Nonlinear Characteristics of High-Density Electroencephalography Demonstrate Differences in Neural Processing of...

This study investigates the impact of music training on the neural processing of musical syntax, as captured by electroencephalography (EEG) signals. It addresses the complex, long-term brain state changes and inter-regional interactions during syntactic processing, which remain poorly understood. We compared the syntactic sensitivity of musicians and nonmusicians by exposing them to music fragments with varying degrees of syntactical violations according to music theory. Our findings reveal that music training enhances brain sensitivity to syntactic violations, with musicians exhibiting lower low-band power and higher high-band power in EEG signals compared to nonmusicians. Additionally, musicians showed higher dispersion entropy and fractal dimension in EEG signals, indicating greater complexity in neural processing. Brain connectivity, as measured by covariance, decreased for nonmusicians but increased for musicians when listening to the most syntactically irregular version of a familiar piece of music, suggesting differential neural engagement. Phase locking value analysis demonstrated consistently higher brain connectivity in musicians. This research provides insights into the advanced cognitive processes underlying music syntax processing and offers a novel approach for evaluating music cognition levels, contributing to the understanding of enhanced cognition in musicians.