Relationship between Psychological Indices and Physiological Brain Activity

- Measured by NIRS while Listening to Music -

Abstract

This study compared psychological and physiological indices while listening to different music compositions to examine whether music compositions that differ in their psychological index also differ in their physiological index. In this study, the physiological index was the brain activity measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). First, the psychological indices of six music compositions were determined, from which two music compositions that resulted in opposite affective values were identified. The activity of the brain was measured by NIRS while the subjects listened to these two compositions. A trend was found that the two compositions with different psychological indices were also different in the physiological index, suggesting that the difference in psychological index may be reflected in the brain activity in and around the prefrontal cortex.