The Effect of Music Listening and Attentiveness Training on the EEG's of Musicians and Nonmusicians

Nine musician and nine nonmusician college undergraduates (N = 18) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups. A distraction group (n = 6) listened to 40 prerecorded music lessons and were also assigned the task of putting a hash mark on a piece of paper each time their attention wandered from the music listening. A listening group (n = 6) listened to the same 40 listening lessons, but subjectively rated their attentiveness after each music listening session. A third, no contact control group (n = 6). did no assigned listening. All subjects were given an electroencephalographic pre, mid and posttest under alternating conditions of silence and music during which the number of seconds spent producing alpha frequency cortical activity were quantified. Those subjects in the distraction group reduced the number of distractions from a mean of 50 distractions during the first listening session to a mean of 17.5 distractions per session during the 40th session. The listening group reported no such gain in attentiveness. The musician population increased alpha production over the 7-week experimental period while the nonmusician population did not. Differences between musician and nonmusician alpha production were significant. Nonmusicians produced less alpha activity the more contact they had with the experimental variables. Nonmusicians spent significantly more time sleeping during the EEG pre, mid and post monitoring sessions than did musicians, although the amount of sleep for nonmusicians in each experimental group did not vary significantly.