Assignment # 1663LA3

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Modulatory role of background music on cognitive interference task in young people

Kauline Saisha Kumaradevan1 & Akhila Balan1 & Karuna Khan1 & Refaa Mujeeb Alji1 & Sareesh Naduvil Narayanan2

Received: 6 July 2020 /Accepted: 5 September 2020 # Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland 2020

Abstract Background The Stroop Colour and Word Test (SCWT) is the most extensively used neuropsychological test in humans to evaluate the ability to inhibit cognitive interference. Any music played while the listener’s primary attention is focused on another activity is known as background music and its effects on SCWT have not been studied well. Objective The current study was designed to evaluate the influence of different background music (classical and heavy metal) on inhibiting cognitive interference in young adults by using the Stroop Colour and Word Test. Methods Eighty student volunteers were invited for the study after obtaining their informed consent. They were first tested for colour blindness using Ishihara’s colour test, and once passed, they were recruited to perform a computerised Stroop colour-word interference test. Each participant was requested to take part in four reading exercises: monochrome words, rectangle colours, coloured words and colour naming, respectively. These exercises were performed under three different conditions such as silence (absence of background music), presence of heavy metal and classical music, respectively. The participants’ reaction time, errors made and heart rate were recorded and compared. Results The participants’ reaction time was found to be significantly decreased with classical and heavy metal background music compared with the silence condition. The heart rate and errors made by the participants did not significantly change during any of the study conditions. Conclusions Results of this study indicate the positive impact of background music on a cognitive interference task. Further studies are warranted to elucidate the underlying neural mechanisms.

Keywords Background music . Heart rate . Reaction time . Stroop effect

Introduction

The “Stroop effect” is a demonstration of the reaction time of a task, which is often used to understand the nature of conscious visual control versus automatic processing [1]. The Stroop task is one of the most widely used paradigms in the investi- gation of attentional processes in humans [2, 3]. A neurolog- ical test known as the Stroop Colour and Word Test (SCWT) is widely used to evaluate the ability to inhibit cognitive

interference, which occurs when processing of a stimulus fea- ture affects the simultaneous processing of another attribute of the same stimulus, known as the Stroop Effect [4]. The SCWT is extensively used for experimental and clinical purposes. Reports suggest that measures of attentional control in Stroop-type tasks differentiate healthy ageing from early stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and predict development of AD in the future in cognitively normal individuals [5, 6].

In the SCWT version, participants are required to read three different tables as quickly as possible [1, 4]. The first two tables represent the “congruous condition” in which the participants are required to read names of colours printed in black ink and name different colour patches. The third table is the colour-word condition in which colour words are printed in an inconsistent colour ink (e.g. the word “red” is printed in green ink). Hence, participants are required to name the colour of the ink instead of reading the word in the incongruent condition [4].

* Sareesh Naduvil Narayanan [email protected]; [email protected]

1 RAK College of Medical Sciences, RAK Medical and Health Sciences University, PO Box 11172, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates

2 Department of Physiology, RAK College of Medical Sciences, RAK Medical and Health Sciences University, PO Box 11172, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates

Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971 -) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-020-02365-6

Measurement of the ability to inhibit cognitive interfer- ence is extensively done by applying SCWT. Reports from previous literature have shown the application of SCWT to measure other cognitive functions such as cognitive flexi- bility, working memory, processing speed and attention [2, 4, 7]. The Stroop task requires a participant to recognise the colour of the ink used in a word or non-word [8]. Stroop observed that naming the colour of words took longer com- pared with non-words [1]. It was noticed that participants took more time in naming the ink colour of a word which was printed in a different colour (e.g. word "yellow" printed in red ink) than naming the ink colour of a word which was printed in the same colour (e.g. word "blue" printed in blue ink). In other words, the participants are required to perform a less automated task (i.e. naming the ink colour) while inhibiting the interference arising from a more automated task (i.e. reading the word) [9]. This difficulty in inhibiting the more automated process is called the Stroop effect [1, 8]. Stroop effect is the delay in the reaction time while naming the ink colour of a word which is printed in a dif- ferent colour (incongruent colour naming) (e.g. word "blue" printed in red ink) compared with naming the ink colour of meaningless characters (e.g. AAA printed in green ink). The Stroop effect is considered a “gold standard” of atten- tional measures in humans [10].

Musicplayedwhenthelistener’sprimaryattentionisfixatedon another activity or task is known as background music. The background music effect is different from the so-called Mozarteffect,whichreferstothechangesincognitiveabilitiesafter listening to music [11]. Depending on the task performed, back- ground music can have positive or negative effects. [12]. Many different genres of music and their effects on different variables have been studied. Researchers found that listening to classical music improved both memory and intelligence (the “Mozart Effect”);however,replicatingthesefindingshasbeenunsuccessful byothers[13,14].Heavymetalmusic,agenrequitedifferentfrom classical music, has received research attention. Unlike classical music, heavy metal music tends to be aggressive, stimulating and faster, at about 100 beats per minute. Classical music, however, tendstobesloweratabout40beatsperminute.Literaturedemon- strates that cognitive functions have been shown to be affected by stimulating and faster music [15, 16]. Studies have shown an un- desirable association between background music and task com- plexity. Farnham and Bradley [17] found that the effect of back- ground music becomes detrimental while performing demanding complex tasks. Conversely, Bottiroli et al. [11] concluded that the beneficial effect of background music on task fulfilment, below a certain level of task complexity, is attributed to the arousal and mood hypothesis. It is not clearly understood why background music below a certain task complexity level is not simply neutral, butverybeneficial[11].Althoughthismaybethefact,theeffectof background music on SCWT has not been studied well among theyoungadultpopulation.Hence,thecurrentstudywasdesigned

to evaluate the influence of different background music on inhibiting cognitive interference in young adults by using the Stroop Colour and WordTest (SCWT).

Materials and methods

Subjects and study design

Eighty student volunteers (55 females and 25 males), aged 17–23, were included in the study after obtaining written in- formed consent. Institutional Research Ethics Committee ap- provals were obtained for all the procedures used in the study. This quasi-experimental study was done in two stages: Stage 1 (Colour blindness test) and Stage 2 (Stroop test). A question- naire was used to obtain demographic details about the volun- teers and Ishihara’s chart was used to check for colour blindness.

Procedures

After obtaining written informed consent, the test was carried out individually. Each subject was asked to be seated in front of a laptop, in a quiet room in the presence of two experi- menters (Fig. 1 e and f). There were two stages in the exper- iment. Stage 1; was the colour blindness test. This was done using Ishihara’s chart, and the volunteers found to be colour blind were excluded from the study. The remaining partici- pants' were invited for Stage 2 which was the Stroop test. The experimental task was preceded by a practice Stroop test to get familiarised with the task procedure which consisted of 1/8th

of the actual Stroop exercise. In the Stroop test, the volunteers were asked to take part in four exercises, where they were asked to read out clearly, loudly and as quickly as possible from left to right (Fig. 1 a–d). In the first exercise, the volun- teers were asked to read the monochrome words. In the second exercise, the volunteers were asked to tell the colours of the rectangle. In the third exercise, the volunteers were asked to read the coloured words and in the fourth exercise, the volun- teers were asked to name colours of the words while ignoring reading the words [1]. These four exercises were performed under three situations: silence, heavy metal music and soft classical music, respectively. Each participant was given suf- ficient break time between experiments. The classical music piece “The Overture No. 3 in D Major Air BWV 1068 by J.S. Bach” and the heavy progressive metal musical piece “Void by Fractalize” were used as background music. Music was played with a music player and a headset was used to listen to the background music. During each exercise, the reaction time (time taken to complete the task), heart rate and number of errors were recorded. Heart rate was monitored using a pulse oximeter. This was video-recorded and was used to determine the mean heart rate during each exercise.

Ir J Med Sci

Statistical analysis

Data is represented as Mean ± SE and was analysed using repeated measures of ANOVA, one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s tests. A “p” ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Data was analysed by GraphPad Prism software (verison 5.01, San Diego, CA, USA).

Results

Effect of different types of background music on reaction time

The results of two-way repeated measures ANOVA of pooled data (four exercises of Stroop test) revealed that there is a significant change in the reaction time in three different (si- lence, heavy metal and classical) situations (p < 0.001). The average reaction time was found to be different in the presence of silence (42.88 ± 0.95 s), heavy metal (40.21 ± 0.86 s) and classical background music (39.59 ± 0.81 s). Multiple com- parison test revealed that there was a statistically significant

difference between silence vs. heavy metal music and silence vs. classical music (p < 0.001). However, the difference be- tween heavy metal and classical music was not observed to be statistically significant (p > 0.057).

The one-way ANOVA test was done to determine the statistical difference in the reaction time of volunteer’s under silence, heavy metal and classical background music and in four exercises of Stroop test. During the first exercise (monochrome reading), in the presence of music, the volun- teers have completed the exercise significantly faster (p ≤ 0.05) when compared with silence (Fig. 2a). However, there was no statistically significant difference observed in the mean reaction time of vounteers between heavy metal and classical music exposure situations (Fig. 2a).

The volunteers have taken more time to complete the rect- angle colour naming exercise (Fig. 2b) compared with mono- chrome reading (Fig. 2a). However, the presence of heavy metal or classical music did not influence the time taken to complete the rectangle colour naming exercise. One- way ANOVA test revealed no significant difference between the reaction time values obtained from three conditions (Fig. 2b).

Fig. 1 Stroop test exercises and experimental set-up: monochrome reading a, rectangle colour naming b, reading coloured words c, colour naming d, Stroop experiment set-up e and representative picture of the Stroop test session f

Ir J Med Sci

As in the monochrome reading (Fig. 2a), the volunteers have completed reading coloured words faster (Fig. 2c) in the silence condition. Similar to the results obtained in mono- chrome reading (Fig. 2a), the presence of heavy metal and classical music influenced the task completion in volunteers (Fig. 2c) as demonstrated by their reduced reaction time com- pared with silence (p < 0.05). One-way ANOVA test revealed that the volunteers’ reaction time was significantly less, both in the presence of heavy metal and classical music compared with silence.

The volunteers have taken significantly more time to per- form the colour naming exercise during silence (Fig. 2d), when compared with all other exercises (Fig. 2 a, b and c). While the mean value for completing the exercise during si- lence in monochrome reading was ~ 30 s (Fig. 2a), the volun- teers have taken ~ 70 s to complete the colour naming exercise during silence indicating the influence of the Stroop effect (Fig. 2d). When compared with other experimental condi- tions, colour naming was challenging for the volunteers. As

illustrated in Fig. 2d, the mean duration to complete this ex- ercise was ~ 70 s in the absence of any sound or in silence condition. However, the presence of heavy metal music sig- nificantly decreased this reaction time to ~ 60 s. Additionally, when the same volunteers were exposed to the same exercise in the presence of classical music, the reaction time was fur- ther reduced and the reduction was significant compared with the silence condition. Multiple comparisons revealed a signif- icant effect of classical music over heavy metal music (ɸp < 0.05) during the colour naming exercise.

Effect of different types of background music on heart rate

The results of two-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed no statistically significant change in the heart rate during the three different situations such as silence, heavy metal mu- sic and classical music (p = 0.64). The average heart rate (pooled data from four exercises of Stroop test) was found to

Fig. 2 Effect of different types of background music on reaction time in monochrome reading a, rectangle colour naming b, reading coloured words c, and in colour naming d. Note: *§ɸ p < 0.05

Ir J Med Sci

be 94.92 ± 1.14 beats/min during silence, 93.59 ± 0.87 beats/ min during heavy metal music and 93.56 ± 1.01 beats/min during classical background music exposure conditions.

The mean heart rate was computed by exercise type and by background music conditions. The one-way ANOVA was carried out to determine a significant difference in the mean heart rate of the volunteers under three conditions studied (silence, heavy metal and classical music) and in four exercises of Stroop test. As depicted in Fig. 3 a, b, c and d, there was no statistically significant difference found in the heart rate of volunteers tested in any of the tasks or in any of the conditions studied.

Effect of different types of background music on errors made during Stroop test

The volunteers have committed more errors during colour naming compared with all other exercises (Table 1). The num- ber of errors made by the volunteers seemed to be reduced in

the presence of classical music when compared with heavy metal music or silence, particularly in rectangle colour naming and colour naming, but this difference was not found to be statistically significant.

Discussion

The Stroop Colour and Word Test is extensively used to assess the ability to inhibit cognitive interference in humans [2]. Positive effects on cognitive abilities in humans after listening to music (“Mozart effect”) have been well docu- mented [18, 19]. The influence of music on moods, emotions and behaviour of humans has also been documented in the literature [19]. Results of this study clearly indicate a positive influence of music. Background music facilitated the partic- ipants' ability to inhibit cognitive interference. In a study, it was reported that calming music led to better performance in arithmetic and memory tasks in children aged 10–12 when

Fig. 3 Effect of different types of background music on heart rate in monochrome reading a, rectangle colour naming b, reading coloured words c, and in colour naming d

Ir J Med Sci

compared with a non-music condition [20]. In contrast to this, in another report, the authors did not observe a signifi- cant difference in reading comprehension test scores of stu- dents in a music environment and those in a non-music en- vironment [21]. Another report demonstrated the beneficial effect of background classical music on a memory task but the authors did not observe the same effect with rap music [22]. Reports also suggest the effects of classical music on improving the visual attention in stroke patients with unilat- eral neglect and listening to classical music increased their arousal [23].

Increasing arousal functioning of classical music could be one of the possible factors that increased participants' concen- tration and thereby decreased the Stroop effect in the colour naming exercise in the current study. The colour naming task requires the participant to be extremely alert, and classical music may possibly have effectively influenced this process compared with heavy metal music. Several reports suggest that listening to music may improve different cognitive pro- cesses even in normal healthy people. These may include attention [24, 25], spatial abilities [18, 26] and memory [25]. The positive effect of music on human cognition is attributed to the arousal and mood hypothesis. This postulates that an increase in arousal and positive mood evoked by pleasant music may lead to better cognitive performance [25]. Studies have shown that listening to pleasant music may acti- vate brain regions related with both visual attention and pos- itive emotional states [27, 28]. Since visual attention is one of the key factors regulating the Stroop effect, it is very likely that classical music could have positively influenced the par- ticipants' performances in the Stroop test.

Although several studies have been done to evaluate the effects of music on attention and memory, researchers have not evaluated its role in influencing the Stroop task. As depicted in the results, classical music had a significant positive effect on both congruent and incongruent conditions of the Stroop task. The underlying mechanisms for this is not very well understood and cannot be explained completely with the current study results. However, experimental research reveals that music with more consonant intervals mitigated cognitive interference and music with more dissonant inter- vals intensified the interference during a modified Stroop interference task in children and elderly participants [29]. Another significant question that arises from the current

results is that, why did heavy metal music decrease cogni- tive interference (to an extent), while it was thought to disturb or intensify the cognitive interference? The probable reason is that music per se consists of resonant notes (either classical or heavy metal music), and this could have influ- enced in mitigating the cognitive interference caused by the Stroop task. We can only speculate this as of now; further research on this would give a clear explanation for this observation.

The Stroop Colour and Word Test is primarily known as an effective test for examining the cognitive processes of inhibi- tion and interference resolution. Reports indicate that in this test, interference occurs at the conceptual level and is separat- ed from the response preparation [29]. Stroop performance is known to show a developmental pattern, as it continues to develop at ~ 17–19 years of age and declines progressively as ageing proceeds [30]. This pattern primarily reflects the underlying changes that occur in the brain during this period, and it is thought to be heavily associated with executive func- tions and prefrontal cortical activation. The significance of the current research is that background music could be effective in mitigating the stress that arises in several complicated and challenging life conditions which are extremely difficult and demanding than those induced by the Stroop effect. This ben- eficial effect was found to be considerably more with classical music compared with heavy metal music. The possibility of practice effect is ruled out in the current study as there was no difference in the volunteers reaction time under heavy metal and classical music in monochrome and coloured word reading exercises. Additionally, the reaction time data was similar under all three situations (silent, heavy metal and classical music) studied in the rectangle colour naming. These observations corroborate that the effect that was seen on the Stroop effect under background music was due to the effect of background music and not due to practice. In general, the beneficial influence of background music observed in this study could be attributed to the influence of music on the brain’s executive functions (which includes; attention, inhibi- tion, working memory and cognitive flexibility) that are me- diated by the prefrontal cortex [31, 32]. Executive functions are nothing but the top-down mental processes of the brain that are necessary for concentration and pay attention when going on automatic or relying on instinct would be insufficient or impossible [33, 34]. Researchers consider that executive

Table 1 Effect of different types of background music on errors made by the volunteers

Exercise Silence Heavy metal music Classical music

Monochrome reading 0.07 ± 0.02 0.17 ± 0.06 0.07 ± 0.03

Rectangle colour naming 0.95 ± 0.12 0.98 ± 0.12 0.79 ± 0.10

Reading coloured words 0.23 ± 0.05 0.15 ± 0.04 0.26 ± 0.05

Colour naming 1.60 ± 0.25 1.50 ± 0.17 1.21 ± 0.20

Ir J Med Sci

functions consist of inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility [35]. All of these are involved when one is performing the SCWT, and if music could influence these, it may possibly influence the Stroop task as well.

The results of this study demonstrate some experimental evidence for the modulation of executive function by var- ious types of background music. It seems that classical music compared with heavy metal music enhances the inhibitory function of executive control. In contrast to our hypothesis that heavy metal music might exert a disinhibitory influence on the executive function, it en- hanced the inhibitory function of the executive control but not to the extent as classical music. This could be due to the earlier discussed more resonant intervals in these musical pieces. Testing this would require carefully designed further researches which would provide a good understanding of the possible neural mechanisms involved.

Conclusion

Results of this study demonstrate a positive impact of back- ground music on a cognitive interference task. Although both classical and heavy metal music had an influence on the “Stroop effect”, classical music had a better effect when com- pared with the other. Further research is warranted to unravel the possible underlying neural mechanisms.

Acknowledgements The authors would like to extend their gratitude and acknowledgements to all participants of this study. The authors are in- debted to the administration of RAKMHSU for their support to carry out this research work.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval This study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of RAK Medical and Health Sciences University (RAKMHSU-REC-043-2018-UG-M).

Informed consent All participants enrolled into the study voluntarily agreed to participate in the study and signed an informed consent form before any study procedure in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

References

1. Stroop JR (1935) Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. J Exp Psychol 18(6):643–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054651

2. Jensen AR, Rohwer WD Jr (1966) The stroop color-word test: a review. Acta Psychol 25:36–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001- 6918(66)90004-7

3. Swann P, Valentina G, Michael W, Yann S, Lia A, Osman R et al (2020) Higher availability of α4β2 nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) in dorsal ACC is linked to more efficient interference control. NeuroImage 116:729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage. 2020.116729

4. Scarpina F, Tagini S (2017) The Stroop color and word test. Front Psychol 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00557

5. Hutchison KA, Balota DA, Duchek JM (2010) “The utility of Stroop task switching as a marker for early-stage Alzheimer’s dis- ease”: correction to Hutchison, Balota, and Duchek (2010). Psychol Aging 25(4):778. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021733

6. Balota DA, Tse C-S, Hutchison KA, Spieler DH, Duchek JM, Morris JC (2010) Predicting conversion to dementia of the Alzheimer’s type in a healthy control sample: the power of errors in stroop color naming. Psychol Aging 25(1):208–218. https:// doi.org/10.1037/a0017474

7. Kane MJ, Engle RW (2003) Working-memory capacity and the control of attention: the contributions of goal neglect, response competition, and task set to Stroop interference. J Exp Psychol Gen 132(1):47–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.132.1.47

8. Uttl B, Graf P (1997) Color-Word Stroop test performance across the adult life span. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 19(3):405–420. https:// doi.org/10.1080/01688639708403869

9. MacLeod CM, Dunbar K (1988) Training and Stroop-like inter- ference: evidence for a continuum of automaticity. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 14(1):126–135. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278- 7393.14.1.126

10. Shilko RS, Dormashev YB, Romanov VY (2013) Attention during short-term remembering: the memory stroop effect and the memory facilitation effect. Procedia Soc Behav Sci 78:335–339. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.04.306

11. Bottiroli S, Rosi A, Russo R, Vecchi T, Cavallini E (2014) The cognitive effects of listening to background music on older adults: processing speed improves with upbeat music, while memory seems to benefit from both upbeat and downbeat music. Front Aging Neurosci 6:248. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00284

12. Cassidy G, MacDonald RAR (2007) The effect of background mu- sic and background noise on the task performance of introverts and extraverts. Psychol Music 35(3):517–537. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0305735607076444

13. Steele KM, Bass KE, Crook MD (1999) The mystery of the Mozart effect: failure to replicate. Psychol Sci 10(4):366–369. https://doi. org/10.1111/1467-9280.00169

14. McKelvie P, Low J (2002) Listening to Mozart does not improve children’s spatial ability: final curtains for the Mozart effect. Br J Dev Psychol 20(2):241–258. https://doi.org/10.1348/ 026151002166433

15. Dibben N, Williamson VJ (2007) An exploratory survey of in- vehicle music listening. Psychol Music 35(4):571–589. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0305735607079725

16. Smith CA, Morris LW (1977) Differential effects of stimulative and sedative music on anxiety, concentration, and performance. Psychol Rep 41(3_suppl):1047–1053. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0. 1977.41.3f.1047

17. Furnham A, Bradley A (1997) Music while you work: the differ- ential distraction of background music on the cognitive test perfor- mance of introverts and extraverts. Appl Cogn Psychol 11(5):445– 455. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199710)11:5<445:: aid-acp472>3.0.co;2-r

18. Rauscher FH, Shaw GL, Ky CN (1993) Music and spatial task performance. Nature 365(6447):611. https://doi.org/10.1038/ 365611a0

19. Miendlarzewska EA, Trost WJ (2014) How musical training af- fects cognitive development: rhythm, reward and other modulat- ing variables. Front Neurosci 7:279. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fnins.2013.00279

Ir J Med Sci

20. Anderson SA, Fuller GB (2010) Effect of music on reading com- prehension of junior high school students. Sch Psychol Q 25(3): 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021213

21. Hallam S, Price J, Katsarou G (2002) The effects of background music on primary school pupils’ task performance. Educ Stud 28(2):111–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690220124551

22. Bugter D, Carden R (2012) The effect of music genre on a memory task. In: PsycEXTRA Dataset. https://doi.org/10.1037/ e568892012-014

23. Tsai PL, Chen MC, Huang YT, Lin KC, Chen KL, Hsu YW (2013) Listening to classical music ameliorates unilateral neglect after stroke. Am J Occup Ther 67(3):328–335. https://doi.org/10.5014/ ajot.2013.006312

24. Ho Y-C, Cheung M-C, Chan AS (2003) Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: cross-sectional and longitudinal ex- plorations in children. Neuropsychology 17(3):439–450. https:// doi.org/10.1037/0894-4105.17.3.439

25. Schellenberg EG, Nakata T, Hunter PG, Tamoto S (2007) Exposure to music and cognitive performance: tests of children and adults. Psychol Music 35(1):5–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0305735607068885

26. Thompson WF, Schellenberg EG, Husain G (2001) Arousal, mood, and the Mozart effect. Psychol Sci 12(3):248–251. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/1467-9280.00345

27. Blood AJ, Zatorre RJ (2001) Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. Proc Natl Acad Sci 98(20):11818–11823. https://doi. org/10.1073/pnas.191355898

28. Mitterschiffthaler MT, Fu CHY, Dalton JA, Andrew CM, Williams SCR (2007) A functional MRI study of happy and sad affective

states induced by classical music. Hum Brain Mapp 28(11):1150– 1162. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.20337

29. Masataka N, Perlovsky L (2013) Cognitive interference can be mitigated by consonant music and facilitated by dissonant music. Sci Rep 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep02028

30. Adleman NE, Menon V, Blasey CM, White CD, Warsofsky IS, Glover GH, Reiss AL (2002) A developmental fMRI study of the Stroop color-word task. NeuroImage 16(1):61–75. https://doi.org/ 10.1006/nimg.2001.1046

31. Monsell S, Taylor TJ, Murphy K (2001) Naming the color of a word: is it responses or task sets that compete? Mem Cogn 29(1): 137–151. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03195748

32. Derrfuss J, Brass M, Neumann J, von Cramon DY (2005) Involvement of the inferior frontal junction in cognitive control: meta-analyses of switching and Stroop studies. Hum Brain Mapp 25(1):22–34. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.20127

33. Miller EK, Cohen JD (2001) An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annu Rev Neurosci 24(1):167–202. https://doi. org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167

34. Espy KA (2004) Using developmental, cognitive, and neuroscience approaches to understand executive control in young children. Dev Neuropsychol 26(1):379–384. https://doi.org/10.1207/ s15326942dn2601_1

35. Diamond A (2013) Executive functions. Annu Rev Psychol 64(1): 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdic- tional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Ir J Med Sci