Characterization of the changes in electroencephalogram power spectra due to sound stimulation

Abstract

Music has an important role in our life nowadays. Music can affect emotions and brain activity that can be measured through brain waves as electrical signals produced by neurons to carry sensory and cognitive information. In this study, brain waves for 10-12 normal male-non musician undergraduate students under three kinds of treatment are read using wireless electroencephalography (EEG) with 14 channels. For the first treatment, EEGs data are recorded when the subjects are in relax condition, i.e. rest and listening music. For the second treatment, subjects were stimulated with music in two loudness levels and for the last treatment subjects were stimulated with two different tempos of a song. From all subjects of this work, it was obtained that the right brain hemisphere is more active when listening music (significance level of 0.02). The average power spectra slightly increase with increasing music loudness (significance level of 0.35-0.45). Changes in musical tempo cause a decrease of the power spectra of alpha and beta bands (significance level of 0.25-0.30).