[Functional changes in the central nervous system during music perception (study of positive emotions)]

Music as a factor of creating a certain emotional state, may be used for studying neurophysiological bases of human positive emotions. Investigations of conservatory students and people without special musical education have shown that music exerts complex influences on the CNS, manifested in changes of a number of neurophysiological reactions attesting changes in the flow of excitations in the cortico-thalamic and cortico-limbic circles. Listening to music is accompanied with a partial replacement of the dominating alpha-rhythm by activity in the frequency range of beta-, theta- and delta-waves and with a change of some vegetative reactions. It was possible to define some qualitative differences in the action of music on the CNS depending on the interpretation of the composition as well as the presence or absence of musical education of the listeners.