Neural correlates of bow learning technique

Abstract

In this work we want to study the process of learning a musical instrument through the use of audio descriptors and EEG. Twelve subjects participated in our experiment. Subjects were divided into two groups: a group of people who has never played the violin before (six subjects) and a group of experts (more than six years playing the violin). Participants were asked to perform a violin exercise during eighteen trials while the corresponding audio to each trial was recorded together with their EEG activity. Beginners showed significant differences between the beginning of the session and the end corresponding to an improve in the quality of the sound recorded while experts maintained their results. On the other hand, beginners showed more power in the High Beta frequency band (21-35Hz) than experts although the power values decreased during the session correlated with an improvement in the scores of the exercise.