In light of the results of a novel study, it seems that we could distinguish the fans of Iron Maiden from those of Juanes, and not by their appearance, but by the activity of their brains. According to research, published in the journal Biological Psychology, preference for a musical genre modulates brain responses to music.
We generally have musical preferences that, according to studies, are usually quite stable throughout life. Our favorite musical style could, in addition to making our commute much more enjoyable, be modulating the way we quickly categorize the music we listen to. In fact, a study published by Filipic and his team (2010) stated that we can tell whether or not we like a song just 250 milliseconds after we start listening to it.
In the experiment, Eva Istók and her collaborators used electroencephalography (event-related potentials) to compare a group of Latin music fans and a group of heavy metal fans while doing two tasks: one in which they had to make judgments of the type “I like it / I don’t like it”, and another in which they had to classify different fragments of songs from both musical styles. The authors expected to find different answers for the preferred and non-preferred music in both groups, both after the first coding of the characteristics of each musical genre and in a later phase of the evaluation of the musical pieces.
The data showed that the preferred music elicited a negative time component (brain wave) of greater amplitude than the non-preferred music originated. This could be interpreted, according to them, as that affective responses to music are something that happens spontaneously. However, non-preferred music caused a broader late positive component, which according to the authors could be due to the effect of “negative bias”, which makes information that we value negatively attract our attention more easily than positive or neutral information.
The researchers conclude their article by stating that the results provide information about the mechanisms underlying our quick musical choices.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
