The Neuroscience of Music

Main points

• Music is like language– Characterized by rhythmic sequential sounds– Has syntax: “rules” by which a sequence of notes is ordered– Conveys information

Main points

• Music is unlike language– Set of sounds is arguably smaller– Information content and rate is vastly greater in language– Musicianship is not nearly as prevalent: not everyone is a

musician• Although some argue only a small number of people are

actually “amusic”

– Language is rarely used by groups • compare People's Mic to a symphony

Main points

• Music is universal e.g.:

– Neolithic flutes produce similar musical intervals

• Thus music hasn’t changed much in 35,000 years!

– All moms sing to their babies

– Very young children can move with rhythm

What has Cognitive Neuroscience figured out about music:

– Relationship between language and music?

– Are musician’s brains different?

What has Cognitive Neuroscience figured out about music:

• Evidence from neuropsychology:

– Aphasia and Amusia are doubly-dissociable

• Aphasics can sing in tune but the lyrics are distorted

• Amusia (tone-deafness)– Congenital or acquired– Normal speaking (including normal prosody)

Functional imaging of Language and Music

• Listening to music and listening to speech engage overlapping brain regions particularly:

• Auditory cortex• dorsal pre-motor cortex (also for production)

Why do you think these would be overlapping?

• Listening to music and listening to speech engage overlapping brain regions particularly:

• Auditory cortex• dorsal pre-motor cortex (also for production)

• However, one general observation is that music processes tend to engage more right-hemisphere structures than left– Note this is generally the opposite of language processes,

which tend to be strongly left-lateralized

Functional imaging of Language and Music

How does musical training affect the brain?

• Skilled musicians are unique in that they– Start at a young age– Spend lots of time on practice

– Does this lead to a difference in brain functional anatomy?

Musicians differ from non-musicians

• Ohinishi et al. 2001 compared musicians to non-musicians in a passive (music) listening task

Musicians

Non- Musicians

• Differences are in Planum Temporale and Dorsolateral Prefronatal Cortex

– Left PT activation correlates (negatively) with age of start of musical training– Left dlPFC and left PT activation correlates with skill at solfege

Musicians differ from non-musicians

Musicians differ from non-musicians

• Gaser & Schlaug (2003) looked for correlation between grey matter volume and musicianship (pro > amateur > non)

• Billateral differences in somatosensory and primary motor

• Left lateralized differences in inferior temporal gyrus and left pre-motor adjacent to Broca’s

Perfect Pitch

• Absolute (or “perfect”) pitch is the ability to name a pitch class (a “note”) without any reference

– Not same as “relative pitch”

• Very rare

• More common in:– East asians (tonal language)– Early music training– Autism spectrum disorder and

synesthesia

Perfect Pitch

• Loui et al. (2010) used Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) to show that people with AP have denser white-matter connection between superior and middle temporal gyri of the left hemisphere

AP1 AP2 Controls

Back to the connection between music and language

• Is there a general picture that emerges from the contrasts between musicians and non-musicians?

Back to the connection between music and language

• Is there a general picture that emerges from the contrasts between musicians and non-musicians?

• In very broad terms, musical training seems to push music processes onto language structures– Left lateralization for musicians– Left posterior temporal gyrus (in or near Wernicke’s)– Left lateral frontal cortex (in or near Broca’s)

Music Synchronizes Brains

• Musicians playing together exhibit synchronized brain electrical activity