Listening to Music Modulates EEG Functional Connectivity During Subsequent Time Estimation: A Comparative Study Between Musicians and Non-Musicians.

Abstract

Music is a meaningful stimulus in human life that can modify brain activity and cognitive processing in ways that affect complex abilities like time perception. Musical training produces plastic changes in the brain that may enhance time perception abilities; therefore, musicians' brains may respond differently during time perception after listening to music. This study explored the effect of music on time production in two groups -musicians (MU) and non-musicians (NM) by comparing three metrics of EEG connectivity: global and local efficiency, and network density. Behavioral results showed that NM improved accuracy after listening to music. MU had higher timing accuracy, but no changes were detected due to listening to music. Participants had lower connectivity while listening to music than during task performance with or without previous music. NM deployed higher local efficiency than MU, but the latter had higher global efficiency and network density. Results suggest that music can modulate brain functional synchronization involved in time perception. Moreover, the differential between-group results provide further evidence of the significant influence of musical training on the functional connectivity of the human brain at rest and when estimating time. Music training may produce functional changes that favor global integration and optimize temporal processing, with less susceptibility to external temporal perturbations.