Brain & Music Recognition

Does anything different happen in the brain when it hears familiar versus unfamiliar music? We’re coming into the holiday season and I always look forward to hearing the music of the season.

 Good question. One study found that there are brain changes when it has recognized a piece of familiar music. According to the abstract, researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) and pupillometry to reveal the temporal signatures of the brain processes that allow differentiation between a familiar, well liked, and an unfamiliar piece of music. Professor Chait pointed out that the eye pupil dilated within 100-300 milliseconds after the start of a song if the subject recognized a familiar song; and a burst of electrical activity in the brain occurred around 500-800 milliseconds after the start of the song. These effects do not occur when the brain does not recognize the music as being familiar.