New Delhi: Brain activity measured using a wearable imaging device has revealed changes in beta waves, low-amplitude brain waves commonly involved in conscious thought, in line with whether actions of novice violin players led to expected outcomes as they learned to play the musical instrument.
Findings published in the journal Imaging Neuroscience showed patterns of brain activity enabling one to play an instrument and how having just a single lesson significantly changed the patterns of activity.
Researchers, led by those at the University of Nottingham, UK, recorded brain activity of 22 novice violin players during two scanning sessions, while the participants attempted to play a tune on a violin.
How brain waves -- rhythmic changes in electrical activity across groups of neurons -- changed throughout the violin playing task was measured.
One of the proposed roles of the oscillations, specifically in the 'beta' frequency range, is to signal information about whether our actions lead to the outcomes we expect, the researchers said.
"Your brain works by making predictions about what will happen as a result of your actions. So, if I am playing a violin, my brain will have an expectation of what sound it will make," lead researcher Joseph Gibson, a PhD researcher in the school of physics and astronomy at the University of Nottingham, said.
"If I play the expected note, my brain receives information that the outcome matched its prediction; if I hit an unexpected note, it receives information that it did not. In this experiment, we were able to measure these signals in real time while the instrument was being played," Gibson said.
The researchers also found that participants who showed the greatest changes in beta waves before and after a violin lesson also showed the greatest improvements in their ability to play.
The team took the help of a local Nottingham expert violinist and violin maker, Alan Kirby, who modified a standard violin by substituting all metal parts for alternatives he crafted, producing an all wooden instrument operating at baroque frequencies.
The instrument needed to be completely metal free to enable the scanner, which measures very small magnetic fields generated by electrical activity in the brain, to work.
The experiment began with participants watching a video in which Kirby was shown playing the tune 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. The participants underwent the first of two scanning sessions, as they attempted to play the tune on a violin.
The participants then attended a violin lesson -- taught by Kirby -- following which they underwent a second scanning session (identical to the first) as they again attempted to play the tune.
"Results showed that robust data could be acquired during this naturalistic task, with beta oscillations decreasing in amplitude during movement and increasing upon movement cessation, as expected," the authors wrote.
"These findings align with predictive coding models which suggest that beta amplitude should increase when individuals have greater certainty over the movements they carry out," they said.
This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.