This review consists of two parts: in the first a method is outlined that has been designed for the detection of EEG changes due to mental performances, particularly to listening to music. This method is based on statistical evaluations of EEG power and coherence changes during mental performances. According to the results obtained up to now, this method is thought probably to attain some significance for an objectivation of musical ability. The second and !arger part of this paper is dedicated to the possible informational content of the EEG with respect to music perception. Most likely, the information hidden in the EEG waves is multifarious and the author assumes that the present available psychological strategies to disentangle this webwork of different information are not yet sophisticated enough to unveil some of its strands. Moreover, some general ideas on what may happen in the brain during the evaluation of works of art are developed. Finally it is stressed that, in general, a penchant for art may be considered as a particular case of problem solving needed by the human brain to be kept in good functional condition. Thus, aesthetics would devote itself to the service of the brain in those fortunates drawn to the arts.

The distortion of musical expression due to mental disease was examined. Instrumental playing of 100 inpatients was tape recorded several times within the course of the treatment and compared to that of 35 matched controls. By means of a short polarity profile, which proved to be a sensitive and reliable instrument in assessing musical expression, musical ability was quantified and correlated with psychopathology. Based on this within-patient design several hypothesis could be confirmed: 1) Mental disease - as expected - weakens musical expression; furthermore a correlation between the psychopathologic deterioration and the extent of musical distortion was found. 2) Against the expectation musical tempo was only in endogenous depression negatively correlated with depressive mood, whereas a comparable depressive aff ect of schizophrenics and neurotics did not influence the psychomotor tempo. 3) Within different diagnostic groups, schizophrenia, mania, endogenous and neurotic depression, different qualities of musical expression are affected. This refers to the specific basic distortions within mental diseases and otherwise reflects the fundamental principles of musical expression. The results support the hypothesis of a musicpsychopathologic systematology.

This is the first part of a report on an empirical study of EEG-correlates of music appreciation. The intention of this physiological approach to aesthetic musical behaviour are discussed and the available literature is introduced. For the first time in the field of EEGstudies, relevant variables of the music samples are varied systematically. The four-factorial experimental design (two types of music: classic and pop, three different tempi, two levels of loudness, two groups of participants: musicians and non-musicians) is described as weil as situative factors of the experiment. Twenty participants listened to twelve short musical excerpts at two different levels of loudness (differing by 1 0 dB) rating them afterwards on a short semantic differential. Results will be published in the following volume.

We examined the differences in variation of intensity between three different musical interpretations of the same musical phrase. (One for piano and one for flute, each played by three different performers.) The analysis was made with the help of a graphic realisation of the intensity (in dB) by a phonometer. Then we examined the effects of the different interpretations on the »aesthetic judgments« of 20 musicians and 29 non-musicians. A hypothetical relationship between dynamics (variation of level of intensity) and aesthetic judgments followed.

Eff ects on attention of classical music played at a low level of lciudness are discussed.