Norman M. Weinberger

Everyone has brain waves (the electroencephalogram or simply EEG), which reflect the massed activity of synaptic potentials in countless brain cells. . Does the amount of EEG similarity or "coherence" among different regions of the brain reflect differences in experience or training? To approach this question, Johnson, Petsche, Richter, von Stein and Filz (Music Perception,, 1996, 13, 563-582) analyzed the degree of EEG coherence during spontaneous waking periods that were presumably devoid of any particular mental activity. They studied the relationships of coherence both to gender and degree of musical training. Females had higher coherence than males. The authors conclude that the gender differences are in accord with anatomical studies showing that females have more interhemispheric connections than males. Of particular interest for music, subjects with music training exhibited significantly more EEG coherence within and between the hemispheres than matched controls without such training. The authors suggest that greater coherence in musicians "...may reflect a specialized organization of brain activity in subjects with music training for enabling the experiences of ordered acoustic patterns. ... music training may influence the cortical connectivity that is observable even in the spontaneous EEG." That is, the authors hypothesize that musical training increases the number of functional interconnections in the brain.