Effects of music on brain activity and performance of software testing professionals: an experimental study with eeg

This dataset contains EEG recordings collected during a controlled experiment conducted as part of a Master's research project investigating the influence of music on the cognitive processes of professional software testers. The study involved 14 professional software testers, divided into two balanced groups:

7 participants who listened to music during the experimental tasks;

7 participants who did not listen to music (control group).

Experimental Context

The experiment aimed to evaluate how music affects the neural activity of software testers while performing software testing tasks. EEG data were recorded using standard acquisition protocols, ensuring consistent conditions across all participants and sessions.

Each participant performed a sequence of tasks structured into five recording sessions, representing different phases of the experiment:

IBOE – Initial Baseline (Open Eyes): resting-state recording with eyes open, used as a reference for neural activity normalization.

BL01 – Block 1: first task block.

BL02 – Block 2: second task block.

BL03 – Block 3: third task block.

BL04 – Block 4: fourth task block.

File Naming Convention

The dataset is organized by participant and task, following the file naming pattern:[ParticipantID]_[SessionCode].edf

Where:

ParticipantID = three-digit participant identifier (e.g., 001, 002, …, 07).

SessionCode = session label (IBOE, BL01, BL02, BL03, or BL04).

For example:

001_IBOE.edf → Baseline recording (open eyes) of participant 001.

001_BL01.edf → Block 1 recording of participant 001.

All files are stored in European Data Format (EDF), a widely used open standard for EEG data storage.

Data Summary

Number of participants: 14

Group 1 (Music condition): 7 participants

Group 2 (No music condition): 7 participants

Total files: 70 EDF files (5 per participant)

Format: .edf (European Data Format)

Sampling rate and channels: EEG signals were recorded from 64 channels at 1000 Hz

Usage Notes

This dataset can be used for:

EEG-based cognitive studies in software engineering contexts;

Comparative analysis between auditory stimulation and cognitive workload;

Feature extraction, classification, and signal processing research involving EEG data.

Ethical Considerations

All participants provided informed consent before the experiment. The data are fully anonymized, and no personally identifiable information is included.