Impact of two different genres of music on responsiveness to visual stimuli and other brain processes

Purpose of the study is to find out the difference in the level of response to stimuli by a persons’ occipital and temporal lobe brain regions while doing a task and listening to music at the same time. Two different genres of music have been selected as Jazz and Metal. 30 students were selected as test subjects and were made to read a comprehension and work on given tasks in 3 different environments, in silence(as control), while listening to jazz music and then hearing a metal song. Results are close to expectation. Time taken by the test subjects to read the comprehension while listening to jazz was much less than reading it while hearing the metallic song and the subjects were also unable to perform the activities they were assigned, correctly and in time when listening to louder sound of the metal song. These results signal that the cognitive process of reading or writing may get affected while the temporal lobe is busy in processing auditory stimuli. The major contribution of the study would be to cognitive psychology. The occipital lobe of cortex that helps us process visuals cannot function to its full efficiency if the temporal lobe is busy in processing rhythm and melody. The study holds a value for the person in any age group as reading and listening to music is a hobby that a person follows from teenage to old age. This may also prove important for the organizations such as restaurants and bars where employees have to work in such an environment.