The Influence of Listening to Music on Adults with Left-behind Experience Revealed by EEG-based Connectivity

Abstract

The human brain has a close relationship with music. Music-induced structural and functional brain changes have been demonstrated in the healthy adult. In the present study, adults with left-behind experience (ALB) were divided into two groups. The experimental group (ALB-E) took part in the music therapy experiment with three stages, including before listening to music (pre-stage), initially listening to music (mid-stage) and after listening to music (post-stage). The control group (ALB-C) did not participate in music therapy. Scalp resting-state EEGs of ALB were recorded during the three stages. We found no significant frequency change in the ALB-C group. In the ALB-E group, only the theta power spectrum was significantly different at all stages. The topographical distributions of the theta power spectrum represented change in trends from the frontal regions to the occipital regions. The result of Granger causal analysis (GCA), based on theta frequency, showed a stronger information flow from the middle frontal gyrus to the middle temporal gyrus (MFG → MTG) in the left hemisphere at the pre-stage compared to the post-stage. Additionally, the experimental group showed a weaker information flow from inferior gyrus to superior temporal gyrus (IFG → STG) in the right hemisphere at post-test stage compared to the ALB-C group. Our results demonstrate that listening to music can play a positive role on improving negative feelings for individuals with left behind experience. Adults with Left-behind experience (ALB) generally refers to an individual that underwent an extended period of time in childhood without residing with parents and was instead brought up by grandparents or relatives. This is caused by unbalanced economic development within a geographical region and has become an emerging social phenomenon. This phenomenon is common in rural China, Philippines, Indonesia, and other countries 1. After the period of lacking parents' care and communication, ALB usually present strong psychological insecurity and mistrust for other people. In social occasions, ALB are not willing to take the initiative to establish good interpersonal relationships with others. From an early age, they will have a mentality of inferiority and cowardice which affects subsequent development. This can make ALB more likely to opt to escape and deal with problems in a negative way. In addition, ALB often show emotional indifference in their psychology. Long-term communication with parents is relatively sparse and there is little sense of family warmth, which will affect their overall personality and emotional attitude. This can result in a lack of social interest and methods for ALB, and social anxiety frequently occurs during their interactions with others. Previous studies have reported that people who have left-behind experience may present with depression, anxiety, loneliness, and lower satisfaction for life compared to those who have no left-behind experience 2. Researchers conducted a survey of 4857 involving children and adults with lef...

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