Event-related potential changes on listening to specific modes of Indian music in healthy young individuals - a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Music is known to have a positive impact on Mood and Cognition. But music listening itself involves cognitive processing, and it is not clear how different musical features engage this process in the listeners and help disengage from distracting stimuli. To address this, we examined event-related potentials (ERPs) to study passive attention to a 3-stimulus oddball task before, during, and after listening to a 10-minute Indian music clip intervention of 3 different Ragas or Modes, as 3 separate groups. Intermittent 'nature sounds' were used as a control intervention in a separate group. If a particular music was improving general attention to the surroundings (a dominant argument), the ERP components to oddball stimulus (N1 & P3) would show increased amplitude and reduced/increased latency, during or after intervention. Whereas, if a particular piece of music is engaging and helps disconnect oneself from distracting stimuli, the ERP components to oddball stimulus (N1 & P3) would show decreased amplitude and minimal latency change. Our results show the latter case. Group A (Raga Miyan ki Todi) showed the effect on P3 amplitude during and after music, and Group B (Raga Malkauns) showed the effect only after music. Group B (Raga Malkauns) showed a consistent effect on N1 latency during music and Group C (Raga Puriya) after music. Therefore, cognitive engagement by music depends on its musical composition and could influence the cognitive processing of other stimuli even after the music-listening period. This understanding would help design appropriate music therapy for cognitive training.