Abstract
Functional brain imaging studies have highlighted the significance of right‐lateralized temporal, frontal and parietal brain areas for memory for melodies. The present study investigated the involvement of bilateral posterior parietal cortices (PPCs) for the recognition memory of melodies using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Participants performed a recognition task before and after tDCS. The task included an encoding phase (12 melodies), a retention period, as well as a recognition phase (24 melodies). Experiment 1 revealed that anodal tDCS over the right PPC led to a deterioration of overall memory performance compared with sham. Experiment 2 confirmed the results of Experiment 1 and further showed that anodal tDCS over the left PPC did not show a modulatory effect on memory task performance, indicating a right lateralization for musical memory. Furthermore, both experiments revealed that the decline in memory for melodies can be traced back to an interference of anodal stimulation on the recollection process (remember judgements) rather than to familiarity judgements. Taken together, this study revealed a causal involvement of the right PPC for memory for melodies and demonstrated a key role for this brain region in the recollection process of the memory task.
Highlights
An important factor for the enjoyment and communicative role of music is the ability to encode tunes
The results of Experiment 1 show that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC), compared with sham stimulation, modulates performance and highlights a pivotal role for the right PPC in recognition memory for melodies
Anodal tDCS over the right PPC led to a decline in overall memory performance
Summary
An important factor for the enjoyment and communicative role of music is the ability to encode (and later recognise) tunes. The neural structures of auditory memory, especially for melodies, are not well known, and the aim of the present study was to investigate the causal involvement of the right and left posterior parietal cortices (PPCs) in recognition memory for melodies, using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). A recent study using magnetoencephalography showed increased activation of the superior temporal gyri as well as the right inferior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus and parietal areas for auditory short-term memory (Nolden et al, 2013). Received 16 February 2015, revised 6 May 2015, accepted 6 May 2015 predominantly right-sided) precuneus (Brodmann area 7) for episodic memory for short melodies. Klostermann et al (2009) showed the activation of the right PPC for the retrieval of short tunes using functional magnetic resonance imaging
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