The effect of listening to SMT music made using musical expectancy violations on brain concentration and activation

This study investigated the effect of listening to self-music therapy training (SMT) music, which was specially developed using musical expectancy violations, on improving brain concentration and activation. It was performed with a sample of 12 adults. Electroencephalograms (EEG) were obtained and analyzed after allowing the participants to listen to SMT music. An EEG device with eight channels was used to measure the brain waves. The changes in the EEGs were recorded when listening to SMT music in three states (stable, basic, and stimulated) after attaching the electrodes to the prefrontal cortex (Fp1 and Fp2), and the frontal (F3 and F4), temporal (T3 and T4), and parietal lobes (P3 and P4) according to the International 10/20 system. The EEG data were analyzed to determine the m-β wave appearance rate and absolute total power (ATP) for the three conditions, and a t-test was performed. The results showed that the rate of m-β wave appearance was higher in the stimulated and basic states than in the stable state (Fp1, Fp2, F4, T3, T4, P3, and P4) and higher in the stimulated state than in the basic state (Fp1, Fp2, T3, T4, and P4). The ATP was lower in the basic state than in the stable state (Fp2, F3, F4, and T3), but the ATP in the stimulated state was higher than in the basic or stable state in all areas excluding the left and right parietal lobes (Fp1, Fp2, F3, F4, T3, and T4). These results demonstrated that listening to SMT music by normal adults could increase brain concentration and activation.