Background music, cognitive task demands, and prefrontal EEG oscillations: A comparative analysis of two pilot studies using an EEG

Background: The cognitive effects of background music are mediated by the interaction between music's structural properties, the cognitive demands of the concurrent task, and the individual's attentional and working memory resources. While behavioural evidence has accumulated extensively, comparatively few studies have simultaneously characterised how music modulates the full landscape of prefrontal EEG oscillations during distinct types of cognitive work. Objective: This comparative analysis synthesises data from two within-subjects pilot studies conducted in the same laboratory using the same EEG platform. Study 1 examined the effects of electronic dance music (EDM) on word recall and prefrontal brainwave activity during verbal memorisation (N = 10). Study 2 examined the effects of hip-hop music on prefrontal EEG during Sudoku puzzle-solving (N = 4). Together, the studies offer a unique opportunity to compare how background music of related genres modulates prefrontal oscillatory activity across two fundamentally different cognitive domains. Key Findings: A convergent pattern emerged across both studies: gamma band power was directionally lower with music than without (EDM: 7.38% vs. 8.96%; Sudoku: 4.50% vs. 7.26%), suggesting consistent music-associated suppression of higher-order prefrontal perceptual binding. Beta power diverged between studies: lower with music in the EDM study (13.28% vs. 16.01%) but higher with music in the Sudoku study (13.11% vs. 9.55%), pointing to task-type moderation of executive attentional responses to music. Neither study had sufficient statistical power to detect significant effects. Effect sizes were small-to-medium in the EDM study and medium-to-large in the Sudoku study. Conclusion: These pilot data reveal that the nature of the cognitive task verbal memorisation versus spatial reasoning is a critical moderator of how background music shapes prefrontal oscillatory dynamics, particularly for beta-mediated executive attention. The convergent gamma suppression across both studies warrants specific attention in future adequately powered research.