Music synchronizes brainwaves across listeners with strong effects of repetition, familiarity and training

Music synchronizes brainwaves across listeners with strong effects of repetition, familiarity and training
Jens Madsen, Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, Rhimmon Simchy-Gross and Lucas C. Parra,
Scientific Reports, volume 9, Article number: 3576 (2019)

Below we see the inter-subject correlation of 20 subjects as they listen to classical music either composed in a familiar style or an unfamiliar style.
The traces on the bottom indicate how synchronized the neural responses are between subjects at that point in time. When this inter-subject correlation (ISC) is above the pink-shaded area the correlation is statistically significant.

Familiar style music

Franz Schubert – Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959: 3. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 24 in B Flat, K. 182: 1. Allegro Spiritoso

Felix Mendelssohn – String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 44 No. 1

Franz Liszt – A faust Symphony, S. 108: 3. Mephistopheles

Unfamiliar style music

Anton Webern – Symphony, op. 21: II. Variationen

Igor Stravinsky – Piano Sonata (1924), Movement 1

Arnold Schoenberg – 5 Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16 No. 5 Das obligate Resitativ

György Ligeti – String Quartet No. 1, “Metamorphoses nocturnes”