The Mozart Effect: Distinctive Aspects of the Music — A Clue to Brain Coding?

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine distinctive aspects of Mozart music that may explain the "Mozart Effect," specifically, the decrease in seizure activity. As many as 81 musical selections of Mozart, but also 67 of J.C. Bach, 67 of J.S. Bach, 39 of Chopin and 148 from 55 other composers were computer analyzed to quantify the music in search of any distinctive aspect and later to determine the degree to which a dominant periodicity could be found. Long-term periodicity (especially 10-60 sec, mean and median of 30 sec), was found often in Mozart music but also that of the two Bachs, significantly more often than the other composers and was especially absent in the control music that had no effect on epileptic activity in previous studies. Short-term periodicities were not significantly different between Mozart and the Bachs vs. the other composers. The conclusion is that one distinctive aspect of Mozart music is long-term periodicity that may well resonate within the cerebral cortex and also may be related to coding within the brain.

Reduction of Seizure Occurrence from Exposure to Auditory Stimulation in Individuals with Neurological Handicaps: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Imaging studies of subjects during exposure to the K.448 stimulus [40], [41] revealed widely distributed cortical areas become activated (particularly prefrontal cortex, but also inferotemporal, occipital, and parietal cortex, along with other frontal areas), not consistently observed from exposure to other music or auditory stimuli. Though not necessarily unique in its effect, analysis of this music [36], [47], [48] has demonstrated that it has unique rhythmic structure and long-term coherence, which may account for its ability to stimulate widely distributed activation in the cortex and evoke particular rhythms with anti-epileptiform/anti-seizure properties. This auditory neurostimulation and its rhythmicity may account for the music's ability to decrease seizures, analogous to how other forms of neurostimulation (e.g.…”

The Mozart Effect: A quantitative EEG study

“…Music acts as an exercise for exciting and priming the common repertoire and sequential flow of the cortical firing patterns responsible for higher brain functions (Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky, 1995). Hughes and Find (2000) highlighted the precise architecture of some musical compositions whose extremely specific physical-mathematical characteristics and rhythmical connotations are able to produce physiological stimulation of the cognitive functions and neuroplastic mechanisms forming the basis of physiological neuronal trophism. One of the distinctive features of Mozart's music is the frequent repetition of the melodic line; this determines the virtual lack of ''surprise'' elements that may distract the listener's attention from rational listening, where each element of harmonic (and melodic) tension finds a resolution that confirms listeners' expectations.…”

Musical Auditory Stimulation and Cardiac Autonomic Regulation

“…It was further reported that listening to the Mozart sonata significantly decreased epileptiform activity in patients with seizures (Hughes et al 2000). In a follow-up study analyzing the musical auditory stimulation of Haydn, Liszt, Bach, Chopin, Beethoven and Wagner it was found that Mozart's musical auditory stimulation continued to score significantly higher than the selections from the other six composers (Hughes 2000). The brain is only part of all mechanism related to musical auditory stimulation-induced cardiovascular responses.…”