Homayoun as a Persian music scale on non-musician's brain: An fMRI study

Introduction: the aim of this study was to get to a neurological evaluation of one of the persian music scales, homayoun, on brain activation of non-musician subjects. we selected this scale because homayoun is one of the main scales in persian classical music which is similar to minor mode in western scales. methods: this study was performed on 19 right handed subjects, aging 22-31. here some pieces from homayoun dastgah are used in both rhythmic and nonrhythmic. result: the results of this study revealed the brain activities for each of rhythmic and non-rhythmic versions of homayoun dastgah. the activated regions for nonrhythmic homayoun contained: right and left subcallosal cortex, left medial frontal cortex, left anterior cingulate gyrus, left frontal pole and for rhythmic homayoun contained: left precentral gyrus, left precuneous cortex, left anterior supramarginal, left superior parietal lobule, left postcentral gyrus. also, we acquired amygdala area in both pieces of music. discussion: based on arousal effects of rhythm and damasio's somatic marker hypothesis, non-rhythmic homayoun activates regions related to emotion and thinking while activity of rhythmic homayoun is related to areas of movement and motion.