Cortical responses to Mozart's sonata enhance spatial-reasoning ability.
OBJECTIVE
In this study, we examined the effects of Mozart's music on spatial-reasoning ability by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).


METHODS
The subjects comprised five males and five females (aged 25-35 years). They were administered the seven original core subtests of the Japanese version of the Tanaka B-type intelligence test, which includes a spatial-reasoning subtest. We used three different music conditions: Mozart's sonata (K. 448), Beethoven and a silent control condition. Moreover, we used optical topography to assess the effects of music on brain function with a spatial-reasoning subtest.


RESULTS
We found that exposure to Mozart's sonata enhanced cognitive performance in intelligence tests when compared with results obtained upon exposure to Beethoven or silence. In addition to the expected temporal cortex activation, we report dramatic results revealing differences in activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the occipital cortex, both of which are expected to be important for spatial-temporal reasoning.


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest the possibility of a direct priming effect being responsible for preferential activation, and open the door to understanding the potential effects of Mozart's music.
Suda
Miyuki
M
Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka, Japan. miyuki@envi.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
Morimoto
Kanehisa
K
Obata
Akiko
A
Koizumi
Hideaki
H
Maki
Atsushi
A
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology