Tones and numbers: a combined EEG-MEG study on the effects of musical expertise in magnitude comparisons of audiovisual stimuli

Effects of musical expertise on line section and line extension

Background

This study investigated whether music training led to better length estimation and/or rightward bias by comparing the performance of musicians (pianists) and non-musicians on performance of line sections and line extensions.

Methods

One hundred and sixteen participants, among them 62 musicians and 54 non-musicians, participated in the present study, completed line section and line extension task under three conditions: 1/2, 1/3 and 2/3.

Results

The mixed repeated measures ANOVA analysis revealed a significant group × condition interaction, that the musicians were more accurate than non-musicians in all the line section tasks and showed no obvious pseudoneglect, while their overall performance on the line extension tasks was comparable to the non-musicians, and only performed more accurately in the 1/2 line extension condition.

Conclusion

These findings indicated that there was a dissociation between the effects of music training on line section and line extension. This dissociation does not support the view that music training has a general beneficial effect on line estimation, and provides insight into a potentially important limit on the effects of music training on spatial cognition.

A Pilot Study Examining the Effects of Music Training on Attention in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

Prior studies indicate differences in brain volume and neurophysiological responses of musicians relative to non-musicians. These differences are observed in the sensory, motor, parietal, and frontal cortex. Children with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) experience deficits in auditory, motor, and executive function domains. Therefore, we hypothesized that short-term music training in children with an FASD due to prenatal alcohol exposure may improve brain function. Children (N = 20) with an FASD were randomized to participate in either five weeks of piano training or to a control group. Selective attention was evaluated approximately seven weeks apart (pre-/post-music training or control intervention), examining longitudinal effects using the Attention Networks Test (ANT), a well-established paradigm designed to evaluate attention and inhibitory control, while recording EEG. There was a significant group by pre-/post-intervention interaction for the P250 ms peak of the event-related potential and for theta (4-7 Hz) power in the 100-300 ms time window in response to the congruent condition when the flanking stimuli were oriented congruently with the central target stimulus in fronto-central midline channels from Cz to Fz. A trend for improved reaction time at the second assessment was observed for the music trained group only. These results support the hypothesis that music training changes the neural indices of attention as assessed by the ANT in children with an FASD. This study should be extended to evaluate the effects of music training relative to a more closely matched active control and determine whether additional improvements emerge with longer term music training.

The impact of musical training in symbolic and non-symbolic audiovisual judgements of magnitude

Quantity estimation can be represented in either an analog or symbolic manner and recent evidence now suggests that analog and symbolic representation of quantities interact. Nonetheless, those two representational forms of quantities may be enhanced by convergent multisensory information. Here, we elucidate those interactions using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and an audiovisual oddball paradigm. Participants were presented simultaneous audiovisual tokens in which the co-varying pitch of tones was combined with the embedded cardinality of dot patterns. Incongruencies were elicited independently from symbolic and non-symbolic modality within the audio-visual percept, violating the newly acquired rule that “the higher the pitch of the tone, the larger the cardinality of the figure.” The effect of neural plasticity in symbolic and non-symbolic numerical representations of quantities was investigated through a cross-sectional design, comparing musicians to musically naïve controls. Individual’s cortical activity was reconstructed and statistically modeled for a predefined time-window of the evoked response (130–170 ms). To summarize, we show that symbolic and non-symbolic processing of magnitudes is re-organized in cortical space, with professional musicians showing altered activity in motor and temporal areas. Thus, we argue that the symbolic representation of quantities is altered through musical training.

Aging Effects on the Neuroplastic Attributes of Multisensory Cortical Networks as Triggered by a Computerized Music Reading Training Intervention

The constant increase in the graying population is the result of a great expansion of life expectancy. A smaller expansion of healthy cognitive and brain functioning diminishes the gains achieved by longevity. Music training, as a special case of multisensory learning, may induce restorative neuroplasticity in older ages. The current study aimed to explore aging effects on the cortical network supporting multisensory cognition and to define aging effects on the network's neuroplastic attributes. A computer-based music reading protocol was developed and evaluated via electroencephalography measurements pre- and post-training on young and older adults. Results revealed that multisensory integration is performed via diverse strategies in the two groups: Older adults employ higher-order supramodal areas to a greater extent than lower level perceptual regions, in contrast to younger adults, indicating an age-related shift in the weight of each processing strategy. Restorative neuroplasticity was revealed in the left inferior frontal gyrus and right medial temporal gyrus, as a result of the training, while task-related reorganization of cortical connectivity was obstructed in the group of older adults, probably due to systemic maturation mechanisms. On the contrary, younger adults significantly increased functional connectivity among the regions supporting multisensory integration.

Auditory but Not Audiovisual Cues Lead to Higher Neural Sensitivity to the Statistical Regularities of an Unfamiliar Musical Style

It is still a matter of debate whether visual aids improve learning of music. In a multisession study, we investigated the neural signatures of novel music sequence learning with or without aids (auditory-only: AO, audiovisual: AV). During three training sessions on three separate days, participants (nonmusicians) reproduced (note by note on a keyboard) melodic sequences generated by an artificial musical grammar. The AV group (n = 20) had each note color-coded on screen, whereas the AO group (n = 20) had no color indication. We evaluated learning of the statistical regularities of the novel music grammar before and after training by presenting melodies ending on correct or incorrect notes and by asking participants to judge the correctness and surprisal of the final note, while EEG was recorded. We found that participants successfully learned the new grammar. Although the AV group, as compared to the AO group, reproduced longer sequences during training, there was no significant difference in learning between groups. At the neural level, after training, the AO group showed a larger N100 response to low-probability compared with high-probability notes, suggesting an increased neural sensitivity to statistical properties of the grammar; this effect was not observed in the AV group. Our findings indicate that visual aids might improve sequence reproduction while not necessarily promoting better learning, indicating a potential dissociation between sequence reproduction and learning. We suggest that the difficulty induced by auditory-only input during music training might enhance cognitive engagement, thereby improving neural sensitivity to the underlying statistical properties of the learned material.

Analysis of Prefrontal Single-Channel EEG Data for Portable Auditory ERP-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces

An electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) is a tool to non-invasively control computers by translating the electrical activity of the brain. This technology has the potential to provide patients who have severe generalized myopathy, such as those suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), with the ability to communicate. Recently, auditory oddball paradigms have been developed to implement more practical event-related potential (ERP)-based BCIs because they can operate without ocular activities. These paradigms generally make use of clinical (over 16-channel) EEG devices and natural sound stimuli to maintain the user's motivation during the BCI operation; however, most ALS patients who have taken part in auditory ERP-based BCIs tend to complain about the following factors: (i) total device cost and (ii) setup time. The development of a portable auditory ERP-based BCI could overcome considerable obstacles that prevent the use of this technology in communication in everyday life. To address this issue, we analyzed prefrontal single-channel EEG data acquired from a consumer-grade single-channel EEG device using a natural sound-based auditory oddball paradigm. In our experiments, EEG data was gathered from nine healthy subjects and one ALS patient. The performance of auditory ERP-based BCI was quantified under an offline condition and two online conditions. The offline analysis indicated that our paradigm maintained a high level of detection accuracy (%) and ITR (bits/min) across all subjects through a cross-validation procedure (for five commands: 70.0 ± 16.1 and 1.29 ± 0.93, for four commands: 73.8 ± 14.2 and 1.16 ± 0.78, for three commands: 78.7 ± 11.8 and 0.95 ± 0.61, and for two commands: 85.7 ± 8.6 and 0.63 ± 0.38). Furthermore, the first online analysis demonstrated that our paradigm also achieved high performance for new data in an online data acquisition stream (for three commands: 80.0 ± 19.4 and 1.16 ± 0.83). The second online analysis measured online performances on the different day of offline and first online analyses on a different day (for three commands: 62.5 ± 14.3 and 0.43 ± 0.36). These results indicate that prefrontal single-channel EEGs have the potential to contribute to the development of a user-friendly portable auditory ERP-based BCI.

Separate Contribution of Striatum Volume and Pitch Discrimination to Individual Differences in Music Reward

Individual differences in the level of pleasure induced by music have been associated with the response of the striatum and differences in functional connectivity between the striatum and the auditory cortex. In this study, we tested whether individual differences in music reward are related to the structure of the striatum and the ability to discriminate pitch. We acquired a 3-D magnetization-prepared rapid-acquisition gradient-echo image for 32 musicians and 26 nonmusicians who completed a music-reward questionnaire and a test of pitch discrimination. The analysis of both groups together showed that sensitivity to music reward correlated negatively with the volume of both the caudate and nucleus accumbens and correlated positively with pitch-discrimination abilities. Moreover, musicianship, pitch discrimination, and caudate volume significantly predicted individual differences in music reward. These results are consistent with the proposal that individual differences in music reward depend on the interplay between auditory abilities and the reward network.