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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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2
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Papadaki E, Koustakas T, Werner A, Lindenberger U, Kühn S, Wenger E. Resting-state functional connectivity in an auditory network differs between aspiring professional and amateur musicians and correlates with performance. Brain Struct Funct 2023; 228:2147-2163. [PMID: 37792073 PMCID: PMC10587189 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-023-02711-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 09/10/2023] [Indexed: 10/05/2023]
Abstract
Auditory experience-dependent plasticity is often studied in the domain of musical expertise. Available evidence suggests that years of musical practice are associated with structural and functional changes in auditory cortex and related brain regions. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to investigate neural correlates of musical training and expertise beyond specific task influences. Here, we compared two groups of musicians with varying expertise: 24 aspiring professional musicians preparing for their entrance exam at Universities of Arts versus 17 amateur musicians without any such aspirations but who also performed music on a regular basis. We used an interval recognition task to define task-relevant brain regions and computed functional connectivity and graph-theoretical measures in this network on separately acquired resting-state data. Aspiring professionals performed significantly better on all behavioral indicators including interval recognition and also showed significantly greater network strength and global efficiency than amateur musicians. Critically, both average network strength and global efficiency were correlated with interval recognition task performance assessed in the scanner, and with an additional measure of interval identification ability. These findings demonstrate that task-informed resting-state fMRI can capture connectivity differences that correspond to expertise-related differences in behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleftheria Papadaki
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany.
- International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE), Berlin, Germany.
| | - Theodoros Koustakas
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - André Werner
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - Ulman Lindenberger
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany, London, UK
| | - Simone Kühn
- Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- Neuronal Plasticity Working Group, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Elisabeth Wenger
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany
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3
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Zheng Y, Gao P, Li X. The modulating effect of musical expertise on lexical-semantic prediction in speech-in-noise comprehension: Evidence from an EEG study. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14371. [PMID: 37350401 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14371] [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: 04/09/2022] [Revised: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 05/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/24/2023]
Abstract
Musical expertise has been proposed to facilitate speech perception and comprehension in noisy environments. This study further examined the open question of whether musical expertise modulates high-level lexical-semantic prediction to aid online speech comprehension in noisy backgrounds. Musicians and nonmusicians listened to semantically strongly/weakly constraining sentences during EEG recording. At verbs prior to target nouns, both groups showed a positivity-ERP effect (Strong vs. Weak) associated with the predictability of incoming nouns; this correlation effect was stronger in musicians than in nonmusicians. After the target nouns appeared, both groups showed an N400 reduction effect (Strong vs. Weak) associated with noun predictability, but musicians exhibited an earlier onset latency and stronger effect size of this correlation effect than nonmusicians. To determine whether musical expertise enhances anticipatory semantic processing in general, the same group of participants participated in a control reading comprehension experiment. The results showed that, compared with nonmusicians, musicians demonstrated more delayed ERP correlation effects of noun predictability at words preceding the target nouns; musicians also exhibited more delayed and reduced N400 decrease effects correlated with noun predictability at the target nouns. Taken together, these results suggest that musical expertise enhances lexical-semantic predictive processing in speech-in-noise comprehension. This musical-expertise effect may be related to the strengthened hierarchical speech processing in particular.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuanyi Zheng
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Panke Gao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaoqing Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Language Ability, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China
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Jaatela J, Aydogan DB, Nurmi T, Vallinoja J, Mäenpää H, Piitulainen H. Limb-specific thalamocortical tracts are impaired differently in hemiplegic and diplegic subtypes of cerebral palsy. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:10245-10257. [PMID: 37595205 PMCID: PMC10545439 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Revised: 07/02/2023] [Accepted: 07/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Thalamocortical pathways are considered crucial in the sensorimotor functioning of children with cerebral palsy (CP). However, previous research has been limited by non-specific tractography seeding and the lack of comparison between different CP subtypes. We compared limb-specific thalamocortical tracts between children with hemiplegic (HP, N = 15) or diplegic (DP, N = 10) CP and typically developed peers (N = 19). The cortical seed-points for the upper and lower extremities were selected (i) manually based on anatomical landmarks or (ii) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations following proprioceptive-limb stimulation. Correlations were investigated between tract structure (mean diffusivity, MD; fractional anisotropy, FA; apparent fiber density, AFD) and sensorimotor performance (hand skill and postural stability). Compared to controls, our results revealed increased MD in both upper and lower limb thalamocortical tracts in the non-dominant hemisphere in HP and bilaterally in DP subgroup. MD was strongly lateralized in participants with hemiplegia, while AFD seemed lateralized only in controls. fMRI-based tractography results were comparable. The correlation analysis indicated an association between the white matter structure and sensorimotor performance. These findings suggest distinct impairment of functionally relevant thalamocortical pathways in HP and DP subtypes. Thus, the organization of thalamocortical white matter tracts may offer valuable guidance for targeted, life-long rehabilitation in children with CP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Jaatela
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland
| | - Dogu Baran Aydogan
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland
- A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Timo Nurmi
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland
- Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, FI-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Jaakko Vallinoja
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland
| | - Helena Mäenpää
- Pediatric Neurology, New Children’s Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, FI-00029 Helsinki, Finland
| | - Harri Piitulainen
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland
- Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, FI-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
- Pediatric Neurology, New Children’s Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, FI-00029 Helsinki, Finland
- Aalto NeuroImaging, Aalto University, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland
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Marie D, Müller CA, Altenmüller E, Van De Ville D, Jünemann K, Scholz DS, Krüger TH, Worschech F, Kliegel M, Sinke C, James CE. Music interventions in 132 healthy older adults enhance cerebellar grey matter and auditory working memory, despite general brain atrophy. NEUROIMAGE: REPORTS 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ynirp.2023.100166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
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Weiller C, Reisert M, Glauche V, Musso M, Rijntjes M. The dual-loop model for combining external and internal worlds in our brain. Neuroimage 2022; 263:119583. [PMID: 36007823 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2022] [Accepted: 08/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Intelligible communication with others as well as covert conscious thought requires us to combine a representation of the external world with inner abstract concepts. Interaction with the external world through sensory perception and motor execution is arranged as sequences in time and space, whereas abstract thought and invariant categories are independent of the moment. Using advanced MRI-based fibre tracking on high resolution data from 183 participants in the Human Connectome Project, we identified two large supramodal systems comprising specific cortical regions and their connecting fibre tracts; a dorsal one for processing of sequences in time and space, and a ventral one for concepts and categories. We found that two hub regions exist in the executive front and the perceptive back of the brain where these two cognitive processes converge, constituting a dual-loop model. The hubs are located in the onto- and phylogenetically youngest regions of the cortex. We propose that this hub feature serves as the neural substrate for the more abstract sense of syntax in humans, i.e. for the system populating sequences with content in all cognitive domains. The hubs bring together two separate systems (dorsal and ventral) at the front and the back of the brain and create a closed-loop. The closed-loop facilitates recursivity and forethought, which we use twice; namely, for communication with others about things that are not there and for covert thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cornelius Weiller
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany.
| | - Marco Reisert
- Department of Medical Physics, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany; Department of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany
| | - Volkmar Glauche
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany
| | - Mariachristina Musso
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany
| | - Michel Rijntjes
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany
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Jünemann K, Marie D, Worschech F, Scholz DS, Grouiller F, Kliegel M, Van De Ville D, James CE, Krüger THC, Altenmüller E, Sinke C. Six Months of Piano Training in Healthy Elderly Stabilizes White Matter Microstructure in the Fornix, Compared to an Active Control Group. Front Aging Neurosci 2022; 14:817889. [PMID: 35242025 PMCID: PMC8886041 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.817889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 01/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
While aging is characterized by neurodegeneration, musical training is associated with experience-driven brain plasticity and protection against age-related cognitive decline. However, evidence for the positive effects of musical training mostly comes from cross-sectional studies while randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes are rare. The current study compares the influence of six months of piano training with music listening/musical culture lessons in 121 musically naïve healthy elderly individuals with regard to white matter properties using fixel-based analysis. Analyses revealed a significant fiber density decline in the music listening/musical culture group (but not in the piano group), after six months, in the fornix, which is a white matter tract that naturally declines with age. In addition, these changes in fiber density positively correlated to episodic memory task performances and the amount of weekly piano training. These findings not only provide further evidence for the involvement of the fornix in episodic memory encoding but also more importantly show that learning to play the piano at an advanced age may stabilize white matter microstructure of the fornix.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristin Jünemann
- Division of Clinical Psychology & Sexual Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hanover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.,Center for Systems Neuroscience, Hanover, Germany
| | - Damien Marie
- Geneva Musical Minds Lab, Geneva School of Health Sciences, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Geneva, Switzerland.,Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Florian Worschech
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Hanover, Germany.,Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Hanover, Germany
| | - Daniel S Scholz
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Hanover, Germany.,Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Hanover, Germany
| | - Frédéric Grouiller
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Matthias Kliegel
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Dimitri Van De Ville
- Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland.,Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Clara E James
- Geneva Musical Minds Lab, Geneva School of Health Sciences, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Geneva, Switzerland.,Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Tillmann H C Krüger
- Division of Clinical Psychology & Sexual Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hanover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.,Center for Systems Neuroscience, Hanover, Germany
| | - Eckart Altenmüller
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Hanover, Germany.,Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Hanover, Germany
| | - Christopher Sinke
- Division of Clinical Psychology & Sexual Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hanover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
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Jaatela J, Aydogan DB, Nurmi T, Vallinoja J, Piitulainen H. Identification of Proprioceptive Thalamocortical Tracts in Children: Comparison of fMRI, MEG, and Manual Seeding of Probabilistic Tractography. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:3736-3751. [PMID: 35040948 PMCID: PMC9433422 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2021] [Revised: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 11/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Studying white matter connections with tractography is a promising approach to understand the development of different brain processes, such as proprioception. An emerging method is to use functional brain imaging to select the cortical seed points for tractography, which is considered to improve the functional relevance and validity of the studied connections. However, it is unknown whether different functional seeding methods affect the spatial and microstructural properties of the given white matter connection. Here, we compared functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography, and manual seeding of thalamocortical proprioceptive tracts for finger and ankle joints separately. We showed that all three seeding approaches resulted in robust thalamocortical tracts, even though there were significant differences in localization of the respective proprioceptive seed areas in the sensorimotor cortex, and in the microstructural properties of the obtained tracts. Our study shows that the selected functional or manual seeding approach might cause systematic biases to the studied thalamocortical tracts. This result may indicate that the obtained tracts represent different portions and features of the somatosensory system. Our findings highlight the challenges of studying proprioception in the developing brain and illustrate the need for using multimodal imaging to obtain a comprehensive view of the studied brain process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Jaatela
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo FI-02150, Finland
| | - Dogu Baran Aydogan
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo FI-02150, Finland
- Department of Psychiatry, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki FI-00029, Finland
- A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio FI-70211, Finland
| | - Timo Nurmi
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo FI-02150, Finland
- Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä FI-40014, Finland
| | - Jaakko Vallinoja
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo FI-02150, Finland
| | - Harri Piitulainen
- Address correspondence to Harri Piitulainen, associate professor, Harri Piitulainen, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. BOX 35, FI-40014, Finland.
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Links of Prosodic Stress Perception and Musical Activities to Language Skills of Children With Cochlear Implants and Normal Hearing. Ear Hear 2021; 41:395-410. [PMID: 31397704 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES A major issue in the rehabilitation of children with cochlear implants (CIs) is unexplained variance in their language skills, where many of them lag behind children with normal hearing (NH). Here, we assess links between generative language skills and the perception of prosodic stress, and with musical and parental activities in children with CIs and NH. Understanding these links is expected to guide future research and toward supporting language development in children with a CI. DESIGN Twenty-one unilaterally and early-implanted children and 31 children with NH, aged 5 to 13, were classified as musically active or nonactive by a questionnaire recording regularity of musical activities, in particular singing, and reading and other activities shared with parents. Perception of word and sentence stress, performance in word finding, verbal intelligence (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) vocabulary), and phonological awareness (production of rhymes) were measured in all children. Comparisons between children with a CI and NH were made against a subset of 21 of the children with NH who were matched to children with CIs by age, gender, socioeconomic background, and musical activity. Regression analyses, run separately for children with CIs and NH, assessed how much variance in each language task was shared with each of prosodic perception, the child's own music activity, and activities with parents, including singing and reading. All statistical analyses were conducted both with and without control for age and maternal education. RESULTS Musically active children with CIs performed similarly to NH controls in all language tasks, while those who were not musically active performed more poorly. Only musically nonactive children with CIs made more phonological and semantic errors in word finding than NH controls, and word finding correlated with other language skills. Regression analysis results for word finding and VIQ were similar for children with CIs and NH. These language skills shared considerable variance with the perception of prosodic stress and musical activities. When age and maternal education were controlled for, strong links remained between perception of prosodic stress and VIQ (shared variance: CI, 32%/NH, 16%) and between musical activities and word finding (shared variance: CI, 53%/NH, 20%). Links were always stronger for children with CIs, for whom better phonological awareness was also linked to improved stress perception and more musical activity, and parental activities altogether shared significantly variance with word finding and VIQ. CONCLUSIONS For children with CIs and NH, better perception of prosodic stress and musical activities with singing are associated with improved generative language skills. In addition, for children with CIs, parental singing has a stronger positive association to word finding and VIQ than parental reading. These results cannot address causality, but they suggest that good perception of prosodic stress, musical activities involving singing, and parental singing and reading may all be beneficial for word finding and other generative language skills in implanted children.
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Mehrabinejad MM, Rafei P, Sanjari Moghaddam H, Sinaeifar Z, Aarabi MH. Sex Differences are Reflected in Microstructural White Matter Alterations of Musical Sophistication: A Diffusion MRI Study. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:622053. [PMID: 34366766 PMCID: PMC8339302 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.622053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The human-specified ability to engage with different kinds of music in sophisticated ways is named “Musical Sophistication.” Herein, we investigated specific white matter (WM) tracts that are associated with musical sophistication and musicality in both genders, separately, using Diffusion MRI connectometry approach. We specifically aimed to explore potential sex differences regarding WM alterations correlated with musical sophistication. Methods: 123 healthy participants [70 (56.9%) were male, mean age = 36.80 ± 18.86 year], who were evaluated for musical sophistication using Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) self-assessment instrument from the LEMON database, were recruited in this study. The WM correlates of two Gold-MSI subscales (active engagement and music training) were analyzed. Images were prepared and analyzed with diffusion connectometry to construct the local connectome. Multiple regression models were then fitted to address the correlation of local connectomes with Gold-MSI components with the covariates of age and handedness. Results: a significant positive correlation between WM integrity in the corpus callosum (CC), right corticospinal tract (CST), cingulum, middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP), bilateral parieto-pontine tract, bilateral cerebellum, and left arcuate fasciculus (AF) and both active engagement [false discovery rate (FDR) = 0.008] and music training (FDR = 0.057) was detected in males. However, WM integrity in the body of CC, MCP, and cerebellum in females showed an inverse association with active engagement (FDR = 0.046) and music training (FDR = 0.032). Conclusion: WM microstructures with functional connection with motor and somatosensory areas (CST, cortico-pontine tracts, CC, cerebellum, cingulum, and MCP) and language processing area (AF) have significant correlation with music engagement and training. Our findings show that these associations are different between males and females, which could potentially account for distinctive mechanisms related to musical perception and musical abilities across genders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Parnian Rafei
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | | | - Zeinab Sinaeifar
- Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad Hadi Aarabi
- Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.,Department of Neuroscience, Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy
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Li X, Zatorre RJ, Du Y. The Microstructural Plasticity of the Arcuate Fasciculus Undergirds Improved Speech in Noise Perception in Musicians. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:3975-3985. [PMID: 34037726 PMCID: PMC8328222 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Musical training is thought to be related to improved language skills, for example, understanding speech in background noise. Although studies have found that musicians and nonmusicians differed in morphology of bilateral arcuate fasciculus (AF), none has associated such white matter features with speech-in-noise (SIN) perception. Here, we tested both SIN and the diffusivity of bilateral AF segments in musicians and nonmusicians using diffusion tensor imaging. Compared with nonmusicians, musicians had higher fractional anisotropy (FA) in the right direct AF and lower radial diffusivity in the left anterior AF, which correlated with SIN performance. The FA-based laterality index showed stronger right lateralization of the direct AF and stronger left lateralization of the posterior AF in musicians than nonmusicians, with the posterior AF laterality predicting SIN accuracy. Furthermore, hemodynamic activity in right superior temporal gyrus obtained during a SIN task played a full mediation role in explaining the contribution of the right direct AF diffusivity on SIN performance, which therefore links training-related white matter plasticity, brain hemodynamics, and speech perception ability. Our findings provide direct evidence that differential microstructural plasticity of bilateral AF segments may serve as a neural foundation of the cross-domain transfer effect of musical experience to speech perception amid competing noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaonan Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Robert J Zatorre
- Montréal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada.,International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montréal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada.,Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
| | - Yi Du
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai 200031, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.,Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing 102206, China
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12
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MEG Intersubject Phase Locking of Stimulus-Driven Activity during Naturalistic Speech Listening Correlates with Musical Training. J Neurosci 2021; 41:2713-2722. [PMID: 33536196 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0932-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2020] [Revised: 11/13/2020] [Accepted: 11/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Musical training is associated with increased structural and functional connectivity between auditory sensory areas and higher-order brain networks involved in speech and motor processing. Whether such changed connectivity patterns facilitate the cortical propagation of speech information in musicians remains poorly understood. We here used magnetoencephalography (MEG) source imaging and a novel seed-based intersubject phase-locking approach to investigate the effects of musical training on the interregional synchronization of stimulus-driven neural responses during listening to naturalistic continuous speech presented in silence. MEG data were obtained from 20 young human subjects (both sexes) with different degrees of musical training. Our data show robust bilateral patterns of stimulus-driven interregional phase synchronization between auditory cortex and frontotemporal brain regions previously associated with speech processing. Stimulus-driven phase locking was maximal in the delta band, but was also observed in the theta and alpha bands. The individual duration of musical training was positively associated with the magnitude of stimulus-driven alpha-band phase locking between auditory cortex and parts of the dorsal and ventral auditory processing streams. These findings provide evidence for a positive relationship between musical training and the propagation of speech-related information between auditory sensory areas and higher-order processing networks, even when speech is presented in silence. We suggest that the increased synchronization of higher-order cortical regions to auditory cortex may contribute to the previously described musician advantage in processing speech in background noise.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Musical training has been associated with widespread structural and functional brain plasticity. It has been suggested that these changes benefit the production and perception of music but can also translate to other domains of auditory processing, such as speech. We developed a new magnetoencephalography intersubject analysis approach to study the cortical synchronization of stimulus-driven neural responses during the perception of continuous natural speech and its relationship to individual musical training. Our results provide evidence that musical training is associated with higher synchronization of stimulus-driven activity between brain regions involved in early auditory sensory and higher-order processing. We suggest that the increased synchronized propagation of speech information may contribute to the previously described musician advantage in processing speech in background noise.
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13
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Olszewska AM, Gaca M, Herman AM, Jednoróg K, Marchewka A. How Musical Training Shapes the Adult Brain: Predispositions and Neuroplasticity. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:630829. [PMID: 33776638 PMCID: PMC7987793 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.630829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 02/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Learning to play a musical instrument is a complex task that integrates multiple sensory modalities and higher-order cognitive functions. Therefore, musical training is considered a useful framework for the research on training-induced neuroplasticity. However, the classical nature-or-nurture question remains, whether the differences observed between musicians and non-musicians are due to predispositions or result from the training itself. Here we present a review of recent publications with strong focus on experimental designs to better understand both brain reorganization and the neuronal markers of predispositions when learning to play a musical instrument. Cross-sectional studies identified structural and functional differences between the brains of musicians and non-musicians, especially in regions related to motor control and auditory processing. A few longitudinal studies showed functional changes related to training while listening to and producing music, in the motor network and its connectivity with the auditory system, in line with the outcomes of cross-sectional studies. Parallel changes within the motor system and between the motor and auditory systems were revealed for structural connectivity. In addition, potential predictors of musical learning success were found including increased brain activation in the auditory and motor systems during listening, the microstructure of the arcuate fasciculus, and the functional connectivity between the auditory and the motor systems. We show that “the musical brain” is a product of both the natural human neurodiversity and the training practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alicja M Olszewska
- Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Maciej Gaca
- Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Aleksandra M Herman
- Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Jednoróg
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Artur Marchewka
- Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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14
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James CE, Altenmüller E, Kliegel M, Krüger THC, Van De Ville D, Worschech F, Abdili L, Scholz DS, Jünemann K, Hering A, Grouiller F, Sinke C, Marie D. Train the brain with music (TBM): brain plasticity and cognitive benefits induced by musical training in elderly people in Germany and Switzerland, a study protocol for an RCT comparing musical instrumental practice to sensitization to music. BMC Geriatr 2020; 20:418. [PMID: 33087078 PMCID: PMC7576734 DOI: 10.1186/s12877-020-01761-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent data suggest that musical practice prevents age-related cognitive decline. But experimental evidence remains sparse and no concise information on the neurophysiological bases exists, although cognitive decline represents a major impediment to healthy aging. A challenge in the field of aging is developing training regimens that stimulate neuroplasticity and delay or reverse symptoms of cognitive and cerebral decline. To be successful, these regimens should be easily integrated in daily life and intrinsically motivating. This study combines for the first-time protocolled music practice in elderly with cutting-edge neuroimaging and behavioral approaches, comparing two types of musical education. METHODS We conduct a two-site Hannover-Geneva randomized intervention study in altogether 155 retired healthy elderly (64-78) years, (63 in Geneva, 92 in Hannover), offering either piano instruction (experimental group) or musical listening awareness (control group). Over 12 months all participants receive weekly training for 1 hour, and exercise at home for ~ 30 min daily. Both groups study different music styles. Participants are tested at 4 time points (0, 6, and 12 months & post-training (18 months)) on cognitive and perceptual-motor aptitudes as well as via wide-ranging functional and structural neuroimaging and blood sampling. DISCUSSION We aim to demonstrate positive transfer effects for faculties traditionally described to decline with age, particularly in the piano group: executive functions, working memory, processing speed, abstract thinking and fine motor skills. Benefits in both groups may show for verbal memory, hearing in noise and subjective well-being. In association with these behavioral benefits we anticipate functional and structural brain plasticity in temporal (medial and lateral), prefrontal and parietal areas and the basal ganglia. We intend exhibiting for the first time that musical activities can provoke important societal impacts by diminishing cognitive and perceptual-motor decline supported by functional and structural brain plasticity. TRIAL REGISTRATION The Ethikkomission of the Leibniz Universität Hannover approved the protocol on 14.08.17 (no. 3604-2017), the neuroimaging part and blood sampling was approved by the Hannover Medical School on 07.03.18. The full protocol was approved by the Commission cantonale d'éthique de la recherche de Genève (no. 2016-02224) on 27.02.18 and registered at clinicaltrials.gov on 17.09.18 ( NCT03674931 , no. 81185).
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara E James
- Geneva School of Health Sciences, Geneva Musical Minds Lab (GEMMI Lab), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland HES-SO, Avenue de Champel 47, 1206, Geneva, Switzerland. .,Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve 40, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.
| | - Eckart Altenmüller
- Institute for Music Physiology and Musicians' Medecine, Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media, Neues Haus 1, 30175, Hannover, Germany.,Center for Systems Neuroscience, Bünteweg 2, 30559, Hannover, Germany
| | - Matthias Kliegel
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve 40, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.,Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability, University of Geneva, Switzerland, Boulevard du Pont d'Arve 28, 1205, Genève, Switzerland
| | - Tillmann H C Krüger
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Bünteweg 2, 30559, Hannover, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Section of Clinical Psychology & Sexual Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Centre of Mental Health, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany
| | - Dimitri Van De Ville
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Route Cantonale, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Faculty of Medecine of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, Campus Biotech, Chemin des Mines 9, 1211, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Florian Worschech
- Institute for Music Physiology and Musicians' Medecine, Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media, Neues Haus 1, 30175, Hannover, Germany.,Center for Systems Neuroscience, Bünteweg 2, 30559, Hannover, Germany
| | - Laura Abdili
- Geneva School of Health Sciences, Geneva Musical Minds Lab (GEMMI Lab), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland HES-SO, Avenue de Champel 47, 1206, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Daniel S Scholz
- Institute for Music Physiology and Musicians' Medecine, Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media, Neues Haus 1, 30175, Hannover, Germany.,Center for Systems Neuroscience, Bünteweg 2, 30559, Hannover, Germany
| | - Kristin Jünemann
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Bünteweg 2, 30559, Hannover, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Section of Clinical Psychology & Sexual Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Centre of Mental Health, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany
| | - Alexandra Hering
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve 40, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.,Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability, University of Geneva, Switzerland, Boulevard du Pont d'Arve 28, 1205, Genève, Switzerland
| | - Frédéric Grouiller
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland. Campus Biotech, Chemin des Mines 9, 1202, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Christopher Sinke
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Bünteweg 2, 30559, Hannover, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Section of Clinical Psychology & Sexual Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Centre of Mental Health, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany
| | - Damien Marie
- Geneva School of Health Sciences, Geneva Musical Minds Lab (GEMMI Lab), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland HES-SO, Avenue de Champel 47, 1206, Geneva, Switzerland
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15
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Giacosa C, Karpati FJ, Foster NEV, Hyde KL, Penhune VB. The descending motor tracts are different in dancers and musicians. Brain Struct Funct 2019; 224:3229-3246. [PMID: 31620887 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-019-01963-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2019] [Accepted: 10/01/2019] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Long-term motor training, such as dance or gymnastics, has been associated with increased diffusivity and reduced fiber coherence in regions including the corticospinal tract. Comparisons between different types of motor experts suggest that experience might result in specific structural changes related to the trained effectors (e.g., hands or feet). However, previous studies have not segregated the descending motor pathways from different body-part representations in motor cortex (M1). Further, most previous diffusion tensor imaging studies used whole-brain analyses based on a single tensor, which provide poor information about regions where multiple white matter (WM) tracts cross. Here, we used multi-tensor probabilistic tractography to investigate the specific components of the descending motor pathways in well-matched groups of dancers, musicians and controls. To this aim, we developed a procedure to identify the WM regions below the motor representations of the head, hand, trunk and leg that served as seeds for tractography. Dancers showed increased radial diffusivity (RD) in comparison with musicians, in descending motor pathways from all the regions, particularly in the right hemisphere, whereas musicians had increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the hand and the trunk/arm motor tracts. Further, dancers showed larger volumes compared to both other groups. Finally, we found negative correlations between RD and FA with the age of start of dance or music training, respectively, and between RD and performance on a melody task, and positive correlations between RD and volume with performance on a whole-body dance task. These findings suggest that different types of training might have different effects on brain structure, likely because dancers must coordinate movements of the entire body, whereas musicians focus on fewer effectors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Giacosa
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont Royal, CP 6128, Succ. Centre Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada. .,Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H4B 1R6, Canada.
| | - Falisha J Karpati
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont Royal, CP 6128, Succ. Centre Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada.,Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, 3655 Sir William Osler, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1Y6, Canada
| | - Nicholas E V Foster
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont Royal, CP 6128, Succ. Centre Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, 90 avenue Vincent d'Indy, Montreal, Quebec, H2V 2S9, Canada
| | - Krista L Hyde
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont Royal, CP 6128, Succ. Centre Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada.,Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, 3655 Sir William Osler, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1Y6, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, 90 avenue Vincent d'Indy, Montreal, Quebec, H2V 2S9, Canada
| | - Virginia B Penhune
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont Royal, CP 6128, Succ. Centre Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada.,Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H4B 1R6, Canada
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16
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Looi V, Torppa R, Prvan T, Vickers D. The Role of Music in Families of Children With Hearing Loss and Normal Hearing in Australia, Finland, and the UK. Front Neurosci 2019; 13:1002. [PMID: 31680796 PMCID: PMC6798058 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2019] [Accepted: 09/04/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The primary aim of this current study was to compare the role, importance and value placed on music by families with normally hearing (NH) children, to those who had a child with a hearing loss (HL) who wore either hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. A secondary aim was to see whether this differed between the countries. Parents of children aged 2-6 years living in Australia, Finland, and the United Kingdom were invited to complete the Role of Music in Families Questionnaire (RMFQ). Two groups of participants were recruited from each country: (i) parents of NH children, and (ii) parents of children with a HL. The RMFQ had seven subsections covering topics such as music participation, attitudes to music, importance of music in the family, and future perspectives on music. Three hundred and twenty-two families of NH children, and 56 families of children with HL completed the questionnaire (Australia: 50 NH, 25 HL; Finland: 242 NH, 21 HL; United Kingdom: 30 NH, 10 HL). Analyses compared between NH and HL groups within each country, and between the three countries for the NH group, and the HL group, independently. Overall, there were few significant differences between the participation levels, role, or importance of music in families with NH children compared to those with a child who had a HL, regardless of whether the families lived in Australia, Finland or the United Kingdom. Children first started to respond to music at similar ages, and overall music participation frequency, and music enjoyment were relatively similar. The importance of music in the family was also similar between the NH and HL groups. In comparing between the countries, Finnish children had a tendency to have higher participation rates in musical activities, with few other differences noted. Overall, the results of this study indicate that children, regardless of hearing levels or country of residence, have similar levels of music engagement and enjoyment, and HL is not seen as a contraindication to music participation and involvement by the parents involved in this study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valerie Looi
- SCIC - An RIDBC Service, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,Advanced Bionics (Asia Pacific), Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Ritva Torppa
- Logopedics and Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Tania Prvan
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Debi Vickers
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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17
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18
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Arkin C, Przysinda E, Pfeifer CW, Zeng T, Loui P. Gray Matter Correlates of Creativity in Musical Improvisation. Front Hum Neurosci 2019; 13:169. [PMID: 31191276 PMCID: PMC6538978 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00169] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2019] [Accepted: 05/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Creativity has been defined as requiring both novelty and effectiveness, but little is known about how this standard definition applies in music. Here, we present results from a pilot study in which we combine behavioral testing in musical improvisation and structural neuroimaging to relate brain structure to performance in a creative musical improvisation task. Thirty-eight subjects completed a novel improvisation continuation task and underwent T1 MRI. Recorded performances were rated by expert jazz instructors for creativity. Voxel-based morphometric analyses on T1 data showed that creativity ratings were negatively associated with gray matter volume in the right inferior temporal gyrus and bilateral hippocampus. The duration of improvisation training, which was significantly correlated with creativity ratings, was negatively associated with gray matter volume in the rolandic operculum. Together, results show that musical improvisation ability and training are associated with gray matter volume in regions that are previously linked to learning and memory formation, perceptual categorization, and sensory integration. The present study takes a first step towards understanding the neuroanatomical basis of musical creativity by relating creative musical improvisation to individual differences in gray matter structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cameron Arkin
- Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, United States
| | - Emily Przysinda
- Department of Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States
| | - Charles W Pfeifer
- Department of Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States
| | - Tima Zeng
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Psyche Loui
- Department of Music, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States.,Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience and Behavior, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, United States
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19
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Jeon HA, Kuhl U, Friederici AD. Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts. Sci Rep 2019; 9:6825. [PMID: 31048754 PMCID: PMC6497695 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-43400-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2018] [Accepted: 04/23/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
To what extent are levels of cognitive expertise reflected in differential structural connectivity of the brain? We addressed this question by analyzing the white matter brain structure of experts (mathematicians) versus non-experts (non-mathematicians) using probabilistic tractography. Having mathematicians and non-mathematicians as participant groups enabled us to directly compare profiles of structural connectivity arising from individual levels of expertise in mathematics. Tracking from functional seed regions activated during the processing of complex arithmetic formulas revealed an involvement of various fiber bundles such the inferior fronto-occipital fascicle, arcuate fasciculus/superior longitudinal fasciculus (AF/SLF), cross-hemispheric connections of frontal lobe areas through the corpus callosum and cortico-subcortical connectivity via the bilateral thalamic radiation. With the aim of investigating expertise-dependent structural connectivity, the streamline density was correlated with the level of expertise, defined by automaticity of processing complex mathematics. The results showed that structural integrity of the AF/SLF was higher in individuals with higher automaticity, while stronger cortico-thalamic connectivity was associated with lower levels of automaticity. Therefore, we suggest that expertise in the domain of mathematics is reflected in plastic changes of the brain's white matter structure, possibly reflecting a general principle of cognitive expertise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyeon-Ae Jeon
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Daegu, 42988, Korea.
- Partner Group of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the Department for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, DGIST, Daegu, 42988, Korea.
| | - Ulrike Kuhl
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - Angela D Friederici
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
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20
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Martins MJD, Bianco R, Sammler D, Villringer A. Recursion in action: An fMRI study on the generation of new hierarchical levels in motor sequences. Hum Brain Mapp 2019; 40:2623-2638. [PMID: 30834624 PMCID: PMC6865530 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2018] [Revised: 01/17/2019] [Accepted: 01/30/2019] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Generation of hierarchical structures, such as the embedding of subordinate elements into larger structures, is a core feature of human cognition. Processing of hierarchies is thought to rely on lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, the neural underpinnings supporting active generation of new hierarchical levels remain poorly understood. Here, we created a new motor paradigm to isolate this active generative process by means of fMRI. Participants planned and executed identical movement sequences by using different rules: a Recursive hierarchical embedding rule, generating new hierarchical levels; an Iterative rule linearly adding items to existing hierarchical levels, without generating new levels; and a Repetition condition tapping into short term memory, without a transformation rule. We found that planning involving generation of new hierarchical levels (Recursive condition vs. both Iterative and Repetition) activated a bilateral motor imagery network, including cortical and subcortical structures. No evidence was found for lateral PFC involvement in the generation of new hierarchical levels. Activity in basal ganglia persisted through execution of the motor sequences in the contrast Recursive versus Iteration, but also Repetition versus Iteration, suggesting a role of these structures in motor short term memory. These results showed that the motor network is involved in the generation of new hierarchical levels during motor sequence planning, while lateral PFC activity was neither robust nor specific. We hypothesize that lateral PFC might be important to parse hierarchical sequences in a multi‐domain fashion but not to generate new hierarchical levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauricio J D Martins
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Germany
| | - Roberta Bianco
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Ear Institute, University College London, London, UK
| | - Daniela Sammler
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Arno Villringer
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Germany
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21
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De Pretto M, Deiber MP, James CE. Steady-state evoked potentials distinguish brain mechanisms of self-paced versus synchronization finger tapping. Hum Mov Sci 2018; 61:151-166. [PMID: 30098488 DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2018.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2018] [Revised: 07/12/2018] [Accepted: 07/18/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) requires aligning motor actions to external events and represents a core part of both musical and dance performances. In the current study, to isolate the brain mechanisms involved in synchronizing finger tapping with a musical beat, we compared SMS to pure self-paced finger tapping and listen-only conditions at different tempi. We analyzed EEG data using frequency domain steady-state evoked potentials (SSEPs) to identify sustained electrophysiological brain activity during repetitive tasks. Behavioral results revealed different timing modes between SMS and self-paced finger tapping, associated with distinct scalp topographies, thus suggesting different underlying brain sources. After subtraction of the listen-only brain activity, SMS was compared to self-paced finger tapping. Resulting source estimations showed stronger activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus during SMS, and stronger activation of the bilateral inferior parietal lobule during self-paced finger tapping. These results point to the left inferior frontal gyrus as a pivot for perception-action coupling. We discuss our findings in the context of the ongoing debate about SSEPs interpretation given the variety of brain events contributing to SSEPs and similar EEG frequency responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael De Pretto
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, 40 Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland; Neurology Unit, Medicine Department, Faculty of Sciences, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 5, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland; School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK.
| | - Marie-Pierre Deiber
- Psychiatry Department, Division of Psychiatric Specialties, University Hospitals of Geneva, 20 bis rue de Lausanne, CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland; NCCR Synapsy, 9 Chemin des Mines, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Clara E James
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, 40 Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland; School of Health Sciences Geneva, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, 47 Avenue de Champel, CH-1206 Geneva, Switzerland
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22
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de Ridder M, Klein K, Kim J. A review and outlook on visual analytics for uncertainties in functional magnetic resonance imaging. Brain Inform 2018; 5:5. [PMID: 29968092 PMCID: PMC6170942 DOI: 10.1186/s40708-018-0083-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2018] [Accepted: 06/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) plays a pivotal role in uncovering an understanding of the brain. fMRI data contain both spatial volume and temporal signal information, which provide a depiction of brain activity. The analysis pipeline, however, is hampered by numerous uncertainties in many of the steps; often seen as one of the last hurdles for the domain. In this review, we categorise fMRI research into three pipeline phases: (i) image acquisition and processing; (ii) image analysis; and (iii) visualisation and human interpretation, to explore the uncertainties that arise in each phase, including the compound effects due to the inter-dependence of steps. Attempts at mitigating uncertainties rely on providing interactive visual analytics that aid users in understanding the effects of the uncertainties and adjusting their analyses. This impetus for visual analytics comes in light of considerable research investigating uncertainty throughout the pipeline. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is yet to be a comprehensive review on the importance and utility of uncertainty visual analytics (UVA) in addressing fMRI concerns, which we term fMRI-UVA. Such techniques have been broadly implemented in related biomedical fields, and its potential for fMRI has recently been explored; however, these attempts are limited in their scope and utility, primarily focussing on addressing small parts of single pipeline phases. Our comprehensive review of the fMRI uncertainties from the perspective of visual analytics addresses the three identified phases in the pipeline. We also discuss the two interrelated approaches for future research opportunities for fMRI-UVA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael de Ridder
- Biomedical and Multimedia Information Technology Research Group, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
| | - Karsten Klein
- Department of Computer and Information Science, Universität Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Jinman Kim
- Biomedical and Multimedia Information Technology Research Group, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
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23
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Theta Coherence Asymmetry in the Dorsal Stream of Musicians Facilitates Word Learning. Sci Rep 2018; 8:4565. [PMID: 29545619 PMCID: PMC5854697 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22942-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2017] [Accepted: 03/01/2018] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Word learning constitutes a human faculty which is dependent upon two anatomically distinct processing streams projecting from posterior superior temporal (pST) and inferior parietal (IP) brain regions toward the prefrontal cortex (dorsal stream) and the temporal pole (ventral stream). The ventral stream is involved in mapping sensory and phonological information onto lexical-semantic representations, whereas the dorsal stream contributes to sound-to-motor mapping, articulation, complex sequencing in the verbal domain, and to how verbal information is encoded, stored, and rehearsed from memory. In the present source-based EEG study, we evaluated functional connectivity between the IP lobe and Broca's area while musicians and non-musicians learned pseudowords presented in the form of concatenated auditory streams. Behavioral results demonstrated that musicians outperformed non-musicians, as reflected by a higher sensitivity index (d'). This behavioral superiority was paralleled by increased left-hemispheric theta coherence in the dorsal stream, whereas non-musicians showed stronger functional connectivity in the right hemisphere. Since no between-group differences were observed in a passive listening control condition nor during rest, results point to a task-specific intertwining between musical expertise, functional connectivity, and word learning.
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James CE, Oechslin MS, Michel CM, De Pretto M. Electrical Neuroimaging of Music Processing Reveals Mid-Latency Changes with Level of Musical Expertise. Front Neurosci 2017; 11:613. [PMID: 29163017 PMCID: PMC5682036 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2017] [Accepted: 10/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
This original research focused on the effect of musical training intensity on cerebral and behavioral processing of complex music using high-density event-related potential (ERP) approaches. Recently we have been able to show progressive changes with training in gray and white matter, and higher order brain functioning using (f)MRI [(functional) Magnetic Resonance Imaging], as well as changes in musical and general cognitive functioning. The current study investigated the same population of non-musicians, amateur pianists and expert pianists using spatio-temporal ERP analysis, by means of microstate analysis, and ERP source imaging. The stimuli consisted of complex musical compositions containing three levels of transgression of musical syntax at closure that participants appraised. ERP waveforms, microstates and underlying brain sources revealed gradual differences according to musical expertise in a 300–500 ms window after the onset of the terminal chords of the pieces. Within this time-window, processing seemed to concern context-based memory updating, indicated by a P3b-like component or microstate for which underlying sources were localized in the right middle temporal gyrus, anterior cingulate and right parahippocampal areas. Given that the 3 expertise groups were carefully matched for demographic factors, these results provide evidence of the progressive impact of training on brain and behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara E James
- School of Health Sciences, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Geneva, Switzerland.,Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Neuroscience Center, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Mathias S Oechslin
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Department of Education and Culture of the Canton of Thurgau, Frauenfeld, Switzerland
| | - Christoph M Michel
- Functional Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Michael De Pretto
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Neurology Unit, Medicine Department, Faculty of Sciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
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