Abstract
In real music, the original melody may appear intact, with little elaboration only, or significantly modified. Since a melody is most easily perceived in music, hearing significantly modified melody may change a brain connectivity. Mozart KV 265 is comprised of a theme with an original melody of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and its significant variations. We studied whether effective connectivity changes with significantly modified melody, between bilateral inferior frontal gyri (IFGs) and Heschl’s gyri (HGs) using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Among the 12 connectivities, the connectivity from the left IFG to the right HG was consistently increased with significantly modified melody compared to the original melody in 2 separate sets of the same rhythmic pattern with different melody (p = 0.005 and 0.034, Bonferroni corrected). Our findings show that the modification of an original melody in a real music changes the brain connectivity.
Highlights
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files
The Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed that the linearized time delayed mutual information (LTDMI) from the left IFG to the right HG was significantly different between “Variation I vs. Variation II” (Z = -3.512, p = 0.005, Bonferroni corrected) as well as between “Variation III vs. Variation IV” (Z = -2.987, p = 0.034, Bonferroni corrected) (Table 1; see S1–S4 Tables)
In this fronto-temporal connection, the LTDMI values increased in the variations with modified melody (VMM) (Variation I and III) compared to the variations with original melody (VOM) (Variation II and IV) (Fig 2)
Summary
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. Purpose of our study was to verify the changes in non-expert brain by the musics including a well-known melody and its modifications using Mozart Variations. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. We hypothesized that directional information transmission between related regions associated with the processing of intrinsic differences implied in the VOM and VMM would be reflected in the LTDMI between the bilateral IFGs and HGs. We further hypothesized that the two sets of “Variation I vs II” and “Variation III vs IV”, with the original melody and modified melody, would consistently change effective connectivity between the bilateral IFGs and HGs We further hypothesized that the two sets of “Variation I vs. II” and “Variation III vs. IV”, with the original melody and modified melody, would consistently change effective connectivity between the bilateral IFGs and HGs
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