ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Mozart effect in epilepsy: Why is Mozart better than Haydn? Acoustic qualities-based analysis of stereoelectroencephalography

Klára Štillová

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Epilepsy Centre and Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Data curation (equal), Formal analysis (lead), Investigation (lead), Methodology (equal), Project administration (equal), Resources (lead), Software (equal), Validation (equal), Visualization (equal), Writing - original draft (lead), Writing - review & editing (lead)

Search for more papers by this author

Tomáš Kiska,

Tomáš Kiska

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Department of Telecommunications, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Conceptualization (supporting), Formal analysis (equal), Investigation (supporting), Methodology (equal), Software (equal), Visualization (equal), Writing - original draft (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Eva Koriťáková,

Eva Koriťáková

Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Formal analysis (supporting), Investigation (supporting), Software (equal), Validation (equal), Writing - original draft (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Ondřej Strýček,

Ondřej Strýček

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Epilepsy Centre and Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Data curation (supporting), Formal analysis (equal), Investigation (supporting), Software (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Jiří Mekyska,

Jiří Mekyska

Department of Telecommunications, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Formal analysis (supporting), Methodology (supporting), Software (equal), Supervision (supporting), Validation (equal), Visualization (equal), Writing - original draft (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Jan Chrastina,

Jan Chrastina

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Department of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Data curation (supporting), Methodology (supporting), Software (supporting), Supervision (supporting), Writing - review & editing (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Ivan Rektor,

Corresponding Author

Ivan Rektor

[email protected]

orcid.org/0000-0002-9635-7404

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Epilepsy Centre and Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Correspondence

Ivan Rektor, Masaryk University, CEITEC and Epilepsy Centre, Department of Neurology, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic.

Email: [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization (equal), Funding acquisition (lead), Investigation (equal), Methodology (equal), Project administration (equal), Resources (equal), Supervision (lead), Writing - original draft (supporting), Writing - review & editing (equal)

Search for more papers by this author

Klára Štillová,

Klára Štillová

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Epilepsy Centre and Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Search for more papers by this author

Tomáš Kiska,

Tomáš Kiska

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Department of Telecommunications, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Conceptualization (supporting), Formal analysis (equal), Investigation (supporting), Methodology (equal), Software (equal), Visualization (equal), Writing - original draft (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Eva Koriťáková,

Eva Koriťáková

Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Formal analysis (supporting), Investigation (supporting), Software (equal), Validation (equal), Writing - original draft (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Ondřej Strýček,

Ondřej Strýček

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Epilepsy Centre and Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Data curation (supporting), Formal analysis (equal), Investigation (supporting), Software (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Jiří Mekyska,

Jiří Mekyska

Department of Telecommunications, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Formal analysis (supporting), Methodology (supporting), Software (equal), Supervision (supporting), Validation (equal), Visualization (equal), Writing - original draft (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Jan Chrastina,

Jan Chrastina

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Department of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Contribution: Data curation (supporting), Methodology (supporting), Software (supporting), Supervision (supporting), Writing - review & editing (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author

Ivan Rektor,

Corresponding Author

Ivan Rektor

[email protected]

orcid.org/0000-0002-9635-7404

Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Epilepsy Centre and Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Correspondence

Ivan Rektor, Masaryk University, CEITEC and Epilepsy Centre, Department of Neurology, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic.

Email: [email protected]

Search for more papers by this author

First published: 01 February 2021

https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.14758

Citations: 20

Funding information

This work was supported by research project AZV 17-32292A and SIX Research Centre.

Share a link

Email
Wechat
Bluesky

Abstract

Background and purpose

We aimed to confirm the Mozart effect in epileptic patients using intracerebral electroencephalography recordings and the hypothesis that the reduction of epileptiform discharges (EDs) can be explained by the music's acoustic properties.

Methods

Eighteen epilepsy surgery candidates were implanted with depth electrodes in the temporal medial and lateral cortex. Patients listened to the first movement of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos K. 448 and to the first movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 94. Musical features from each composition with respect to rhythm, melody, and harmony were analyzed.

Results

Epileptiform discharges in intracerebral electroencephalography were reduced by Mozart's music. Listening to Haydn's music led to reduced EDs only in women; in men, the EDs increased. The acoustic analysis revealed that nondissonant music with a harmonic spectrum and decreasing tempo with significant high-frequency parts has a reducing effect on EDs in men. To reduce EDs in women, the music should additionally be gradually less dynamic in terms of loudness. Finally, we were able to demonstrate that these acoustic characteristics are more dominant in Mozart's music than in Haydn's music.

Conclusions

We confirmed the reduction of intracerebral EDs while listening to classical music. An analysis of the musical features revealed that the acoustic characteristics of music are responsible for suppressing brain epileptic activity. Based on our study, we suggest studying the use of musical pieces with well-defined acoustic properties as an alternative noninvasive method to reduce epileptic activity in patients with epilepsy.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Open Research

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Supporting Information

REFERENCES

1Rauscher FH, Robinson KD, Jens JJ. Improved maze learning through early music exposure in rats. Neurol Res. 1998; 20(5): 427-432.
10.1080/01616412.1998.11740543
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
2Rauscher FH, Shaw GL, Ky KN. Music and spatial task performance. Nature. 1993; 365(6447): 611.
10.1038/365611a0
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
3Maguire MJ. Music and epilepsy: a critical review. Epilepsia. 2012; 53(6): 947-961.
10.1111/j.1528-1167.2012.03523.x
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
4Maguire M. Epilepsy and music: practical notes. Pract Neurol. 2017; 17(2): 86-95.
10.1136/practneurol-2016-001487
CAS PubMed Google Scholar
5Hughes JR, Daaboul Y, Fino JJ, Shaw GL. The “Mozart effect” on epileptiform activity. Clin Electroencephalogr. 1998; 29(3): 109-119.
10.1177/155005949802900301
CAS PubMed Google Scholar
6Hughes JR, Fino JJ, Melyn MA. Is there a chronic change of the “Mozart effect” on epileptiform activity? A case study. Clin Electroencephalogr. 1999; 30(2): 44-45.
10.1177/155005949903000204
CAS PubMed Google Scholar
7Hughes JR, Fino JJ. The Mozart effect: distinctive aspects of the music – a clue to brain coding? Clin Electroencephalogr. 2000; 31(2): 94-103.
10.1177/155005940003100208
CAS PubMed Google Scholar
8Hughes JR. The Mozart effect. Epilepsy Behav. 2001; 2(5): 396-417.
10.1006/ebeh.2001.0250
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
9Dastgheib SS, Layegh P, Sadeghi R, Foroughipur M, Shoeibi A, Gorji A. The effects of Mozart’s music on interictal activity in epileptic patients: systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2014; 14(1): 1-11.
10.1007/s11910-013-0420-x
Web of Science® Google Scholar
10Kuester G, Rios L, Ortiz A, Miranda M. Effect of music on the recovery of a patient with refractory nonconvulsive status epilepticus. Epilepsy Behav. 2010; 18: 491-493.
10.1016/j.yebeh.2010.06.001
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
11Lin LC, Juan C-T, Chang H-W, et al. Mozart K.448 attenuates spontaneous absence seizure and related high-voltage rhythmic spike discharges in Long Evans rats. Epilepsy Res. 2013; 104: 234-240.
10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2012.11.005
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
12Hughes JR. The Mozart effect: additional data. Epilepsy Behav. 2002; 3(2): 182-184.
10.1006/ebeh.2002.0329
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
13Lartillot O, Toiviainen P. A Matlab toolbox for musical feature extraction from audio. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-07), 2007;Bordeaux, France, 1–8.
Google Scholar
14Trimble M, Hesdorffer D. Music and the brain: the neuroscience of music and musical appreciation. BJPsych Int. 2017; 14(2): 28-31.
10.1192/S2056474000001720
PubMed Google Scholar
15Blood AJ, Zatorre RJ. Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001; 98: 11818-11823.
10.1073/pnas.191355898
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
16Salimpoor VN, Benovoy M, Larcher K, Dagher A, Zatorre RJ. Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nat Neurosci. 2011; 14(2): 257-262.
10.1038/nn.2726
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
17Rektor I, Kuba R, Brázdil M, Chrastina J. Do the basal ganglia inhibit seizure activity in temporal lobe epilepsy? Epilepsy Behav. 2012; 25(1): 56-59.
10.1016/j.yebeh.2012.04.125
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
18Výtvarová E, Mareček R, Fousek J, Strýček O, Rektor I. Large-scale cortico-subcortical functional networks in focal epilepsies: the role of the basal ganglia. Neuroimage Clin. 2016; 14: 28-36.
10.1016/j.nicl.2016.12.014
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
19O’Kelly J, James L, Palaniappan R, Taborin J, Fachner J, Magee WL. Neurophysiological and behavioral responses to music therapy in vegetative and minimally conscious States. Front Hum Neurosci. 2013; 7: 884.
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
20Xing Y, Qin Y, Jing W, et al. Exposure to Mozart music reduces cognitive impairment in pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus rats. Cogn Neurodyn. 2016a; 10(1): 23-30.
10.1007/s11571-015-9361-1
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
21Koelsch S. Towards a neural basis of music-evoked emotions. Trends Cogn Sci. 2010; 14(3): 131-137.
10.1016/j.tics.2010.01.002
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
22Khalfa S, Guye M, Peretz I, et al. Evidence of lateralized anteromedial temporal structures involvement in musical emotion processing. Neuropsychologia. 2008; 46(10): 2485-2493.
10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.04.009
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
23Altenmüller E, Siggel S, Mohammadi B, Samii MünteTF. Play it again, Sam: brain correlates of emotional music recognition. Front. Psychol. 2014; 5: 114. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00114
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00114
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
24Xing Y, Xia Y, Kendrick K, et al. Mozart, Mozart rhythm and retrograde mozart effects: evidences from behaviours and neurobiology bases. Sci Rep. 2016b; 6: 18744.
10.1038/srep18744
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
25Lin LC, Chiang CT, Lee MW, et al. Parasympathetic activation is involved in reducing epileptiform discharges when listening to Mozart music. Clin Neurophysiol. 2013; 124(8): 1528-1535.
10.1016/j.clinph.2013.02.021
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
26Stewart L, von Kriegstein K, Warren JD, Griffiths TD. Music and the brain: disorders of musical listening. Brain. 2006; 129(Pt 10): 2533-2553.
10.1093/brain/awl171
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
27Samson S, Ehrlé N, Baulac M. Cerebral substrates for musical temporal processes. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006; 166-178.
Google Scholar
28Bianco R, Novembre G, Keller PE, et al. Neural networks for harmonic structure in music perception and action. NeuroImage. 2016; 142: 454-464.
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.08.025
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
29Yaesoubi M, Miller RL, Adali T, Calhoun VD. Time-varying frequency modes of resting fMRI brain networks reveal significant gender differences. 2016: 6310-6314. Shanghai, China. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASSP.2016.7472891
Google Scholar
30Bodner M, Turner RP, Schwacke J, Bowers C, Norment C. Reduction of seizure occurrence from exposure to auditory stimulation in individuals with neurological handicaps: a randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2012; 7(10):e45303.
10.1371/journal.pone.0045303
CAS PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
31Lin LC, Lee WT, Wu HC, et al. Mozart K.448 and epileptiform discharges: effect of ratio of lower to higher harmonics. Epilepsy Res. 2010; 89(2–3): 238-245.
10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2010.01.007
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
32Lin LC, Lee WT, Wang CH, et al. Mozart K448 acts as a potential add-on therapy in children with refractory epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2011; 20(3): 490-493.
10.1016/j.yebeh.2010.12.044
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
33Coppola G, Toro A, Operto FF, et al. Mozart’s music in children with drug-refractory epileptic encephalopathies. Epilepsy Behav. 2015; 50: 18-22.
10.1016/j.yebeh.2015.05.038
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar
34Lahiri N, Duncan JS. The Mozart effect: encore. Epilepsy Behav. 2007; 11(1): 152-153.
10.1016/j.yebeh.2007.04.017
PubMed Web of Science® Google Scholar

Citing Literature

Volume28, Issue5

May 2021

Pages 1463-1469

Filename	Description
ene14758-sup-0001-FigureS1.tifTIFF image, 9.5 MB	Figure S1
ene14758-sup-0002-AppendixS1.docxWord document, 22.4 KB	Appendix S1

Mozart effect in epilepsy: Why is Mozart better than Haydn? Acoustic qualities-based analysis of stereoelectroencephalography

Abstract

Background and purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Open Research

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Supporting Information

REFERENCES

Citing Literature

References

Information

About Wiley Online Library

Help & Support

Opportunities

Connect with Wiley

Mozart effect in epilepsy: Why is Mozart better than Haydn? Acoustic qualities-based analysis of stereoelectroencephalography

Abstract

Background and purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Open Research

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Supporting Information

REFERENCES

Citing Literature

References

Related

Information