Auditory perception of music measured by brain electrical activity mapping

The brain electrical activity of right-handed normal subjects was studied while they were exposed to auditory stimulation of the music type. The material presented was a note, a scale and a melody, recorded on magnetic tape. Each stimulus condition lasted 45 sec. The first 30 sec were analysed using brain electrical activity mapping in the delta (1-4 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta 2 (18-24 Hz) frequency bands. The results showed significant bilateral reaction differences for all conditions, showing a left midtemporal activation predominance for the note and scale conditions, but a right midtemporal and frontal predominance for the melody. The results are discussed in terms of functional specialization for different levels of processing.