Changes Of Cerebral Haemodynamics During Music Perception: Functional Transcranial Doppler Study

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown that the perception of musical information involves both cerebral hemispheres. The aim of our study was to determine the time course and lateralization of changes in mean blood flow velocity (MBFV) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) during auditory stimulation. METHODS: Using transcranial Doppler (TCD) we assessed MBFV in 61 healthy right-handed subjects (20 male and 41 female) with or without musical education. First the left MCA was insonated and the subjects listened 2 minutes to a relaxing musical piece, after a pause the same was repeated with the right MCA. Half of the subjects were asked to relax during listening to music (passive group), the other half was asked to pay attention to the musical sounds (active group). RESULTS: The following statistically significant differences (p