FRIDAY, Nov. 30, 2012 — New findings on musical harmony strike a chord — in the brain. According to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, brain activity aligns among musicians who perform together.
Unlike past studies that uncovered coordinated brain behavior among musicians who play the same song, the latest research, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, suggests that brain waves of different musicians playing together align even when each musician plays different chords or notes. "When people coordinate their own actions, small networks between brain regions are formed," said Johanna Sänger, doctoral fellow and study leader, in a press release.
Utilizing electrodes, scientists recorded the electrical activity in different brain regions of guitarists performing different sequences of "Sonata in G Major," a duet by Christian Gottlieb Scheidler. One member of each duo was designated the lead, assuming responsibility for orchestrating start time and tempo, while the other followed.
Even though they were playing different chords, each musician's brain activity was synchronized with the other, revealing a direct neural link representing or resulting from their interpersonal coordination. Each player's internal brain activity was also synchronized with the music. "In the player taking the lead, the internal synchronization of an individual's brain waves was stronger and, importantly, was present already before the duet started to play," noted Sänger. "This could be a reflection of the leading player's decision to begin playing at a certain moment in time."
Brain synchronization is currently thought to arise in areas of the brain related to social cognition and music production. However, music is not the only activity that seems to trigger neural connectedness. "We think that different people's brain waves also synchronize when people mutually coordinate their actions in other ways, such as during sport, or when they communicate with one another," added Sänger.
Recently, scientists have also studied other brain patterns, reporting that the ability to rap and improvise is tied to the frontal cortex of the brain responsible for creativity and that brain waves can be reconstructed into the words of those who can't speak.