Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jan 6;89(1):42.
doi: 10.1007/s00426-024-02060-6.

The power of music: impact on EEG signals

Basma Bahgat El Sayed  1 , Mye Ali Basheer  2 , Marwa Safwat Shalaby  2 , Hala Rashad El Habashy  2 , Saly Hasan Elkholy  2
Affiliations

The power of music: impact on EEG signals

Basma Bahgat El Sayed et al. Psychol Res. .

Abstract

Introduction: Music is known to impact attentional state without conscious awareness. Listening to music encourages the brain to secrete neurotransmitters improving cognition and emotion.

Aim of work: Analysis of QEEG band width while listening to two music types, identifying different cortical areas activated and which genre has a similar effect to relaxed EEG.

Methods: This is a cross-section interventional analytic study including 76 normal subjects, 55 of them are females (72.37%). Participants listened to 10 min of a single audio track during EEG recording, consisting of (1 min of silence, 3 min of Egyptian folk music, 3 min of silence, then 3 min of Egyptian instrumental classic music (without any lyrics). We analyzed QEEG bands at each brain region during different tracks. The power ratio index (PRI) was calculated for each region, and then the interhemispheric difference was compared.

Results: The participants' ages ranged from 15 to 26 with a mean 16.73 ± 2.37 years. PRI showed a significant increase in the frontal and occipital regions during listening to folk music compared to the silent epoch, where p < 0.001 and p = 0.023, respectively. In the frontal and temporal regions, the classic music epoch evoked the highest PRI interhemispheric difference compared to the folk music epoch, where p = 0.004 and p < 0.001, respectively.

Conclusion: Egyptian folk music has significantly slowed the brain rhythm, particularly in the frontal region, compared to classic music, supporting the hypothesis of a momentary reduction of cognitive capacities by the noise. Classic music was evidently associated with a relaxed state EEG.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Faculty of Medicine Cairo University (REC) (Date 29 January 2024/No. N-15-2024). Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

References

    1. Aftanas, L. I., & Golocheikine, S. A. (2001). Human anterior and frontal midline theta and lower alpha reflect emotionally positive state and internalized attention: High-resolution EEG investigation of meditation. Neuroscience Letters,310(1), 57–60. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ashby, F.G., Isen, A.M., & Turken, U. (1999) A Neurophysiological Theory of Positive Affect and Its Influence on Cognition. - PubMed
    1. Avila, C., Furnham, A., & McClelland, A. (2011). The influence of distracting familiar vocal music on cognitive performance of introverts and extraverts. Psychology of Music,40(1), 84–93. - DOI
    1. Bleibel, M., et al. (2023). The effect of music therapy on cognitive functions in patients with Alzheimer’s disease: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Alzheimers Res Ther,15(1), 65. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Corrigall, K. A., & Schellenberg, E. G. (2015). Liking music: Genres, contextual factors, and individual differences. Art, aesthetics, and the brain (pp. 263–284). Oxford University Press.

LinkOut - more resources