Electrical Neuroimaging of Music Processing Reveals Mid-Latency Changes with Level of Musical Expertise.

Clara E James,Michael De Pretto,Mathias S Oechslin,Christoph M Michel

doi:10.3389/fnins.2017.00613

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.

Highlights

The current research applied high-density EEG to investigate the impact of musical training on brain and behavioral processing of complex classical music in nonmusicians, amateur pianists, and professional pianists
The P3b is a subcomponent of the P300 that is involved in context-based memory updating, or “templatematching” (Kok, 2001; Polich and Criado, 2006)
The explanations we provided for the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), medial frontal cortex, and parahippocampal gyrus for the factor Expertise hold for the Transgression condition without taking Expertise into account: all participants -to varying degrees- were involved in error monitoring and evaluation on the cognitive and affective levels and performed higher-order pitch analyses

Summary

Introduction

The current research applied high-density EEG (electroencephalography) to investigate the impact of musical training on brain and behavioral processing of complex classical music in nonmusicians, amateur pianists, and professional pianists. The musical brain is “food for neuroscience” (Zatorre and McGill, 2005) and, at present, a prevalent way to study functional and structural brain plasticity (Pantev and Herholz, 2011). Presenting rich and complex musical stimuli in neuroimaging settings provides an efficient way to investigate the fruit of musical training. Because musical training is multi-modal and involves practically all human cognitive functions (Pantev and Herholz, 2011; Herholz and Zatorre, 2012), indications are accumulating that the benefits of musical training extend beyond the musical domain (Moreno et al, 2009; Parbery-Clark et al, 2009; Schon and Francois, 2011; Kraus et al, 2012; Barrett et al, 2013; Miendlarzewska and Trost, 2013; Oechslin et al, 2013a,b)

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