By applying methods of computational music analysis and machine learning to brain imaging data collected while listening to music, the researchers were able to predict with considerable accuracy whether the listeners were musicians or not.

Musical training results

These results highlight the striking impact of musical training on our neural response to music to the extent to which the brains of non-musicians are distinctive musicians, despite other independent factors such as musical preference and notoriety. The research also revealed that the brain areas best predicted musician are predominantly in the frontal and temporal areas of the right hemisphere of the brain. These findings correspond to previous work on how the brain processes certain acoustic properties of music, as well as intonation in speech. 

Study with fMRI

The study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain data collected by Professor Elvira Brattico's team at Aarhus University. The data was collected from 18 musicians and 18 non-musicians while listening attentively to music of different genres. Computational algorithms were applied to extract musical features from the music presented.

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