Department of Neuropsychology, Psychological Institute, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Behav Brain Funct. 2010 Jan 7;6:3. doi: 10.1186/1744-9081-6-3.
Whether listening to background music enhances verbal learning performance is still disputed. In this study we investigated the influence of listening to background music on verbal learning performance and the associated brain activations.
Musical excerpts were composed for this study to ensure that they were unknown to the subjects and designed to vary in tempo (fast vs. slow) and consonance (in-tune vs. out-of-tune). Noise was used as control stimulus. 75 subjects were randomly assigned to one of five groups and learned the presented verbal material (non-words with and without semantic connotation) with and without background music. Each group was exposed to one of five different background stimuli (in-tune fast, in-tune slow, out-of-tune fast, out-of-tune slow, and noise). As dependent variable, the number of learned words was used. In addition, event-related desynchronization (ERD) and event-related synchronization (ERS) of the EEG alpha-band were calculated as a measure for cortical activation.
We did not find any substantial and consistent influence of background music on verbal learning. There was neither an enhancement nor a decrease in verbal learning performance during the background stimulation conditions. We found however a stronger event-related desynchronization around 800 - 1200 ms after word presentation for the group exposed to in-tune fast music while they learned the verbal material. There was also a stronger event-related synchronization for the group exposed to out-of-tune fast music around 1600 - 2000 ms after word presentation.
Verbal learning during the exposure to different background music varying in tempo and consonance did not influence learning of verbal material. There was neither an enhancing nor a detrimental effect on verbal learning performance. The EEG data suggest that the different acoustic background conditions evoke different cortical activations. The reason for these different cortical activations is unclear. The most plausible reason is that when background music draws more attention verbal learning performance is kept constant by the recruitment of compensatory mechanisms.
听背景音乐是否能提高语言学习成绩仍存在争议。在本研究中，我们考察了背景音乐对语言学习成绩的影响及其相关的大脑激活。
为这项研究创作了音乐片段，以确保受试者不知道这些音乐，并设计了不同节奏（快与慢）和和谐度（调与不调）的音乐。噪声用作对照刺激。75 名受试者被随机分配到五组之一，并在有背景音乐和没有背景音乐的情况下学习呈现的语言材料（有和没有语义内涵的非单词）。每组接触到五种不同的背景刺激之一（调快、调慢、不调快、不调慢和噪声）。作为因变量，使用学习单词的数量。此外，计算了脑电图α频段的事件相关去同步（ERD）和事件相关同步（ERS）作为皮质激活的度量。
我们没有发现背景音乐对语言学习有实质性和一致性的影响。在背景刺激条件下，语言学习成绩既没有提高，也没有下降。然而，我们发现，在学习语言材料时，接触调快音乐的组在单词呈现后 800-1200 毫秒时，α 频段的事件相关去同步更强。在接触不调快音乐的组中，在单词呈现后 1600-2000 毫秒时，事件相关同步也更强。
在不同节奏和和谐度的背景音乐下进行语言学习并不影响语言材料的学习。对语言学习成绩没有增强或不利影响。脑电图数据表明，不同的音响背景条件会引起不同的皮质激活。这些不同皮质激活的原因尚不清楚。最有可能的原因是，当背景音乐吸引了更多的注意力时，通过招募补偿机制，语言学习成绩保持不变。
