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Musicians' brains synchronise even when playing different notes

Last Updated 04 May 2018, 08:38 IST

Synchronisation emerges between brains when making music together, and even when musicians play different voices, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin have found.

In a study, Johanna Sanger and her team used electrodes to record the brain waves of guitarists while they played different voices of the same duet. The results point to brain synchronicity that cannot be explained away by similitudes in external stimulation but can be attributed to a more profound interpersonal coordination.

Scientists working with Ulman Lindenberger at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin already discovered synchronous brain activity between musicians playing the same piece in 2009.

The current study goes one step further by examining the brain activity of guitar players performing a piece of music with two different parts. Their aim was to find out whether musicians’ brains would synchronize if the two guitarists were not playing exactly the same notes, but instead played different voices of the same song.  

“When people coordinate their own actions, small networks between brain regions are formed. But we also observed similar network properties between the brains of the individual players, especially when mutual coordination is very important; for example at the joint onset of a piece of music,” said Johanna Sanger.

The difference between leader and follower was also reflected in the results of the measurement of electrical activity captured by electrodes: “In the player taking the lead, the internal synchronization of an individual’s brain waves was stronger and, importantly, was present already before the duet started to play,” said Johanna Sanger.

“This could be a reflection of the leading player’s decision to begin playing at a certain moment in time,” she added.

The current data indicate that synchronisation between individuals occurs in brain regions associated with social cognition and music production.

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(Published 30 November 2012, 15:42 IST)

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