Content uploaded by Mohammad Reza Mohammadi
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Mohammad Reza Mohammadi on Oct 13, 2016
Content may be subject to copyright.
Content uploaded by Mohammad Reza Mohammadi
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Mohammad Reza Mohammadi on Oct 13, 2016
Content may be subject to copyright.
http://informahealthcare.com/jmt
ISSN: 0309-1902 (print), 1464-522X (electronic)
J Med Eng Technol, 2015; 39(2): 153–158
!2015 Informa UK Ltd. DOI: 10.3109/03091902.2014.1001528
INNOVATION
Spirituality and brain waves
Mahsa Vaghefi
1
, Ali Motie Nasrabadi
2
*, Seyed Mohammad Reza Hashemi Golpayegani
3
,
Mohammad-Reza Mohammadi
4
, and Shahriar Gharibzadeh
3
1
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran,
2
Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran,
3
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran, and
4
Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Quran on a Persian-speaking Muslim.
Volunteers listened to three different audio files (Verses from Sura ‘Forqan’ unconsciously;
Arabic text unconsciously; Verses from Sura ‘Fath’ consciously). EEG signals were recorded and
the changes in the relative power of theta and alpha band are considered an indicators of
relaxation. The findings indicate that conscious listening to Holy Quran increases the relative
theta power in most areas of the head, compared to the rest condition, and listening to Quran
unconsciously increased relative theta power in the frontal and central lobes of the head
significantly, compared to the rest condition. Also, listening to Quran consciously increases the
relative alpha power in the frontal lobe, compared to the rest condition.
Keywords
Holy Quran, Persian-speaking Muslim,
relative theta power, relative alpha power
History
Received 16 July 2014
Revised 15 December 2014
Accepted 15 December 2014
1. Introduction
One of the greatest problems threatening human life is
anxiety, a phenomenon that causes abnormality in a human
and endangers his peace and psychological security. Ways of
controlling anxiety include pharmaceutical and non-pharma-
ceutical methods, but recently there has been an increasing
tendency to use non-pharmaceutical methods. One of these
methods is using pleasant sound stimuli such as music therapy
[1]. The human brain is composed of millions of nerve cells.
Listening to music helps neurons to be more active in the
brain [2]. Neurological studies have suggested that music is a
valuable tool for assessing the brain system [3]. Today, music
therapy is used as a way of increasing positive feelings and
reducing anxiety, stress and negative emotions [4–7].
Quran is a rhythmic text (prose) which means that it has a
melody that comes from the combination of words and letters
based on fine and sacred meanings. Psychologists and nurses
have studied a great deal about the refreshing effects of the
Holy Quran and report that hearing the Quran reduces the
pain and anxiety of patients [8–10].
Brain patterns are made of waveforms that are normally
sinusoidal. The power spectrum is obtained from an unpro-
cessed EEG signal, using Fourier transform. Sine waves with
different frequencies can be seen in the power spectrum, these
waves are classified into five main band frequencies: Delta
(4–5/0 Hz), theta (8–4 Hz), alpha (12–8 Hz), beta (30–12 Hz)
and gamma (40–30 Hz). Previous researches have shown that
the feeling of disgust provides less alpha power in the right
frontal lobe compared to the feeling of happiness; while
happiness causes less alpha power in the left frontal lobe [11].
Increased alpha activity in the brain refers to a state of
relaxation and euphoria [12]. Alpha power increases when
there is a sense of happiness and anger, and decreases when
there is a sense of fear and sadness [13]. Alpha power
decreases in the left frontal lobe while listening to pleasant
music and decreases in the right frontal lobe when listening to
unpleasant music [14]. Theta and alpha power will increase
while listening to music [15]. When listening to pleasant
music, EEG patterns are changed and theta power increases in
the middle frontal lobe [16]. Increase in alpha activity and
beta activity is recognized as a sign of relaxation. It has also
been reported that listening to music reduces stress and
increases the sense of physical relaxation [17]. An increase in
alpha and theta power is observed in relaxation and medita-
tion techniques too [18–21].
Few studies have been carried out on the effect of listening
to the Holy Quran on the EEG signals; among them, the
following studies can be mentioned: Salleh et al. [22] assessed
the spectrum of EEG signals during prostration in Muslim
prayer and showed that Alpha relative power increased in
prostration, compared to an imitated prostration. Khan et al.
[23] investigated the effect of Quran recitation on physical,
mental and spiritual relaxation. In this study, the best age of
relaxation was reported as 28 for men and 25 for women.
Quran recitation affects women more than men and women
*Corresponding author. Email: nasrabadi@shahed.ac.ir
J Med Eng Technol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Washington on 02/25/15
For personal use only.
reach relaxation in less time. The results also showed that the
best time for relaxation is in the morning before sunrise and in
the evening after sunset. Alwasiti et al. [24] examined the
changes in EEG signals during Muslim prayers. In this study,
the changes of FFT absolute power and relative power,
asymmetrical amplitude difference, coherent FFT difference
and Phase delay difference of FFT was assessed in different
brain lobes. Julianto and Etsem [25] examined the short-term
memory of individuals before and after listening to the Quran
and concluded that there is a significant difference in short-
term memory before and after listening to the Quran and the
brain activity increases during religious activities. Abdullah
and Omar [26] investigated EEG changes when listening to
Quran and listening to hard music. The results showed that
alpha waves are produced when listening to Quran.
Zulkurnaini et al. [27] compared the EEG alpha band at the
time of listening to Holy Quran and classical music, and
reported that the correlation between the brain waves of the
left and right hemispheres in the Holy Quran listening are
more than classical music mode and also the power of the
alpha band at the time of listening to Holy Quran is more,
compared to classical music. Kamal et al. [28] compared
brain activity while reading the Holy Quran and a book and
showed that, for each person, there is a negative correlation
between reading of Quran and reading a book, and that Quran
reading is a form of meditation, inducing stress reduction
compared to the rest mode.
The Quran is the Muslim’s holy book and its sound when
being sung or recited is a mystical and musical prose which
influences the human mental and spiritual states because of
its miraculous expressions. In this study, EEG signals of
subjects were investigated when listening to Quran to study
the relaxation effect of Quran on Persian-speaking Muslims.
According to the existing literature in the field of EEG signals
associated with the relaxation rate, increases in the relative
power of theta and alpha bands are considered and examined
as an indicator of relaxation. Also, to compare the relaxation
effect of Quran with another method, the Arabic text is used,
which has positive semantic content and includes advice and
hopeful sentences written by experts in Arabic and has the
capability of being read in Tartyl. It should be noted that none
of the volunteers were acquainted with Arabic and none of
them were Quran reciters and memorizers. Before starting the
test, they studied the information papers and stated their
consent to participate voluntarily in the study. In the second
part of the article the proposed protocol, recording the EEG
signal and pre-processing the data have been explained and
the analysis of the power spectrum has been defined. In the
third section, the results of statistical analysis of EEG are
presented and the fourth and the fifth sections deal with
discussions and conclusions, respectively.
2. Methods
2.1. Acquisition protocol and subjects
The database was registered in 2012 and has been performed
in an acoustic chamber. Forty-seven Persian-speaking healthy
Muslim volunteers (19 females and 28 males), with an age
range of 16–25 years and a mean age of 21.4± 2.708
participated. All subjects were selected voluntarily and
randomly. Half of them presented at 10:30 am and the other
half at 1 pm. There are three modes of play in the designed
protocol: Playing Holy Quran unconsciously (Q1), playing the
Arabic text unconsciously (NQ) and playing verses of the
Holy Quran consciously (Q2). Conscious means that, based
on the information given to them, the participants were aware
whether they were listening to the Holy Quran or another
Arabic text; Unconscious refers to the fact that the partici-
pants did not know the source of the file they listened to. The
protocol considered included four stages that are shown in
figure 1 and has the following phases:
Phase I—Basic (Pre): Recording of EEG, 2 min with eyes
opened and 2 min with eyes closed;
Phase II–Unconscious: Recording of EEG, 2 min with
eyes opened and 2 min with eyes closed and then random
playing of Q1 or NQ and simultaneous recording of EEG
with eyes closed for 10 min;
Phase III–Unconscious: Recording of EEG, 2 min with
eyes opened and 2min with eyes closed and then playing
the one that is not selected in phase II, and simultaneous
recording of EEG with eyes closed for 10 min; and
Phase IV–Conscious: Recording of EEG, 2 min with eyes
opened and 2 min with eyes closed and then playing the
file Q2 and simultaneous recording of EEG with eyes
closed for 10 min.
Considering that the volunteers did not speak Arabic and
were not Quran-memorizers, the type of file (Quran or Arabic
text) was not declared in the second and third phase
(unconsciously) and he/she was just informed in the fourth
phase about what file was going to be played (consciously).
A Qari of Quran was asked to read all the files—each of
them 10 min long—as similarly as possible in Tartyl, and
volunteers listened to these files through headphones. Tartyl
means reading the text fluently and correctly. To eliminate the
Figure 1. The designed protocol for recording EEG signal.
154 M. Vaghefi et al. J Med Eng Technol, 2015; 39(2): 153–158
J Med Eng Technol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Washington on 02/25/15
For personal use only.
effect of sequence between two phases of NQ and Q1, both of
which were played unconsciously, they were played randomly
to the volunteers. Also, for having no interaction of one phase
on another, a 15-min break was used between them. After
recording the EEG signal at each stage, the participants were
asked to note the number of words they heard and the signals
were evaluated by an expert. Then, only the signals of
participants who were aware and conscious during all four
stages were used in the analysis. In addition to the proposed
protocol and recording the EEG signals, the General Health
Questionnaire and Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
were answered and the results indicated that all participants
had relative peace.
2.2. EEG recording
According to Standard 10-20, 13 gold electrodes at positions
Fp1, Fp2, F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz, P4, O1 and O2
were used to record the EEG signals. A reference electrode
was placed on the right auricle and the ground electrode
was placed in the position Fpz and electrodes were connected
to an EEG amplifier (g.USBamp, g.tec, Graz, Austria).
A band pass filter and internal notch filter g.USBamp was
also used. The bandpass filter was set on 0.1–60 Hz and the
notch filter was set on 50 Hz. The sampling frequency was
256 Hz.
2.3. Pre-processing
At the time of recording EEG, events such as the head
movement, hand movements, feet movements, moving on the
chair, respiration and swallowing were listed and, then, that
part of the signal was marked. Time windows with the length
of 4 s (1024 samples) were selected from EEG signals that did
not contain the events listed above. These windows were used
for feature extraction of the data.
2.4. Power spectral analyses
A common and known feature in the analysis of brain signals
is relative power. The relative power of each frequency band
is the ratio of the absolute power of each frequency band to
the sum of the absolute power of 0.5–40 Hz. The EEG signal
in each frequency has certain characteristics and shows a
certain state of consciousness and psychological conditions of
a person. For example, theta activity is recognized as closed
eyes in the state of deep relaxation like the first stage of sleep,
meditation and hypnosis [29] and Alpha activity is seen at
relaxation and lack of active cognitive processes [21]. To
study the effects of hearing Quran on EEG signals, among
five frequency bands of delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma and
theta, two bands of theta (8–4 Hz) and alpha (12–8 Hz) were
selected as the relaxation index and frequency analysis was
done for these two brain rhythms. By comparing the relative
power in the two frequency bands and in four different phases
of Pre, NQ, Q1 and Q2, the amount of change was
investigated to determine in which phase the relaxation rate
had a significant increase.
3. Results
Figures 2 and 3 show the mean relative power and deviation
from the mean relative alpha and theta power, for 13
electrodes Fp1, Fp2, F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz, P4, O1
and O2 and for four phases of Pre, Q1, NQ and Q2. To
compare the difference between theta and alpha relative
power in each phase (Pre, Q1, NQ, Q2), the repeated
measures test was used. Because the research data was not
normal, a non-parametric Friedman test was selected to
compare the mean scores of the phases. As the intra-class
Friedman analysis of variance is a general test, to compare the
mean scores of each of these four phases, an additional
Wilcoxon test with a significance level of 0.05 was used.
Figure 2. Relative theta power in four phases of Pre, NQ, Q1 and Q2.
DOI: 10.3109/03091902.2014.1001528 Spirituality and brain waves 155
J Med Eng Technol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Washington on 02/25/15
For personal use only.
Tables 1 and 2 show the results of the Friedman test and
the Wilcoxon additional test for theta and alpha relative power
on each of the 13 electrodes. The results of the Friedman and
Wilcoxon tests for relative theta power are as follows:
For electrodes Fp1, Fp2, F3, Fz and F4: Friedman non-
parametric test results showed that there are significant
differences between the four phases of Pre, Q1, NQ and
Q2 (pvalue50.05). Also, using the Wilcoxon test, it can
be concluded that the relative power of theta in phase Q2
has a significant increase compared to Pre, Q1 and NQ,
and the relative power of theta in Q1 has an increase
compared to Pre.
For electrodes O2 and C3: Friedman non-parametric test
results showed that there are significant differences
between the four phases of Pre, Q1, NQ and Q2
(pvalue50.05). Also, using the Wilcoxon test, we can
conclude that the relative power of theta in phase Q2 has
a significant increase compared to Pre and NQ.
For electrodes C4 and Cz: Friedman non-parametric test
results showed that there are significant differences
between the four phases of Pre, Q1, NQ and Q2
(pvalue50.05). Moreover, using the Wilcoxon test it
can be concluded that the relative power of theta in phase
Q2 has a significant increase compared to Pre and NQ
and the relative power of theta in Q1 has an increase
compared to Pre.
For electrodes P3 and Pz: Friedman non-parametric test
results showed that there are no significant differences
between the four phases of Pre, Q1, NQ and Q2
(pvalue40.05).
For electrode P4: Friedman non-parametric test results
showed that there are significant differences between the
Figure 3. Relative alpha power in four phases of Pre, NQ, Q1 and Q2.
Table 1. The results of the Friedman test and Wilcoxon additional test for relative theta power in 13 electrodes.
Friedman test Wilcoxon test
Theta relative power Chi-square df Sig Pre–Q1 Pre–NQ Pre–Q2 Q1–NQ Q1–Q2 NQ–Q2
Fp1 25.720 3 0.000* 0.036** 0.212 0.000** 0.261 0.000** 0.000**
Fp2 29.720 3 0.000* 0.034** 0.108 0.000** 0.266 0.000** 0.000**
F3 20.333 3 0.000* 0.011** 0.144 0.001** 0.110 0.011** 0.001**
Fz 20.061 3 0.000* 0.007** 0.102 0.000** 0.240 0.016** 0.004**
F4 17.427 3 0.001* 0.009** 0.129 0.002** 0.335 0.042** 0.002**
C3 10.147 3 0.017* 0.056 0.453 0.010** 0.170 0.376 0.019**
Cz 11.427 3 0.010* 0.050** 0.067 0.001** 0.531 0.087 0.019**
C4 11.453 3 0.010* 0.034** 0.087 0.003** 0.382 0.054 0.034**
P3 6.861 3 0.076 0.627 0.428 0.021 0.627 0.080 0.015
Pz 6.391 3 0.094 0.323 0.211 0.025 0.544 0.151 0.054
P4 9.773 3 0.021* 0.033** 0.003** 0.000** 0.388 0.141 0.015**
O1 9.873 3 0.020* 0.981 0.797 0.054 0.414 0.036** 0.018**
O2 10.147 3 0.017* 0.623 0.826 0.048** 0.516 0.054 0.006**
*Meaningfulness of Friedman test; **Meaningfulness of Wilcoxon test.
156 M. Vaghefi et al. J Med Eng Technol, 2015; 39(2): 153–158
J Med Eng Technol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Washington on 02/25/15
For personal use only.
four phases of Pre, Q1, NQ and Q2 (pvalue50.05).
Using the Wilcoxon test, we can conclude that the
relative power of theta in phase Q2 has a significant
increase compared to Pre and NQ and the relative power
of theta in NQ and Q1 has an increase compared to Pre.
For electrode O1: Friedman non-parametric test results
showed that there are significant differences between the
four phases of Pre, Q1, NQ and Q2 (pvalue50.05). In
addition, using the Wilcoxon test, we can conclude that
the relative power of theta in phase Q2 has a significant
increase compared to Q1 and NQ.
The results of Friedman and Wilcoxon test for relative
alpha power is as follows:
For electrodes Fp1 and Fp2: Friedman non-parametric
test results showed that there are significant differences
between the four phases of Pre, Q1, NQ and Q2
(pvalue50.05). Also, using the Wilcoxon test, we can
conclude that the relative power of theta in phase Q2 has
a significant increase compared to Pre, Q1 and NQ.
For electrodes F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, P3, Pz, P4, O1 and O2:
Friedman non-parametric test results showed that there
are no significant differences between the four phases of
Pre, Q1, NQ and Q2 (pvalue40.05).
4. Discussion
In this paper, the frequency changes of brain signals were
studied in 47 Persian-speaking Muslim volunteers who had
not mastered the Arabic language and had not memorized
Holy Quran, in three conditions of listening to Quran
consciously (Q2), listening to Quran unconsciously (Q1)
and listening to an Arabic text unconsciously (NQ).
According to the results of previous literature, two brain
rhythms of theta and alpha were selected as the indicators of
relaxation and analysed statically. It can be concluded from
the results that:
(1) The relative theta power in phase Q2, compared to the
Pre phase, had a significant increase in the electrodes
Fp1, Fp2, F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P4 and O2.
(2) The relative theta power in phase Q2, compared to the
NQ phase, had a significant increase in the electrodes
Fp1, Fp2, F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P4, O1 and O2.
(3) The relative theta power in phase Q2, compared to the Q1
phase, had a significant increase in the electrodes Fp1,
Fp2, F3, Fz, F4 and O1.
(4) The relative theta power in phase Q1, compared to the
Pre phase, had a significant increase in the electrodes
Fp1, Fp2, F3, Fz, F4, Cz, C4 and P4.
(5) The relative theta power in phase NQ, compared to the
Pre phase, had a significant increase in the electrode P4.
(6) The relative alpha power in phase Q2, compared to the
Pre phase, had a significant increase in the electrodes Fp1
and Fp2.
(7) The relative alpha power in phase Q2, compared to the
NQ phase, had a significant increase in the electrodes
Fp1, Fp2, F3 and F4.
(8) The relative alpha power in the Q2 phase compared to the
Q1 phase had a significant increase in the electrodes Fp1
and Fp2.
So, listening to Quran consciously (Q2) increased relative
theta power in most areas of the brain compared to the rest
condition (Pre). Listening to Quran unconsciously (Q1)
significantly increased relative theta power in the frontal
and central lobes of the head, compared to the rest condition
(Pre). Listening to Quran consciously (Q2) significantly
increased relative alpha power in the frontal lobe, compared
to the rest condition (Pre).
Increasing of alpha occurs at the mental and physical break
of the body [30]. Since the Quran stimuli consciously
increased alpha power in the frontal lobe, it can be concluded
that the person is put in the relaxation state. Theta production
with closed eyes is a sign of a deep state of relaxation, such as
the first phase of sleeping, meditation and hypnosis [29].
Thus, according to the significant increase in relative theta
power in listening to Quran, we can conclude that listening to
Quran causes a pleasant mental health condition for Muslim
people.
When we compare the results of this study with the
findings of other researches, the results of Kamal et al. [28],
which showed, when reciting Quran, the EEG power spec-
trum in the frequency range of Alpha band has an increase
compared to reading Quran, can be mentioned. Zulkurnaini
et al. [27] compared listening to classical music and Holy
Quran and stated that alpha power increased more when
Table 2. The results of the Friedman test and Wilcoxon additional test for relative alpha power in 13 electrodes.
Friedman test Wilcoxon test
Alpha relative power Chi-square df Sig Pre–Q1 Pre–NQ Pre–Q2 Q1–NQ Q1–Q2 NQ–Q2
Fp1 12.574 3 0.006* 0.300 0.0958 0.017** 0.220 0.009** 0.000**
Fp2 10.455 3 0.015* 0.391 0.983 0.036** 0.290 0.010** 0.001**
F3 5.426 3 0.143 0.751 0.589 0.310 0.216 0.253 0.013
Fz 5.885 3 0.117 0.619 0.485 0.310 0.103 0.472 0.012
F4 4.736 3 0.192 0.409 0.816 0.176 0.162 0.440 0.036
C3 2.821 3 0.420 0.672 0.874 0.240 0.325 0.172 0.085
Cz 2.311 3 0.510 0.597 0.751 0.310 0.208 0.539 0.117
C4 4.353 3 0.226 0.891 0.719 0.452 0.519 0.300 0.120
P3 2.362 3 0.501 0.791 0.519 0.832 0.539 0.386 0.216
Pz 2.515 3 0.473 0.808 0.619 0.546 0.546 0.186 0.117
P4 6.498 3 0.090 0.808 0.285 0.539 0.341 0.249 0.063
O1 2.055 3 0.561 0.816 0.916 0.519 0.966 0.276 0.162
O2 6.702 3 0.082 0.604 0.589 0.478 0.172 0.626 0.035
*Meaningfulness of Friedman test; **Meaningfulness of Wilcoxon test.
DOI: 10.3109/03091902.2014.1001528 Spirituality and brain waves 157
J Med Eng Technol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Washington on 02/25/15
For personal use only.
listening to Holy Quran. Abdullah and Omar [26] examined
the effect of religious activities such as listening to Quran.
The results showed an increase in alpha power when the
person was listening to the Holy Quran.
5. Conclusion
The Quran is the holy book of Muslims that has a holiness and
special position in the Muslims’ minds and has a pleasant and
soothing sound when sung or recited. In this study, the Holy
Quran is used as a useful technique for reducing anxiety
among Persian-speaking Muslims. Investigating the EEG
signals of the volunteers showed that, when a Persian-
speaking Muslim listens to the Quran consciously, meaning
that he knows it is from the Holy Quran, the relative power of
theta and alpha brain signals will increase. Also, when he is
listening to the Quran unconsciously, which means that he
does not know it is from the Holy Quran, the relative power of
theta brain signal will increase.
When the participant is listening to the Quran consciously
he is more relaxed, which can be related to the participant’
religious beliefs, since he was aware that the audio file had
been selected from the Holy Quran.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone
are responsible for the content and writing of this article.
References
1. Gagne, T.D., Yurkovich, E.E., and Gargert, M., 2001, Use of music
therapy and other ITNIs in acute care. Journal of Psychosocial
Nursing & Mental Health Services,39, 26–37.
2. Bennet, A., and Bennet, D., 2008, The human knowledge system:
Music and brain coherence. The Journal of Information and
Knowledge Management Systems,38, 277–295.
3. Peretz, I., and Zatorre, R., 2005, Brain organization for music
processing. Annual Review of Psychology,56, 89–114.
4. Davis, W.B., and Thaut, M.H., 1989, The influence of preferred
relaxing music on measures of state anxiety, relaxation and
physiological responses. Journal of Music Therapy,26, 168–187.
5. Chafin, S., Roy, M., Christenfeld, N., and Gerin, W., 2004, Music
can facilitate blood pressure recovery from stress. British Journal of
Health Psychology,9, 393–403.
6. Maratos, A., Gold, C., Wang, X., and Crawford, M., 2008, Music
therapy for depression. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews,
Issue 1, Art. No.: CD004517.
7. Geethanjali, B., Adalarasu, K., and Rajsekaran, R., 2012, Impact of
music on brain function during mental task using electroenceph-
alography. World Academy of Science, Engineering and
Technology,66, 883–887.
8. Hojjati, A., and Mosavi, V., 2011, The comparison between Quran
sound and quiet music on anxiety decrease of patients waiting for
dental surgery. The First International and 4th National Congress on
Health Esucation and Promotion; Tabriz University of Medical
Sciences.
9. Mottaghi, M.E., Esmaili, R., and Rohani, Z., 2011, Effect of Quran
voice on the level of anxiety in athletics. Quarterly of Quran &
Medicine,1, 1–4.
10. Shafiei, N., Salari, S., and Sharifi, M., 2011, Comparison of
listening to the Quran Arabic recitation and Arabic recitation along
with Persian translation on decreasing patients’ anxiety and vital
signs stability before anesthesia induction. Quarterly of Quran &
Medicine,1, 11–15.
11. Davidson, R.J., Ekman, P., Sarona, C.D., Senulis, J.A., and Friesen,
W.V., 1990, Approach-withdrawal and cerebral asymmetry:
Emotional expression and brain physiology. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology,58, 330–341.
12. Lukas, S.E., Mendelson, J.H., and Benedikt, R., 1995,
Electroencephalographic correlates of marihuana-induced
euphoria. Drug and Alcohol Dependence,37, 131–140.
13. Kostyunina, M., and Kulikov, M., 1996, Frequency characteristics
of EEG spectra in the emotions. Neuroscience and Behavioral
Physiology,26, 340–343.
14. Schmidt, L.A., and Trainor, L.J., 2001, Frontal brain electrical
activity (EEG) distinguishes valence and intensity of musical
emotions. Cognition and Emotion,15, 487–500.
15. Sakharov, D.S., Davydov, V.I., and Pavlygina, R.A., 2005,
Intercentral relations of the human EEG during listening to
music. Human Physiology,31, 392–397.
16. Sammler, D., Grigutsch, M., Fritz, T., and Koelsch, S., 2007,
Music and emotion: Electrophysiological correlates of the process-
ing of pleasant and unpleasant music. Psychophysiology,44,
293–304.
17. Vijayalakshmi, K., Sridhar, S., and Khanwani, P., 2010, Estimation
of effects of alpha music on EEG components by time and
frequency domain analysis. International Conference on Computer
and Communication Engineering (ICCCE) 2010 May 11–12; Kuala
Lumpur. Malaysia: IEEE; 2010, pp. 1–5.
18. Tebecis, A.K., 1975, A controlled study of the EEG during
transcendental meditation: Comparison with hypnosis. Folia
psychiatrica et neurologica japonica.29, 305–313.
19. Stigsby, B., Rodenburg, J.C., and Moth, H.B., 1981, EEG findings
during mantra meditation: A controlled, qualitiative study of
experienced meditators. Electroencephalography and Clinical
Neurophysiology,5, 434–442.
20. Jacobs, G.D., and Friedman, R., 2004, EEG spectral analysis of
relaxation techniques. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback,
29, 245–254.
21. Lagopoulos, J., Xu, J., Rasmussen, I., Vik, A., Malhi, G.S.,
Eliassen, C.F., Arntsen, I.E., Saether, J.G., Hollup, S., Holen, A.,
Davanger, S., and Ellingsen, Ø., 2009, Increased Theta and Alpha
EEG Activity During Nondirective Meditation. Journal of
Alternative and Complementary Medicine,15, 1187–1192.
22. Salleh, N.A., Lim, K.S., and Ibrahim, F., 2009, AR modeling as
EEG spectral analysis on prostration. International Conference for
Technical Postgraduates (TECHPOS) 2009 Dec 14-15; Kuala
Lumpur. Malaysia: IEEE; 2009, pp. 1–4.
23. Khan, N., bt Ahmad, N., Beg, A.H., Fakheraldin, M.A.I., Abd Alla,
A.N., and Nubli, M., 2009, Mental and Spiritual Relaxation by
Recitation of the Holy Quran. Second International Conference on
Computer Research and Development 2010 May 7-10; Kuala
Lumpur. Malaysia: IEEE; 2009, pp. 863–867.
24. Alwasiti, H.H., Aris, I., and Jantan, A., 2010, EEG activity in
Muslim prayer: A pilot study. Maejo International Journal of
Science and Technology,4, 496–511.
25. Julianto, V., and Etsem, M.B., 2011, The effect of reciting Holy
Qur’an toward short-term memory ability analysed trought the
changing brain wave. Jurnal Psikologi,38, 17–29.
26. Abdullah, A.A., and Omar, Z., 2011, The effect of temporal EEG
signals while listening to Quran recitation. Proceeding of the
International Conference on Advanced Science, Engineering
and Information Technology 2011; Malaysia: IEEE; 2011, pp.
372–375.
27. Zulkurnaini, N.A., Abdul Kadir, R.S.S., Murat, Z.H., and Isa, R.M.,
editors, 2012, The comparison between listening to Al-Quran and
listening to classical music on the brainwave signal for the alpha
band. Intelligent Systems. Third International Conference on
Modelling and Simulation (ISMS) 2012 Feb 8–10; Kota
Kinabalu. Malaysia: IEEE; 2012, pp. 181–186.
28. Kamal, N.F., Mahmood, N.H., and Zakaria, N.A., 2013, Modeling
brain activities during reading working memory task: Comparison
between reciting Quran and reading book. Procedia - Social and
Behavioral Sciences,97, 83–89.
29. Vaitl, D., Birbaumer, N., Gruzelier, J., Jamieson, G., Kotchoubey,
B., Ku
¨bler, A., Lehmann, D., Miltner, W.H., Ott, U., Pu
¨tz, P.,
Sammer, G., Strauch, I., Strehl, U., Wackermann, J., and Weiss, T.,
2005, Psychobiology of altered states of consciousness.
Psychological Bulletin,131, 98–127.
30. Foster, D.S., 1990, EEG and subjective correlates of alpha-
frequency binaural-beat stimulation combined with alpha biofeed-
back [Ph. D Thesis], Memphis State University.
158 M. Vaghefi et al. J Med Eng Technol, 2015; 39(2): 153–158
J Med Eng Technol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Washington on 02/25/15
For personal use only.
