Differential cognitive responses to guqin music and piano music in Chinese subjects: an event-related potential study
Wei-Na ZHU1, Jun-Jun ZHANG1, Hai-Wei LIU1, Xiao-Jun DING1,2, Yuan-Ye MA1,3, Chang-Le ZHOU1
1 Mind, Art and Computation Laboratory, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, School of Information Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
2 College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
3 Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
Abstract
Objective
To compare the cognitive effects of guqin (the oldest Chinese instrument) music and piano music.
Methods
Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data in a standard two-stimulus auditory oddball task were recorded and analyzed.
Results
This study replicated the previous Results of culture-familiar music effect on Chinese subjects: the greater P300 amplitude in frontal areas in a culture-familiar music environment. At the same time, the difference between guqin music and piano music was observed in N1 and later positive complex (LPC: including P300 and P500): a relatively higher participation of right anterior-temporal areas in Chinese subjects.
Conclusion
The Results suggest that the special features of ERP responses to guqin music are the outcome of Chinese tonal language environments given the similarity between Guqin’s tones and Mandarin lexical tones.
Keywords
music; guqin; piano; cognitive process; event-related potential (ERP); N1; LPC; P300
