Article discussing research that shows both music composition and brain function, as revealed by the electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis, are renewal non-Poisson processes living in the nonergodic dominion.
The UNT College of Arts and Sciences educates students in traditional liberal arts, performing arts, sciences, professional, and technical academic programs. In addition to its departments, the college includes academic centers, institutes, programs, and offices providing diverse courses of study.
Article discussing research that shows both music composition and brain function, as revealed by the electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis, are renewal non-Poisson processes living in the nonergodic dominion.
Abstract: In this paper we show that both music composition and brain function, as revealed by the electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis, are renewal non-Poisson processes living in the nonergodic dominion. To reach this important conclusion the authors process the data with the minimum spanning tree method, so as to detect significant events, thereby building a sequence of times, which is the time series to analyze. The the authors show that in both cases, EEG and music composition, these significant events are the signature of a non-Poisson renewal process. This conclusion is reached using a technique of statistical analysis recently developed by the authors' group, the aging experiment (AE). First, the authors find that in both cases the distances between two consecutive events are described by nonexponential histograms, thereby proving the non-Poisson nature of these processes. The corresponding survival probabilities ψ(t) are well fitted by stretched exponentials [ψ(t) ∝ exp (-(yt)a), with 0.5<a<1.] The second step rests on the adoption of AE, which shows that these are renewal processes. The authors show that the stretched exponential, due to its renewal character, is the emerging tip of an iceberg, whose underwater part has slow tails with an inverse power law structure with power index μ=1+ơ. Adopting the AE procedure, the authors find that both EEG and music composition yield μ<2. On the basis of the recently discovered complexity driving signal P with μp⩽μs, the authors conclude that the results of their analysis may explain the influence of music on the human brain.
This article is part of the following collection of related materials.
UNT Scholarly Works
Materials from the UNT community's research, creative, and scholarly activities and UNT's Open Access Repository. Access to some items in this collection may be restricted.
Bianco, Simone; Ignaccolo, Massimiliano; Rider, Mark S.; Ross, Mary J.; Winsor, Phil & Grigolini, Paolo.Brain, Music, and Non-Poisson Renewal Processes,
article,
June 21, 2007;
[College Park, Maryland].
(https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc40398/:
accessed June 8, 2024),
University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu;
crediting UNT College of Arts and Sciences.