Neural Correlates of Boredom in Music Perception.
BACKGROUND
Music can elicit powerful emotional responses, the neural correlates of which have not been properly understood. An important aspect about the quality of any musical piece is its ability to elicit a sense of excitement in the listeners. In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of boredom evoked by music in human subjects.


METHODS
We used EEG recording in nine subjects while they were listening to total number of 10 short-length (83 sec) musical pieces with various boredom indices. Subjects evaluated boringness of musical pieces while their EEG was recording.


RESULTS
Using short time Fourier analysis, we found that beta 2 rhythm was (16-20 Hz) significantly lower whenever the subjects rated the music as boring in comparison to non-boring.


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate that the music modulates neural activity of various parts of the brain and can be measured using EEG.
Department of Music, Faculty of Music, Tehran University of Art, Tehran, Iran.
Ashkan
A
Fakhr Tabatabaie
Department of Music, Faculty of Music, Tehran University of Art, Tehran, Iran.
Mohammad Reza
MR
Azadehfar
Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Statistics, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekod, Iran.
Negin
N
Mirian
Department of Memory and Behavioral Neurology, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran, Iran.; Department of Memory and Behavioral Neurology, Faculty of Psychiatry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Maryam
M
Noroozian
McGill Vision Research Center, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Ahmad
A
Yoonessi
Department of Neuroscience, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mohammad Reza
MR
Saebipour
Department of Neuroscience, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.; National Brain Mapping Centre, Tehran, Iran.
Ali
A
Yoonessi
Boredom; Brain rhythms; EEG; Emotion; Music