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Bellmann OT, Asano R. Neural correlates of musical timbre: an ALE meta-analysis of neuroimaging data. Front Neurosci 2024; 18:1373232. [PMID: 38952924 PMCID: PMC11215185 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1373232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Accepted: 05/29/2024] [Indexed: 07/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Timbre is a central aspect of music that allows listeners to identify musical sounds and conveys musical emotion, but also allows for the recognition of actions and is an important structuring property of music. The former functions are known to be implemented in a ventral auditory stream in processing musical timbre. While the latter functions are commonly attributed to areas in a dorsal auditory processing stream in other musical domains, its involvement in musical timbre processing is so far unknown. To investigate if musical timbre processing involves both dorsal and ventral auditory pathways, we carried out an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of 18 experiments from 17 published neuroimaging studies on musical timbre perception. We identified consistent activations in Brodmann areas (BA) 41, 42, and 22 in the bilateral transverse temporal gyri, the posterior superior temporal gyri and planum temporale, in BA 40 of the bilateral inferior parietal lobe, in BA 13 in the bilateral posterior Insula, and in BA 13 and 22 in the right anterior insula and superior temporal gyrus. The vast majority of the identified regions are associated with the dorsal and ventral auditory processing streams. We therefore propose to frame the processing of musical timbre in a dual-stream model. Moreover, the regions activated in processing timbre show similarities to the brain regions involved in processing several other fundamental aspects of music, indicating possible shared neural bases of musical timbre and other musical domains.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Rie Asano
- Systematic Musicology, Institute for Musicology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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Moisseinen N, Ahveninen L, Martínez‐Molina N, Sairanen V, Melkas S, Kleber B, Sihvonen AJ, Särkämö T. Choir singing is associated with enhanced structural connectivity across the adult lifespan. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26705. [PMID: 38716698 PMCID: PMC11077432 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26705] [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: 11/01/2023] [Revised: 03/06/2024] [Accepted: 04/21/2024] [Indexed: 05/12/2024] Open
Abstract
The global ageing of populations calls for effective, ecologically valid methods to support brain health across adult life. Previous evidence suggests that music can promote white matter (WM) microstructure and grey matter (GM) volume while supporting auditory and cognitive functioning and emotional well-being as well as counteracting age-related cognitive decline. Adding a social component to music training, choir singing is a popular leisure activity among older adults, but a systematic account of its potential to support healthy brain structure, especially with regard to ageing, is currently missing. The present study used quantitative anisotropy (QA)-based diffusion MRI connectometry and voxel-based morphometry to explore the relationship of lifetime choir singing experience and brain structure at the whole-brain level. Cross-sectional multiple regression analyses were carried out in a large, balanced sample (N = 95; age range 21-88) of healthy adults with varying levels of choir singing experience across the whole age range and within subgroups defined by age (young, middle-aged, and older adults). Independent of age, choir singing experience was associated with extensive increases in WM QA in commissural, association, and projection tracts across the brain. Corroborating previous work, these overlapped with language and limbic networks. Enhanced corpus callosum microstructure was associated with choir singing experience across all subgroups. In addition, choir singing experience was selectively associated with enhanced QA in the fornix in older participants. No associations between GM volume and choir singing were found. The present study offers the first systematic account of amateur-level choir singing on brain structure. While no evidence for counteracting GM atrophy was found, the present evidence of enhanced structural connectivity coheres well with age-typical structural changes. Corroborating previous behavioural studies, the present results suggest that regular choir singing holds great promise for supporting brain health across the adult life span.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nella Moisseinen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and the Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of MedicineUniversity of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland
| | - Lotta Ahveninen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and the Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of MedicineUniversity of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland
| | - Noelia Martínez‐Molina
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and the Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of MedicineUniversity of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Department of Information and Communication TechnologiesUniversity Pompeu FabraBarcelonaSpain
| | - Viljami Sairanen
- Department of RadiologyKanta‐Häme Central HospitalHämeenlinnaFinland
- Baby Brain Activity Center, Children's HospitalHelsinki University Hospital and University of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland
| | - Susanna Melkas
- Clinical Neurosciences, NeurologyUniversity of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland
| | - Boris Kleber
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical MedicineAarhus University and The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/AalborgAarhusDenmark
| | - Aleksi J. Sihvonen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and the Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of MedicineUniversity of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland
- Centre for Clinical Research, School of Health and Rehabilitation SciencesUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneAustralia
- Department of NeurologyHelsinki University HospitalHelsinkiFinland
| | - Teppo Särkämö
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and the Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of MedicineUniversity of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland
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Sihvonen AJ, Ferguson MA, Chen V, Soinila S, Särkämö T, Joutsa J. Focal Brain Lesions Causing Acquired Amusia Map to a Common Brain Network. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1922232024. [PMID: 38423761 PMCID: PMC11007473 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1922-23.2024] [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: 10/10/2023] [Revised: 02/15/2024] [Accepted: 02/22/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Music is a universal human attribute. The study of amusia, a neurologic music processing deficit, has increasingly elaborated our view on the neural organization of the musical brain. However, lesions causing amusia occur in multiple brain locations and often also cause aphasia, leaving the distinct neural networks for amusia unclear. Here, we utilized lesion network mapping to identify these networks. A systematic literature search was carried out to identify all published case reports of lesion-induced amusia. The reproducibility and specificity of the identified amusia network were then tested in an independent prospective cohort of 97 stroke patients (46 female and 51 male) with repeated structural brain imaging, specifically assessed for both music perception and language abilities. Lesion locations in the case reports were heterogeneous but connected to common brain regions, including bilateral temporoparietal and insular cortices, precentral gyrus, and cingulum. In the prospective cohort, lesions causing amusia mapped to a common brain network, centering on the right superior temporal cortex and clearly distinct from the network causally associated with aphasia. Lesion-induced longitudinal structural effects in the amusia circuit were confirmed as reduction of both gray and white matter volume, which correlated with the severity of amusia. We demonstrate that despite the heterogeneity of lesion locations disrupting music processing, there is a common brain network that is distinct from the language network. These results provide evidence for the distinct neural substrate of music processing, differentiating music-related functions from language, providing a testable target for noninvasive brain stimulation to treat amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksi J Sihvonen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland
- Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland
- Queensland Aphasia Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
- Department of Neurology, Neurocenter, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki 00029, Finland
| | - Michael A Ferguson
- Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
- Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
| | - Vicky Chen
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
| | - Seppo Soinila
- Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Turku and Neurocenter, Turku University Hospital, Turku 20521, Finland
| | - Teppo Särkämö
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland
- Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland
| | - Juho Joutsa
- Turku Brain and Mind Center, Clinical Neurosciences, University of Turku, Turku 20521, Finland
- Neurocenter and Turku PET Center, Turku University Hospital, Turku 20521, Finland
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Lee HH, Groves K, Ripollés P, Carrasco M. Audiovisual integration in the McGurk effect is impervious to music training. Sci Rep 2024; 14:3262. [PMID: 38332159 PMCID: PMC10853564 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-53593-0] [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: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024] Open
Abstract
The McGurk effect refers to an audiovisual speech illusion where the discrepant auditory and visual syllables produce a fused percept between the visual and auditory component. However, little is known about how individual differences contribute to the McGurk effect. Here, we examined whether music training experience-which involves audiovisual integration-can modulate the McGurk effect. Seventy-three participants completed the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) questionnaire to evaluate their music expertise on a continuous scale. Gold-MSI considers participants' daily-life exposure to music learning experiences (formal and informal), instead of merely classifying people into different groups according to how many years they have been trained in music. Participants were instructed to report, via a 3-alternative forced choice task, "what a person said": /Ba/, /Ga/ or /Da/. The experiment consisted of 96 audiovisual congruent trials and 96 audiovisual incongruent (McGurk) trials. We observed no significant correlations between the susceptibility of the McGurk effect and the different subscales of the Gold-MSI (active engagement, perceptual abilities, music training, singing abilities, emotion) or the general musical sophistication composite score. Together, these findings suggest that music training experience does not modulate audiovisual integration in speech as reflected by the McGurk effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hsing-Hao Lee
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, USA.
| | - Karleigh Groves
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, USA
- Center for Language, Music, and Emotion (CLaME), New York University, New York, USA
- Music and Audio Research Lab (MARL), New York University, New York, USA
| | - Pablo Ripollés
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, USA
- Center for Language, Music, and Emotion (CLaME), New York University, New York, USA
- Music and Audio Research Lab (MARL), New York University, New York, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, USA
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, USA
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Pitkäniemi A, Särkämö T, Siponkoski ST, Brownsett SLE, Copland DA, Sairanen V, Sihvonen AJ. Hodological organization of spoken language production and singing in the human brain. Commun Biol 2023; 6:779. [PMID: 37495670 PMCID: PMC10371982 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05152-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Theories expounding the neural relationship between speech and singing range from sharing neural circuitry, to relying on opposite hemispheres. Yet, hodological studies exploring their shared and distinct neural networks remain scarce. In this study, we combine a white matter connectometry approach together with comprehensive and naturalistic appraisal of verbal expression during spoken language production and singing in a sample of individuals with post-stroke aphasia. Our results reveal that both spoken language production and singing are mainly supported by the left hemisphere language network and projection pathways. However, while spoken language production mostly engaged dorsal and ventral streams of speech processing, singing was associated primarily with the left ventral stream. These findings provide evidence that speech and singing share core neuronal circuitry within the left hemisphere, while distinct ventral stream contributions explain frequently observed dissociations in aphasia. Moreover, the results suggest prerequisite biomarkers for successful singing-based therapeutic interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anni Pitkäniemi
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
- Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Teppo Särkämö
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Sini-Tuuli Siponkoski
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Sonia L E Brownsett
- Queensland Aphasia Research Centre, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
- Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - David A Copland
- Queensland Aphasia Research Centre, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
- Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Viljami Sairanen
- BABA Center, Pediatric Research Center, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Aleksi J Sihvonen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Queensland Aphasia Research Centre, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
- Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Hospital and Department of Neurosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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