Brain Hemisphericity and Music Performance Level in Undergraduate Music Students and Philharmonic Musicians

Abstract

A growing body of literature has revealed a link between brain hemisphericity and orientation towards certain professional domains. Moreover, several reports have discovered that brain hemisphericity tends to increase with professional experience. Some specialists have associated music with right hemisphericity although the fact has never been clearly demonstrated. The present study aims to explore the link between the brain hemisphericity and success in the musical domain by investigating undergraduate music students and philharmonic musicians. The research questions are: Is music performance level influenced by hemisphericity? Does hemisphericity increase over time as a result of professional music experience? One hundred and thirty music undergraduate and 47 philharmonic performers joined the study. All participants specialized in either vocal or instrumental classical music performance. The professional musicians have worked in the philharmonic for 5 up to 30 years (mean=10 years), resulting in a significant difference in music performance experience between the two experimental groups. All the subjects have completed The Hemispheric Mode Indicator (McCarthy, 1993) that demonstrated a reliability quotient of 0.81 for the translated and adapted Romanian version. Students’ level of music performance was assessed by documenting the grades they obtained during their annual music performance exams. Students with right hemisphericity revealed a significant higher level of music performance (t=0.66, p=0.04). Most of the students (except for the pianists) were right-brain oriented. The philharmonic performers showed a more accentuated left hemisphericity. The results indicate that experience in music performance tends to create a shift from right to left hemisphericity.