EFFECT OF OLD-ORIENTAL MUSIC IN THE EEG

Abstract

The effects of two pieces of old oriental music were compared to the changes of the EEG-spectral parameters in 13 persons whose artefact-free EEG were registered twice within two weeks time. According to the 10-20-system we registered the EEG from the channels F3, F4, C3, C4, O1, O2, F5, F6, T7 and T8 to the connected ear electrodes. The listeners reacted on the piece with the arabic flute (ney) with directed attention and a readiness to imaginative experience. When hearing the other piece, a song accompanied by the turkish lute (ud), they experienced happiness und relaxation. The EEG showed a highly significant augmentation of the slow and the middle alpha-power and a deminuition of the 10-90-percent bandwidth of the alpha-and the common alpha-theta-bandwidth at nearly all channels exept at the left frontal when hearing the flute compared to the lute. The results support the assumption of two different emotional states, intention and joy with typal patterns of EEG-parameters (7). Further more the chosen pieces of music seem to be prototypes of the active and passive form of ancient oriental music therapy; the theory of emotions support to understand the effects of music by interpreting the observed effects in the EEG.