Mental effort in music -A look at the Brain´s norepinephrine system

Abstract

This study hypothesises that mental effort will be increase with increased difficulty, reflecting increased production of norepinephrine in the locus coeruleus. The aim was to confirm previous findings from other studies, and also to pursue a better understanding of mental effort through the complex concept that is music. This was measured by recording the pupil diameter on three musical pieces with a steady increase in difficulty. Four trials: Sound, No Sound, Listening and imagery were included to control for cofounders in each condition. In addition to this, the participant filled out questionnaires where the difficulty was assessed subjectively on three parameters. The results showed an increase in pupil diameter with increased difficulty, but a smaller effect between the intermediate and hard condition than expected. The results of the imagery condition did not give the expected results either. In general we found a main effect of mental effort across all conditions, in line with previous studies, and expanded on previous findings. More participants are needed for this particular study to generalize the results though.

This study hypothesises that mental effort will be increase with increased difficulty, reflecting increased production of norepinephrine in the locus coeruleus. The aim was to confirm previous findings from other studies, and also to pursue a better understanding of mental effort through the complex concept that is music. This was measured by recording the pupil diameter on three musical pieces with a steady increase in difficulty. Four trials: Sound, No Sound, Listening and imagery were included to control for cofounders in each condition. In addition to this, the participant filled out questionnaires where the difficulty was assessed subjectively on three parameters. The results showed an increase in pupil diameter with increased difficulty, but a smaller effect between the intermediate and hard condition than expected. The results of the imagery condition did not give the expected results either. In general we found a main effect of mental effort across all conditions, in line with previous studies, and expanded on previous findings. More participants are needed for this particular study to generalize the results though.