Scholarship
Interdisciplinary work connecting neuroscience, music, education and society.
This section gathers work that sits between fields: peer-reviewed studies on music and the brain, a practice-based investigation carried out through performance, and the essays, lectures and creative works that come out of both.
It is kept separate from my research program not because it is less rigorous, but because it answers to different questions and, in part, to different methods.
Neuromusicology
Why this work? Maqāmāt — more properly the plural of maqām — are the melodic system underlying all Middle Eastern music, and the chanting of Muslim, Christian and Jewish liturgy across the region. From the tenth century, al-Fārābī and others described the use of different maqāmāt for different conditions, developing what was then called music therapy and would today be called music medicine. The term music therapy has since been assigned to a distinct discipline: the evidence-based use of music and musical tools toward non-musical goals.
Evidence is what has been missing. Turkey, inheriting the Ottoman tradition, maintained both the maqāmāt and the empirical principles of their use in healing. Elsewhere in the Middle East that practice was not carried forward, and because neuroscience developed late in the region, there is almost no peer-reviewed work on how individual maqāmāt affect the brain and the emotions. The older practices remain, but unsupported.
Aims
Research foundations — peer-reviewed studies.
Study 1. EEG and emotional responses to Arabic maqāmāt, an EEG-based exploration of the variables affecting cortical responses to Arabic music scales for a personalised and effective music therapy in the Middle East: a clinical study ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04573101 — registered October 2020 with the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Interventional, randomised, crossover, open label. Basic science. We enrolled about 50 participants. Each participant hears twenty-four audio stimuli in computer-randomised order and selects the emotion that best describes their response after each, with emotional assessment before and after the session. Study started February 2019.
The trial examines the effect of Arabic maqāmāt and Arabic instruments — oud, ney and qānūn — on the brain and on emotion, in the multiethnic population of Qatar. It is the first registered clinical trial on music in Qatar and, to my knowledge, the first in the Gulf; it is also the only trial I am aware of that examines two specific maqāmāt, Kurd and Ṣabā, across three instruments, combining physiological and psychological assessment. Further publications from the dataset are in preparation.
Publication: Elkhatib G, Sarada P, Roach SA, Saba H, Bendriss G. Cultural background and instrument timbre shape emotional and EEG responses to a familiar Middle Eastern melody in maqam Saba: a crossover clinical trial with implications for music therapy. Front Hum Neurosci. 2026. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2026.1899966 (senior author)
Study 2. EEG correlates of improvisation on the ney: The first study to examine what happens in the brain during musical improvisation across the eight most commonly used maqāmāt, performed on the ney. The work was run and analysed by a premedical student under my mentorship, and produced the first peer-reviewed publication in this area.
Publication: Yaghmour M, Sarada P, Roach S, Kadar I, Pesheva Z, Chaari A, Bendriss G. EEG correlates of Middle Eastern music improvisations on the Ney instrument. Front Psychol. 2021;12:701761. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.701761 (senior author)
It is kept separate from my research program not because it is less rigorous, but because it answers to different questions and, in part, to different methods.
Neuromusicology
Why this work? Maqāmāt — more properly the plural of maqām — are the melodic system underlying all Middle Eastern music, and the chanting of Muslim, Christian and Jewish liturgy across the region. From the tenth century, al-Fārābī and others described the use of different maqāmāt for different conditions, developing what was then called music therapy and would today be called music medicine. The term music therapy has since been assigned to a distinct discipline: the evidence-based use of music and musical tools toward non-musical goals.
Evidence is what has been missing. Turkey, inheriting the Ottoman tradition, maintained both the maqāmāt and the empirical principles of their use in healing. Elsewhere in the Middle East that practice was not carried forward, and because neuroscience developed late in the region, there is almost no peer-reviewed work on how individual maqāmāt affect the brain and the emotions. The older practices remain, but unsupported.
Aims
- To establish an evidence base for the effects of Arabic maqāmāt on brain physiology and emotion.
- To understand the neural correlates of musical performance and improvisation.
- To support the development of music therapy tools appropriate to Middle Eastern populations, rather than imported wholesale from elsewhere.
Research foundations — peer-reviewed studies.
Study 1. EEG and emotional responses to Arabic maqāmāt, an EEG-based exploration of the variables affecting cortical responses to Arabic music scales for a personalised and effective music therapy in the Middle East: a clinical study ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04573101 — registered October 2020 with the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Interventional, randomised, crossover, open label. Basic science. We enrolled about 50 participants. Each participant hears twenty-four audio stimuli in computer-randomised order and selects the emotion that best describes their response after each, with emotional assessment before and after the session. Study started February 2019.
The trial examines the effect of Arabic maqāmāt and Arabic instruments — oud, ney and qānūn — on the brain and on emotion, in the multiethnic population of Qatar. It is the first registered clinical trial on music in Qatar and, to my knowledge, the first in the Gulf; it is also the only trial I am aware of that examines two specific maqāmāt, Kurd and Ṣabā, across three instruments, combining physiological and psychological assessment. Further publications from the dataset are in preparation.
Publication: Elkhatib G, Sarada P, Roach SA, Saba H, Bendriss G. Cultural background and instrument timbre shape emotional and EEG responses to a familiar Middle Eastern melody in maqam Saba: a crossover clinical trial with implications for music therapy. Front Hum Neurosci. 2026. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2026.1899966 (senior author)
Study 2. EEG correlates of improvisation on the ney: The first study to examine what happens in the brain during musical improvisation across the eight most commonly used maqāmāt, performed on the ney. The work was run and analysed by a premedical student under my mentorship, and produced the first peer-reviewed publication in this area.
Publication: Yaghmour M, Sarada P, Roach S, Kadar I, Pesheva Z, Chaari A, Bendriss G. EEG correlates of Middle Eastern music improvisations on the Ney instrument. Front Psychol. 2021;12:701761. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.701761 (senior author)
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Practice-based investigation: The Ney as a tool for listening to Moroccan Andalusian music
Al-Āla is the classical Andalusian music of Morocco, whose origins are traced to al-Andalus before being transmitted across the Maghreb. Its repertoire is organised into nawbāt, each built upon a particular Tabʿ, and has traditionally been transmitted from master to student through performance and memory. Contemporary performances usually present the listener with a rich heterophonic texture in which voices and multiple instruments ornament the same melodic line simultaneously. For listeners unfamiliar with the tradition, this richness can also make the music difficult to approach. Rather than attempting to reproduce the orchestra, this project explores another possibility: performing selected works from the Moroccan Andalusian repertoire as simple solo ney interpretations. The intention is not to replace the traditional ensemble, but to reveal the melodic line through a single voice carried by breath.Whether this approach may offer an accessible entry point for new listeners, help experienced listeners rediscover the underlying melodic structure, or reveal new perspectives on the repertoire itself remains an open question. Rather than beginning with predetermined conclusions, the artistic practice is allowed to generate its own questions and insights over time. The project takes shape through the progressive recording of a curated selection of the repertoire, accompanied by critical reflection, essays, lecture-concerts and public dissemination. Together, these artistic outputs document an evolving exploration of performance, listening and the transmission of Moroccan Andalusian music. |
Presentations, lecture-concerts and creative works
Invited lecture — Crescendo Academy, Amman, Jordan. June 2025. Is the maqām Ṣabā sad? Results of the first clinical trial on Middle Eastern maqām.
Guest lecture — Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar. April 2025. Is sadness in music universal? Delivered within the Ethnomusicology course.
Oral presentation — Medical and Health Humanities: Global Perspectives. February 2025. First results of NCT04573101.
Panel — Qatar Faculty Forum. April 2025. Multiple ways of knowing.
Oral presentation — Global South Arts and Health Week, Doha. November 2024. Music, emotion and cross-cultural neuroscience.
Ney performance — Music Medicine Concert, Sidra Medicine, Doha. 2023.
Artistic practice and invited lecture-concerts: [to be listed].
Invited lecture — Crescendo Academy, Amman, Jordan. June 2025. Is the maqām Ṣabā sad? Results of the first clinical trial on Middle Eastern maqām.
Guest lecture — Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar. April 2025. Is sadness in music universal? Delivered within the Ethnomusicology course.
Oral presentation — Medical and Health Humanities: Global Perspectives. February 2025. First results of NCT04573101.
Panel — Qatar Faculty Forum. April 2025. Multiple ways of knowing.
Oral presentation — Global South Arts and Health Week, Doha. November 2024. Music, emotion and cross-cultural neuroscience.
Ney performance — Music Medicine Concert, Sidra Medicine, Doha. 2023.
Artistic practice and invited lecture-concerts: [to be listed].
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Research team
Principal Investigator: Ghizlane Bendriss, PhD Co-investigators: Sarah Roach, Hanan Saba Research Assistants 2020-2021: Mohamed Emad Janjua, Shahd Jaouni, Ridhima Kaul, Shehroz Rana, Mariyam Al-Quradaghi. Research Assistants 2022-2023: Hanan Saba, Gawaher El Khattib, Padmakurakumari Sarada. |
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Research team
Principal Investigator: Ghizlane Bendriss, PhD Researchers: Mohammad Yaghmour, Padmakumari Sarada, Sarah Roach. Public summary of results HERE. |