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Bonetti L, Vænggård AK, Iorio C, Vuust P, Lumaca M. Decreased inter-hemispheric connectivity predicts a coherent retrieval of auditory symbolic material. Biol Psychol 2024; 193:108881. [PMID: 39332661 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2024] [Revised: 09/19/2024] [Accepted: 09/24/2024] [Indexed: 09/29/2024]
Abstract
Investigating the transmission of information between individuals is essential to better understand how humans communicate. Coherent information transmission (i.e., transmission without significant modifications or loss of fidelity) helps preserving cultural traits and traditions over time, while innovation may lead to new cultural variants. Although much research has focused on the cognitive mechanisms underlying cultural transmission, little is known on the brain features which correlates with coherent transmission of information. To address this gap, we combined structural (from high-resolution diffusion imaging) and functional connectivity (from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]) with a laboratory model of cultural transmission, the signalling games, implemented outside the MRI scanner. We found that individuals who exhibited more coherence in the transmission of auditory symbolic information were characterized by lower levels of both structural and functional inter-hemispheric connectivity. Specifically, higher coherence negatively correlated with the strength of bilateral structural connections between frontal and subcortical, insular and temporal brain regions. Similarly, we observed increased inter-hemispheric functional connectivity between inferior frontal brain regions derived from structural connectivity analysis in individuals who exhibited lower transmission coherence. Our results suggest that lateralization of cognitive processes involved in semantic mappings in the brain may be related to the stability over time of auditory symbolic systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonardo Bonetti
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
| | - Anna Kildall Vænggård
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark
| | - Claudia Iorio
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; LEAD-CNRS UMR 5022, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon 21000, France
| | - Peter Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark
| | - Massimo Lumaca
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark.
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2
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Lumaca M, Keller PE, Baggio G, Pando-Naude V, Bajada CJ, Martinez MA, Hansen JH, Ravignani A, Joe N, Vuust P, Vulić K, Sandberg K. Frontoparietal network topology as a neural marker of musical perceptual abilities. Nat Commun 2024; 15:8160. [PMID: 39289390 PMCID: PMC11408523 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52479-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2024] [Accepted: 09/05/2024] [Indexed: 09/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Why are some individuals more musical than others? Neither cognitive testing nor classical localizationist neuroscience alone can provide a complete answer. Here, we test how the interplay of brain network organization and cognitive function delivers graded perceptual abilities in a distinctively human capacity. We analyze multimodal magnetic resonance imaging, cognitive, and behavioral data from 200+ participants, focusing on a canonical working memory network encompassing prefrontal and posterior parietal regions. Using graph theory, we examine structural and functional frontoparietal network organization in relation to assessments of musical aptitude and experience. Results reveal a positive correlation between perceptual abilities and the integration efficiency of key frontoparietal regions. The linkage between functional networks and musical abilities is mediated by working memory processes, whereas structural networks influence these abilities through sensory integration. Our work lays the foundation for future investigations into the neurobiological roots of individual differences in musicality.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Lumaca
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - P E Keller
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
| | - G Baggio
- Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - V Pando-Naude
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - C J Bajada
- Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta / University of Malta Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Platform, Msida, Malta
| | - M A Martinez
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - J H Hansen
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - A Ravignani
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - N Joe
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - P Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - K Vulić
- Department for Human Neuroscience, Institute for Medical Research, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - K Sandberg
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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Matthews TE, Lumaca M, Witek MAG, Penhune VB, Vuust P. Music reward sensitivity is associated with greater information transfer capacity within dorsal and motor white matter networks in musicians. Brain Struct Funct 2024:10.1007/s00429-024-02836-x. [PMID: 39052097 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-024-02836-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2024] [Accepted: 07/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/27/2024]
Abstract
There are pronounced differences in the degree to which individuals experience music-induced pleasure which are linked to variations in structural connectivity between auditory and reward areas. However, previous studies exploring the link between white matter structure and music reward sensitivity (MRS) have relied on standard diffusion tensor imaging methods, which present challenges in terms of anatomical accuracy and interpretability. Further, the link between MRS and connectivity in regions outside of auditory-reward networks, as well as the role of musical training, have yet to be investigated. Therefore, we investigated the relation between MRS and structural connectivity in a large number of directly segmented and anatomically verified white matter tracts in musicians (n = 24) and non-musicians (n = 23) using state-of-the-art tract reconstruction and fixel-based analysis. Using a manual tract-of-interest approach, we additionally tested MRS-white matter associations in auditory-reward networks seen in previous studies. Within the musician group, there was a significant positive relation between MRS and fiber density and cross section in the right middle longitudinal fascicle connecting auditory and inferior parietal cortices. There were also positive relations between MRS and fiber-bundle cross-section in tracts connecting the left thalamus to the ventral precentral gyrus and connecting the right thalamus to the right supplementary motor area, however, these did not survive FDR correction. These results suggest that, within musicians, dorsal auditory and motor networks are crucial to MRS, possibly via their roles in top-down predictive processing and auditory-motor transformations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomas E Matthews
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Nørrebrogade 44, Building 1A, Aarhus C, 8000, Denmark.
| | - Massimo Lumaca
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Nørrebrogade 44, Building 1A, Aarhus C, 8000, Denmark
| | - Maria A G Witek
- Department of Music School of Languages, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham, Cultures, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
| | - Virginia B Penhune
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC, H4B 1R6, Canada
| | - Peter Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Nørrebrogade 44, Building 1A, Aarhus C, 8000, Denmark
- Royal Academy of Music, Skovgaardsgade 2C, Aarhus C, DK-8000, Denmark
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Verhoef T, Marghetis T, Walker E, Coulson S. Brain responses to a lab-evolved artificial language with space-time metaphors. Cognition 2024; 246:105763. [PMID: 38442586 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 01/05/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024]
Abstract
What is the connection between the cultural evolution of a language and the rapid processing response to that language in the brains of individual learners? In an iterated communication study that was conducted previously, participants were asked to communicate temporal concepts such as "tomorrow," "day after," "year," and "past" using vertical movements recorded on a touch screen. Over time, participants developed simple artificial 'languages' that used space metaphorically to communicate in nuanced ways about time. Some conventions appeared rapidly and universally (e.g., using larger vertical movements to convey greater temporal durations). Other conventions required extensive social interaction and exhibited idiosyncratic variation (e.g., using vertical location to convey past or future). Here we investigate whether the brain's response during acquisition of such a language reflects the process by which the language's conventions originally evolved. We recorded participants' EEG as they learned one of these artificial space-time languages. Overall, the brain response to this artificial communication system was language-like, with, for instance, violations to the system's conventions eliciting an N400-like component. Over the course of learning, participants' brain responses developed in ways that paralleled the process by which the language had originally evolved, with early neural sensitivity to violations of a rapidly-evolving universal convention, and slowly developing neural sensitivity to an idiosyncratic convention that required slow social negotiation to emerge. This study opens up exciting avenues of future work to disentangle how neural biases influence learning and transmission in the emergence of structure in language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tessa Verhoef
- Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, Leiden University, Gorlaeus Building, Einsteinweg 55, 2333 CC Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, Mail Code 0515; 9500, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, USA.
| | - Tyler Marghetis
- Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95343, USA
| | - Esther Walker
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, Mail Code 0515; 9500, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, USA
| | - Seana Coulson
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, Mail Code 0515; 9500, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, USA
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Zhang X, Tremblay P. Aging of Amateur Singers and Non-singers: From Behavior to Resting-state Connectivity. J Cogn Neurosci 2023; 35:2049-2066. [PMID: 37788320 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/05/2023]
Abstract
Healthy aging is associated with extensive changes in brain structure and physiology, with impacts on cognition and communication. The "mental exercise hypothesis" proposes that certain lifestyle factors such as singing-perhaps the most universal and accessible music-making activity-can affect cognitive functioning and reduce cognitive decline in aging, but the neuroplastic mechanisms involved remain unclear. To address this question, we examined the association between age and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in 84 healthy singers and nonsingers in five networks (auditory, speech, language, default mode, and dorsal attention) and its relationship to auditory cognitive aging. Participants underwent cognitive testing and fMRI. Our results show that RSFC is not systematically lower with aging and that connectivity patterns vary between singers and nonsingers. Furthermore, our results show that RSFC of the precuneus in the default mode network was associated with auditory cognition. In these regions, lower RSFC was associated with better auditory cognitive performance for both singers and nonsingers. Our results show, for the first time, that basic brain physiology differs in singers and nonsingers and that some of these differences are associated with cognitive performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiyue Zhang
- Université Laval, Québec City, Canada
- CERVO Brain Research Center, Quebec City, Canada
| | - Pascale Tremblay
- Université Laval, Québec City, Canada
- CERVO Brain Research Center, Quebec City, Canada
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Lumaca M, Bonetti L, Brattico E, Baggio G, Ravignani A, Vuust P. High-fidelity transmission of auditory symbolic material is associated with reduced right-left neuroanatomical asymmetry between primary auditory regions. Cereb Cortex 2023:7005170. [PMID: 36702496 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Revised: 01/05/2023] [Accepted: 01/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
The intergenerational stability of auditory symbolic systems, such as music, is thought to rely on brain processes that allow the faithful transmission of complex sounds. Little is known about the functional and structural aspects of the human brain which support this ability, with a few studies pointing to the bilateral organization of auditory networks as a putative neural substrate. Here, we further tested this hypothesis by examining the role of left-right neuroanatomical asymmetries between auditory cortices. We collected neuroanatomical images from a large sample of participants (nonmusicians) and analyzed them with Freesurfer's surface-based morphometry method. Weeks after scanning, the same individuals participated in a laboratory experiment that simulated music transmission: the signaling games. We found that high accuracy in the intergenerational transmission of an artificial tone system was associated with reduced rightward asymmetry of cortical thickness in Heschl's sulcus. Our study suggests that the high-fidelity copying of melodic material may rely on the extent to which computational neuronal resources are distributed across hemispheres. Our data further support the role of interhemispheric brain organization in the cultural transmission and evolution of auditory symbolic systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Massimo Lumaca
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus C 8000, Denmark
| | - Leonardo Bonetti
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus C 8000, Denmark.,Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9BX, United Kingdom.,Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom.,Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40127, Italy
| | - Elvira Brattico
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus C 8000, Denmark.,Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari 70122, Italy
| | - Giosuè Baggio
- Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab, Department of Language and Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 7941, Norway
| | - Andrea Ravignani
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus C 8000, Denmark.,Comparative Bioacoustics Group, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen 6525 XD, Netherlands
| | - Peter Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus C 8000, Denmark
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Ravignani A, Lumaca M, Kotz SA. Interhemispheric Brain Communication and the Evolution of Turn-Taking in Mammals. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.916956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In the last 20 years, research on turn-taking and duetting has flourished in at least three, historically separate disciplines: animal behavior, language sciences, and music cognition. While different in scope and methods, all three ultimately share one goal—namely the understanding of timed interactions among conspecifics. In this perspective, we aim at connecting turn-taking and duetting across species from a neural perspective. While we are still far from a defined neuroethology of turn-taking, we argue that the human neuroscience of turn-taking and duetting can inform animal bioacoustics. For this, we focus on a particular concept, interhemispheric connectivity, and its main white-matter substrate, the corpus callosum. We provide an overview of the role of corpus callosum in human neuroscience and interactive music and speech. We hypothesize its mechanistic connection to turn-taking and duetting in our species, and a potential translational link to mammalian research. We conclude by illustrating empirical venues for neuroethological research of turn-taking and duetting in mammals.
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Lumaca M, Vuust P, Baggio G. Network Analysis of Human Brain Connectivity Reveals Neural Fingerprints of a Compositionality Bias in Signaling Systems. Cereb Cortex 2021; 32:1704-1720. [PMID: 34476458 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Revised: 08/04/2021] [Accepted: 08/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Compositionality is a hallmark of human language and other symbolic systems: a finite set of meaningful elements can be systematically combined to convey an open-ended array of ideas. Compositionality is not uniformly distributed over expressions in a language or over individuals' communicative behavior: at both levels, variation is observed. Here, we investigate the neural bases of interindividual variability by probing the relationship between intrinsic characteristics of brain networks and compositional behavior. We first collected functional resting-state and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data from a large participant sample (N = 51). Subsequently, participants took part in two signaling games. They were instructed to learn and reproduce an auditory symbolic system of signals (tone sequences) associated with affective meanings (human faces expressing emotions). Signal-meaning mappings were artificial and had to be learned via repeated signaling interactions. We identified a temporoparietal network in which connection length was related to the degree of compositionality introduced in a signaling system by each player. Graph-theoretic analysis of resting-state functional connectivity revealed that, within that network, compositional behavior was associated with integration measures in 2 semantic hubs: the left posterior cingulate cortex and the left angular gyrus. Our findings link individual variability in compositional biases to variation in the anatomy of semantic networks and in the functional topology of their constituent units.
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Affiliation(s)
- Massimo Lumaca
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Peter Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Giosuè Baggio
- Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab, Department of Language and Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7941 Trondheim, Norway
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Verhoef T, Ravignani A. Melodic Universals Emerge or Are Sustained Through Cultural Evolution. Front Psychol 2021; 12:668300. [PMID: 34408694 PMCID: PMC8365168 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.668300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
To understand why music is structured the way it is, we need an explanation that accounts for both the universality and variability found in musical traditions. Here we test whether statistical universals that have been identified for melodic structures in music can emerge as a result of cultural adaptation to human biases through iterated learning. We use data from an experiment in which artificial whistled systems, where sounds produced with a slide whistle were learned by human participants and transmitted multiple times from person to person. These sets of whistled signals needed to be memorised and recalled and the reproductions of one participant were used as the input set for the next. We tested for the emergence of seven different melodic features, such as discrete pitches, motivic patterns, or phrase repetition, and found some evidence for the presence of most of these statistical universals. We interpret this as promising evidence that, similarly to rhythmic universals, iterated learning experiments can also unearth melodic statistical universals. More, ideally cross-cultural, experiments are nonetheless needed. Simulating the cultural transmission of artificial proto-musical systems can help unravel the origins of universal tendencies in musical structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tessa Verhoef
- Creative Intelligence Lab, Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Andrea Ravignani
- Comparative Bioacoustics Group, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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