Music perception and imagery in EEG: Alpha band effects of task and stimulus.
Author: Schaefer RS, Vlek RJ, Desain P.
Affiliation:
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior: Centre for Cognition, Montessorilaan 3, 6525 HE Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Sint Maartenskliniek Research, Development and Education. Hengstdal 3, 6574 NA Ubbergen, The Netherlands.
Conference/Journal: Int J Psychophysiol.
Date published: 2011 Sep 22
Other:
Word Count: 163
Previous work has shown that mental imagination of sound generally elicits an increase of alpha band activity (8-12Hz) in the electroencephalogram (EEG). In addition, alpha activity has been shown to be related to music processing. In the current study, EEG signatures were investigated for perception and imagery of two different natural musical phrases. The responses are compared between tasks and between stimuli. For all tasks and stimuli, posterior alpha band activity was seen, but differences are shown in the power of this response. As expected, imagery resulted in a significantly stronger alpha activation than perception. The comparison of the averaged responses to the stimuli also showed a difference in alpha power, although this effect is seen in different directions. These results are interpreted to indicate that both the tasks and the stimuli modulate an attentional network, which may relate to the inhibition of non-task relevant cortical areas, as well as engagement with the music.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PMID: 21945480
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