In Barbara Jobst’s lab, a group of scientists tested to see whether or not Mozart’s piece “Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major” would help reduce spikes caused by specific electrical activity in the brain. The original test, done in the 1990s was hard to get the same results multiple times due to the lack of right tools. They used a scalp electroencephalogram, which is placed above the patients’ heads. In this experiment, researchers placed electrodes directly onto the brains of 16 patients with epilepsy. This allowed for more precise measurements of brain activity because it prevented mixed signals caused by the many layers of tissues and bone.
Results
Due to the advancement of mindfulness and IQ of college students when listening to Mozart, researchers wanted to see if a similar positive effect would occur with the brains of people with epilepsy and reduce symptoms. The spikes of certain electrical activity in the brains of 16 patients with epilepsy dropped by two thirds when listening to Mozart’s “Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major” for at least 30 seconds. They mostly dropped in the areas of the brain associated with emotional responses, the left and right frontal cortices. The unpredictable beat and tempo of Mozart’s piece leads to positive emotional responses.
Discussion
Disadvantages of this paper include the fact that the person conducting the experiment must listen to the sonata very often and that not all music can stimulate the brain. This method requires electrodes to be placed directly on a patient’s brain surface rather than on top of their scalp giving a more accurate and detailed reading. However, this requires a surgical resection to plant the electrode before their surgery. Further research could include different types of classical music (such as baroque, romantic etc) as well as classical music performed by different instruments to verify this hypothesis.
APA Format Citation:
Rauscher, F., Shaw, G. & Ky, C. Music and spatial task performance. Nature 365, 611 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1038/365611a0
