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Background Recent studies showed that music may improve spatial intelligence.Specifically, brief exposure to Mozarts music led to a short-term improvement in a spatial IQ test, which was not seen after exposuring to Beethovens Fur Elise.These results suggest that individual music has different effects on the brain.Thus, whether different kinds of music lead to different brain activation pattern has important implications.By employing fMRI, we compared the BOLD signal elicited by Mozarts music as well as Chopins music in the present study.Methods Mozarts K448 and Chopins Etude No.10 was selected based on Geneva Emotional Musical Scale-9 (GEMS-9).Sixteen volunteers who were naive to the two stimuli participated in the study to control familiarity.They were asked to listen to the two musics passively during fMRI scan.SPM8 was used for data analysis.Results There was no significant difference in the primary auditory cortices during listening to the two musics.However, subjects showed stronger right frontal activation listening to Mozarts K448 than listening to Chopins Etude No.10.The difference survived after the volume was controlled.Further analysis suggested that periodity may underlie this phenomenon.Discussion The present study extended previous studies and provided evidence about the specific effects of Mozarts music in the frontal cortex, and proposed possible underlying factors.