Bower Janeen, Corlette Sebastian John, Wang Mengmeng, Magee Wendy L, Catroppa Cathy, Baker Felicity Anne
Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Department of Music Therapy, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Front Pediatr. 2024 Oct 11;12:1427118. doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1427118. eCollection 2024.
Musicality is an innate capability and the fundamental architectures necessary for music processing are present from birth. However, there is a notable gap in pediatric specific music neuroscience research and research that employs ecologically valid musical stimuli.
This pragmatic feasibility study aimed to assess the utility of EEG collected via pre-existing clinical monitoring to describe the processing of familiar song as an ecologically valid stimulus, in the underrepresented pediatric population. Three comparative auditory conditions (song, speech, and noise) were utilized to assess the changes in EEG across these conditions compared to a baseline silence.
Analysis of EEG data from a pilot sample of four children revealed distinct changes in the underlying frequency components of the EEG during the song condition that were not observed in either the speech or noise conditions. To extend this analysis, a uniquely hypothesis-driven, multivariate statistical analysis method (generalized eigendecomposition [GED]) was employed, however in this study we did not isolate a consistent source responsible for the observed changes in the frequency components of the EEG during the song condition.
The study is limited by the small sample size but nevertheless demonstrated feasibility of collecting EEG data in the imperfect auditory environment of an acute clinical setting to describe a response to an ecologically valid stimulus in the underrepresented pediatric population. Further research with a more restrictive study design and greater participant numbers is needed to extend these preliminary findings.
音乐性是一种与生俱来的能力，音乐处理所需的基本结构在出生时就已存在。然而，儿科特定音乐神经科学研究与采用生态有效音乐刺激的研究之间存在显著差距。
这项实用可行性研究旨在评估通过现有临床监测收集的脑电图（EEG）在描述熟悉歌曲作为生态有效刺激在未得到充分研究的儿科人群中的处理情况时的效用。利用三种比较性听觉条件（歌曲、语音和噪声）来评估与基线安静状态相比，这些条件下脑电图的变化。
对来自四名儿童的试点样本的脑电图数据进行分析发现，在歌曲条件下脑电图的潜在频率成分有明显变化，而在语音或噪声条件下未观察到这种变化。为了扩展这一分析，采用了一种独特的假设驱动的多变量统计分析方法（广义特征分解[GED]），然而在本研究中，我们未能分离出一个一致的来源来解释在歌曲条件下脑电图频率成分观察到的变化。
该研究受样本量小的限制，但仍证明了在急性临床环境这种不理想的听觉环境中收集脑电图数据以描述未得到充分研究的儿科人群对生态有效刺激的反应的可行性。需要采用更严格的研究设计和更多参与者进行进一步研究，以扩展这些初步发现。
