (understanding which notes belong in a key and which do not) and harmony (understanding which notes combine to form chords and which notes and chords tend to follow others). The early developmental trajectory of the acquisition of this knowledge remains unclear, in part because of the difficulty of testing young children. In two experiments, we investigated 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds' enculturation to Western musical pitch using a novel age‐appropriate and engaging behavioral task (Experiment 1) and electroencephalography (EEG; Experiment 2). In Experiment 1 we found behavioral evidence that 5‐year‐olds were sensitive to key membership but not to harmony, and no evidence that 4‐year‐olds were sensitive to either. However, in Experiment 2 we found neurophysiological evidence that 4‐year‐olds were sensitive to both key membership and harmony. Our results suggest that musical enculturation has a long developmental trajectory, and that children may have some knowledge of key membership and harmony before that knowledge can be expressed through explicit behavioral judgments.     

Musical experts recruit action-related neural structures in harmonic anomaly detection: Evidence for embodied cognition in expertise

Humans are extremely good at detecting anomalies in sensory input. For example, while listening to a piece of Western-style music, an anomalous key change or an out-of-key pitch is readily apparent, even to the non-musician. In this paper we investigate differences between musical experts and non-experts during musical anomaly detection. Specifically, we analyzed the electroencephalograms (EEG) of five expert cello players and five non-musicians while they listened to excerpts of J.S. Bach’s Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1. All subjects were familiar with the piece, though experts also had extensive experience playing the piece. Subjects were told that anomalous musical events (AMEs) could occur at random within the excerpts of the piece and were told to report the number of AMEs after each excerpt. Furthermore, subjects were instructed to remain still while listening to the excerpts and their lack of movement was verified via visual and EEG monitoring. Experts had significantly better behavioral performance (i.e. correctly reporting AME counts) than non-experts, though both groups had mean accuracies greater than 80%. These group differences were also reflected in the EEG correlates of key-change detection post-stimulus, with experts showing more significant, greater magnitude, longer periods of, and earlier peaks in condition-discriminating EEG activity than novices. Using the timing of the maximum discriminating neural correlates, we performed source reconstruction and compared significant differences between cellists and non-musicians. We found significant differences that included a slightly right lateralized motor and frontal source distribution. The right lateralized motor activation is consistent with the cortical representation of the left hand – i.e. the hand a cellist would use, while playing, to generate the anomalous key-changes. In general, these results suggest that sensory anomalies detected by experts may in fact be partially a result of an embodied cognition, with a model of the action for generating the anomaly playing a role in its detection.     

Musicians processing music: Measurement of brain potentials with EEG

Abstract

In the present study, the EEG was recorded from the scalp of musicians while mentally active in their field. Analytic, creative and memory processes of the brain were observable using a special electrophysiological method called DC-potential recording. Music students listened to a sequence of four notes and subsequently were either to reverse the sequence (task 1 = analytic) or to compose a new continuation (task 2 = creative). In task 3, the initial segment of a well-known melody was presented and had to be continued (memory task). All tasks had to be solved mentally (imagery). In tasks 1 and 2, either tonal or atonal sequences were presented.

While processing, the results show that the analytic task elicited the highest brain activity. The analytic task involved mainly parieto-temporal areas of both hemispheres, the left hemisphere showing a tendency for domination. The memory task produced predominant activity over the right hemisphere. The creative task caused the lowest brain activation and elicited an unexpected lateralisation to the left, though we expected creativity to be a right hemispheric holistic-synthetic phenomenon.

Comparing listening with processing of the perceived music, we found a significant shift from an insignificant right hemispheric to an insignificant left hemispheric predominance (except with the memory task). This indicates that musicians do not lateralise to the left hemisphere per se when listening to music. Whether one finds a left hemispheric lateralisation in listening tasks or a right hemispheric one probably depends on the amount of simultaneous analytic-sequential processing the musician undertakes.     

Disliked Music can be Better for Performance than Liked Music

Although liked music is known to improve performance through boosting one's mood and arousal, both liked music and disliked music impair serial recall performance. Given that the key acoustical feature of this impairment is the acoustical variation, it is possible that some music may contain less acoustical variation and so produce less impairment. In this situation, unliked, unfamiliar music could be better for performance than liked, familiar music. This study tested this by asking participants to serially recall eight‐item lists in either quiet, liked or disliked music conditions. Results showed that performance was significantly poorer in both music conditions compared with quiet. More importantly, performance in the liked music condition was significantly poorer than in the disliked music condition. These findings provide further illustration of the irrelevant sound effect and limitations of the impact of liked music on cognition. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Musical preferences during and after relaxation and exercise

Effects of the listening context on responses to music largely have been neglected despite the prevalence of music listening in our everyday lives. This article reports 2 studies in which participants chose music of high or low arousal potential during (Experiment 1) or immediately after (Experiment 2) exercise or relaxation. In Experiment 1, participants preferred appropriate arousal-polarizing music over arousal-moderating music. In Experiment 2, participants preferred arousal-moderating music over arousal-polarizing music, such that their listening times contrasted clearly with those in the first study even though the same music and methods were used. Thus musical preferences interact with the listening situation, and participants' music selections represent an attempt to optimize their responses to that situation. When motivated to maintain a state of polarized arousal, listeners use music to achieve this; when they have no such goal, they use music to moderate arousal.     

The Effect of Music‐Induced Mood on Aggressive Affect,Cognition, and Behavior1

Two studies explored the role of pleasant music in buffering the adverse effects of provocation. In the first study, 111 participants listened to aversive, pleasant, or no music before receiving a provocation and completing a measure of aggressive behavior. Participants exposed to pleasant music reported more positive mood. Those in the aversive music condition reported more negative mood than did those in the no‐music control condition. The more positive the music‐induced mood, the less anger was experienced and aggressive behavior was shown after provocation. In Study 2 (N = 142), listening to pleasant music reduced anger following provocation, compared to aversive music and a no‐music control condition. Pleasant music also increased response latencies in recognizing aggressive words after provocation.     

The relative importance of math‐ and music‐related cognitive and affective factors in predicting undergraduate music theory achievement

Based on research identifying relations between math and music, we aimed to identify the group of cognitive and affective factors related to math and music theory that best explained undergraduate music theory achievement. Using dominance analysis, we predicted the music theory course grades of 230 undergraduate music majors. Potential predictors were narrowed from measures of knowledge, aptitude, experience, confidence, and anxiety in both music theory and math as well as spatial skills and reading test scores. Results suggested that ACT math scores and music theory confidence were important predictors for Music Theories I and II grades. Music Theory I was also predicted by aptitude‐based music theory skills, and Music Theory II was also predicted by math course experience. These findings provide evidence for a relation between math and music theory and support the use of several readily available measures for college‐level music instructors to identify students who may struggle in music theory.     

Philosophy and Music

This essay explores some aspects of the relation between philosophy and music. First, how music can inspire philosophy; second, how philosophy can inspire music. Mathematics as a middle term between music and philosophy, the idea of wholeness in a musical composition or a philosophical text, music as a mode of thought displaying traits such as logic, coherence, and sense—these are some ways in which music and philosophy may be seen to be connected. Also, composers sometimes have explicit recourse to philosophical ideas in advancing their music, there being prominent examples of this in the twentieth century. Lastly, given there is such a thing as the philosophy of music, might there also be the music of philosophy?     

Liked Music Increases Spatial Rotation Performance Regardless of Tempo

Performance on spatial rotation tasks has been shown to improve following listening to music that one likes with the explanation that the fast tempo, and the major mode associated with it, increases arousal and mood. However, given that research also shows that people sometimes like slow-tempo music as much as fast-tempo music it seems remiss that this preference effect has not been explored for slow-tempo music. We extend previous findings by using a more ecologically-valid method and explore whether the tempo effect was independent of the preference for the music, especially when the music is of a slow tempo. Participants listened to both liked and disliked music, in either a fast or slow tempo, prior to completing a series of spatial rotation tasks. In both tempos, liked music was associated with significantly better spatial rotation performance than disliked music. Interestingly, disliked, fast-tempo music was no better than liked, slow-tempo music. Results are discussed with respect to the arousal and mood literature.