PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS LISTEN DIFFERENTLY TO MUSIC C. A. MIKUTTA, a,c * G. MAISSEN, b A. ALTORFER, b W. STRIK a AND T. KOENIG b a University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Switzerland b Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Switzerland c Department of Psychology, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA Abstract—Introduction: Experience-based adaptation of emotional responses is an important faculty for cognitive and emotional functioning. Professional musicians repre- sent an ideal model in which to elicit experience-driven changes in the emotional processing domain. The changes of the central representation of emotional arousal due to musical expertise are still largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the electroencephalogram (EEG) correlates of experience-driven changes in the domain of emotional arousal. Therefore, the differences in perceived (subjective arousal via ratings) and physiologically mea- sured (EEG) arousal between amateur and professional musicians were examined. Procedure: A total of 15 professional and 19 amateur musicians listened to the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 5th symphony (duration = 7.4 min), during which a continuous 76-channel EEG was recorded. In a second session, the participants evaluated their emotional arousal during listening. In a tonic analysis, we examined the average EEG data over the time course of the music piece. For a phasic analysis, a fast Fourier transform was performed and covariance maps of spectral power were computed in association with the subjective arousal ratings. Results: The subjective arousal ratings of the professional musicians were more consistent than those of the amateur musicians. In the tonic EEG analysis, a mid-frontal theta activity was observed in the professionals. In the phasic EEG, the professionals exhibited an increase of posterior alpha, central delta, and beta rhythm during high arousal. Discussion: Professionals exhibited different and/or more intense patterns of emotional activation when they listened to the music. The results of the present study underscore the impact of music experience on emotional reactions. Ó 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Key words: music, EEG, neuroplasticity, emotion, arousal. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the exploration of professional musicians has been shown to provide excellent access for investigating the influence of musical experience on emotional reactions (James et al., 2008). Further, the underlying functional (Ott et al., 2011; Elmer et al., 2012) and structural (Ja¨ncke, 2009; Moreno et al., 2009; Mu¨nte et al., 2002) changes may be well explored within professional musicians. Since alteration of emotional reaction due to musical expertise is not only restricted to musical stimuli but encompasses a large variety of auditory stimuli (including speech), this model is of general interest for neuroscientists. Therefore, professional musicians represent an ideal model in which to explore experience-driven changes (Schlaug et al., 1995a,b; Koelsch et al., 2002; Loui et al., 2011) with respect to the sensory-motor (Zatorre et al., 2007), cognitive (Ja¨ncke, 2009; Moreno et al., 2011), and emotional (James et al., 2008) processing domains. Compared with non-musicians, recent studies suggest that professional musicians have altered characteristics which may possibly influence emotional processing, such as better temporal discrimination (Agrillo and Piffer, 2012), enhanced auditory perception and related cortical organization (Francois and Schon, 2011; Marie et al., 2011; Elmer et al., 2012, 2013; Ku¨hnis et al., 2013), and improved working memory (George and Coch, 2011). However, superior musical expertise does not only encompass enhanced auditory and motor skills (Amir et al., 2003; Abdul-Kareem et al., 2011). It also involves altered emotional aspects of music perception. Although, principally, music is apt to modulate emotions in nearly everybody (Zatorre et al., 1994; Blood et al., 1999; Koelsch and Mulder, 2002; Baumgartner et al., 2006a,b; Sammler et al., 2007), it was hypothesized that the specific emotional reaction evoked by music is modulated by the degree of musical expertise (James et al., 2008). Music is a continuous stream of transient auditory events that people perceive and respond to in an affective manner (Steinbeis et al., 2006). Music is dynamic and changes over time (Grewe et al., 2005); therefore, it is preferable to dynamically evaluate the change of emotions. To evaluate the quality of those fluctuating emotions, Russel’s circumplex model (Russel, 1980) was used (Thayer and Faith, 2001; Hirokawa, 2004; Schubert, 2007). The valence axis describes the liking of the music and seems to be strongly dependent on consonant and dissonant tones (Dellacherie et al., 2011). The arousal axis was added http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.03.007 0306-4522/Ó 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Correspondence to: C. Mikutta, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bolligenstrasse 111, 3000 Bern, Switzerland. Tel: +41-031-930-9111; fax: +41-031-930-9404. E-mail address: christian.mikutta@spk.unibe.ch (C. A. Mikutta). Abbreviations: ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; BOLD, blood-oxygen- level dependent; EEG, electroencephalogram; SPL, sound pressure level; TANCOVA, topographic analysis of covariance; TANOVA, topographic analysis of variance. Neuroscience 268 (2014) 102–111 102