In this master thesis, we tried to prove with an experiment, what kind of changes can different kind of music cause on the motor cortex, compared to the states where individuals do not listen to any music. Even though there are more and more people involved in different musical therapies, for example parkinson and dystonia patients, we still do not know today what is the aspect of music that makes the difference and what are the ways of musical effects on brain. That is why, we have to return to the basics, and research building blocks of music and try to figure it out, how music affects motor cortex, and what are the important aspects of music that affect movement. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a very suitable method, which allows us through electromyography (EMG) that we see the changes caused by different factors on primary motor cortex, in real time. We took a sample size of 10 people, all right handed, age between 19 and 35 who did not play music professionally at any point in their lives. We did 5 different measurements with TMS: MEP (motor evoked potential), SICI (short-interval intracortical facilitation), ICF (intracortical facilitation), measurement of a silent period and RC (recruitment curve). These TMS parameters, told us how a state of motor cortex changed, what happened with it’s excitability and it’s inhibitory and facilitatory intracortical connections under 3 different conditions (silence, rhythmical music and music without an obvious rhythm). Based on the results, we were able to partly answer the question that especially rhythmical music affects excitability of a motor cortex in certain ways, but we think that rhythm is not the only aspect of music responsible for it. This data could help in future research, since it is necessary to better understand, what is the aspect of music that makes a difference and actually helps patients with movement dysfunctions.
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