This paper presents a pilot study on the differences in evoked EEG coherence measures (computed as zero-lagged cross-correlation, "EC") between chess experts and novices while solving chess problems. One of out earlier investigations (Volke, 1999) had shown that both location and direction of EC changes in task processing (compared with a resting condition) depend on the degree of task performance. As a result we postulated that when solving the same tasks experts and novices would show different EC. The results of the recent study confirmed this supposition. Chess tasks of varying difficulty were presented to 25 chess players of different performance levels. The EEG was recorded from 29 positions (enhanced 10 : 20-system). EC were computed for post-stimulus intervals of 1.6s. A special averaging procedure (considering Fisher's Z transformation) was applied for summarizing the single EC of each type of task. These subject- and task-related EC-values (29 x 28/2 = 406 values per frequency band) were subjected to a MANOVA after a two-staged principal component analysis. Significant differences between experts and novices, compared with the resting condition, were found in the delta frequency range. The relevant cortical areas of experts, defined by a topological analysis of the differentiating principal components, were located rather posterior and more in the light hemisphere, compared with those of the novices. Furthermore, the essential EC of the experts showed higher values in the task situation ("on-coupling"), compared with the resting condition, whereas those of the novices were lower ("off-coupling"). The results are interpreted as a higher task-related functional integration of the cortical areas in experts.

This study examined differences in the spontaneous electroencephalographic (EEG) signal in terms of music training and gender. Coherence estimates obtained by spectral analysis provided an efficacious method to study these differences. In the first study, differences in the spontaneous EEG between subjects with and without music training were observed. Subjects with music training exhibited significantly higher coherence values both within and between cerebral hemispheres when compared with subjects without music training. The most striking differences were observed in the two lowest (delta and theta) and two highest (beta 1 and beta 2) bands, with differences in the temporoparietal regions of both hemispheres being most prominent. The findings are discussed in terms of specialized organization of brain activity that influences cortical connectivity. Using the same method, differences in spontaneous EEG were also found between male and female subjects. Females tended to have significantly higher interhemispheric coherence values when compared with males. Both findings are also supported by recently discovered anatomic differences.

One of the main aims of the present paper is to comment upon why the EEG seems to be such a promising tool to glimpse - generally speaking — into the fabrics of thinking, the “enchanting loom” as Sherrington formulated it so poetically and so soundly. In addition to that, two special issues concerning music and EEG are briefly discussed: hemispheric lateralization and musical expectancy. Further topics concerning the processing of music by the brain, among these the question of the consistency of our findings are the subject of another paper (Richter et al., this volume).

One of the aims of this symposium is to emphasize that multidisciplinary research is a good approach to the study of musical cognition. In addition to a variety of psychological methods and studies of neurological or psychiatric diseases, neurophysiological approaches may further contribute to this subject, making use of the registration and evaluation of the ongoing electrical activity of the brain.

The present study was performed to investigate correlations between creativity and KEG parameters. For this purpose a creativity-test (consisting of four subtests) was applied to twenty male and eighteen female volunteers, which rates wealth of imagination and creative power („Gestaltungsvermögen”). The EEG were recorded during the performance of these tests (the mental attainments of the probands were noted down after the recordings) so that the obtained EEG-data could be directly correlated to the scores of the creativity-test. The EEG recordings were made from nineteen electrodes (10/20-system), six frequency bands from 1.5 to 31.5 Hz were considered for the evaluation. The parameters amplitude and coherence (between all nineteen electrodes) were computed. Significant rank-correlations were found only for coherence values, not for amplitude. Striking sex differences are shown: the correlation between test-scores and coherence were primarily negative for the female, yet primarily positive for the male probands. These results are rather consistent with former studies concerning spatial imagination abilities and EEG-parameters. As an explanation for these findings the assumption of different cortical organisation in males and females is discussed, possibly due to hormonal influence.

The present study was performed to investigate correlations between creativity and EEG parameters. For this purpose a creativity-test (consisting of four subtests) was applied to twenty male and eighteen female volunteers, which rates wealth of imagination and creative power ("Gestaltungsvermogen"). The EEG were recorded during the performance of these tests (the mental attainments of the probands were noted down after the recordings) so that the obtained EEG-data could be directly correlated to the scores of the creativity-test. The EEG recordings were made from nineteen electrodes (10/20-system), six frequency bands from 1.5 to 31.5 Hz were considered for the evaluation. The parameters amplitude and coherence (between all nineteen electrodes) were computed. Significant rank-correlations were found only for coherence values, not for amplitude. Striking sex differences are shown: the correlation between test-scores and coherence were primarily negative for the female, yet primarily positive for the male probands. These results are rather consistent with former studies concerning spatial imagination abilities and EEG-parameters. As an explanation for these findings the assumption of different cortical organisation in males and females is discussed, possibly due to hormonal influence.

This study was performed to test the usefulness of the EEG as a research instrument for music psychology in individuals. Measuring the degree of functional interrelatedness of brain areas by coherence estimates has turned out to be more efficient than amplitude mapping. Therefore, the method, based on the analysis of EEG periods of at least 1 min, has been expanded to estimate all possible coherence values between the 19 electrodes (i.e., 171 values) and to observe any significant changes in those values caused by different musical tasks. This report concerns observations in a total of 49 healthy subjects (29 male and 20 female). The main goal of this study was to determine the degree of engagement of either hemisphere in the processing of music. Two items were shown to indicate hemispheric involvement: (1) the topographic distribution of "focal points of coherence" (brain areas participating in coherence changes with respect to a great number of other brain areas) and (2) the number of intrahemispheric coherence increases. In most cases, both items seem to focus on the same hemisphere. Taking these as parameters for hemispheric engagement, the following principal observations were made: the beta bands (and particularly their uppermost ranges) seem to play a major role in the processing of music; the hemispheric engagement, however, need not be the same for each frequency band. No hemisphere seems to be preferred. When listening to music is shifted between different styles, laterality may change. When the same tasks are repeated at several weeks' intervals, a fairly large degree of consistency is found. Imagining music and composing clearly differs from listening by activating many more coherence increases in the beta band and by an increasing percentage of hemispheric interaction. This kind of analysis may also provide some clues as to how a piece of music is processed by an individual. The coherence changes observed may represent events taking place in a system of differential attention that selects and orders the sensory inputs before the musical material is further processed at higher order hierarchical levels.