Electroencephalogram variations in the α band during tempo-specific perception.

As an interdisciplinary research field, music perception involves various disciplines, such as neuroscience, psychology, and even physics. As research on music perception offers us a window into the mechanism of the brain, this study examined Chinese nonmusicians' electroencephalogram α-band activity elicited by tempo variation. This study is the first to demonstrate electrophysiological evidence for the tempo-specific timing hypothesis by showing significant changes in the α-band spectral power during tempo perception. Furthermore, results showed that a larger tempo transformation gave rise to a greater change in α-band spectral power than a smaller tempo transformation.