Musical Expertise Research Articles

Chronology of auditory processing and related co-activation in the orbitofrontal cortex depends on musical expertise.

The present study aims to explore the extent to which auditory processing is reflected in the prefrontal cortex. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated the chronology of primary and secondary auditory responses and associated co-activation in the orbitofrontal cortex in a large cohort of 162 participants of various ages. The sample consisted of 38 primary school children, 39 adolescents, 43 younger, and 42 middle-aged adults and was further divided into musically experienced participants and non-musicians by quantifying musical training and aptitude parameters. We observed that the co-activation in the orbitofrontal cortex [Brodmann-Area 10 (BA10)] strongly depended on musical expertise but not on age. In the musically experienced groups, a systematic coincidence of peak latencies of the primary auditory P1 response and the co-activated response in the orbitofrontal cortex was observed in childhood at the onset of musical education. In marked contrast, in all non-musicians, the orbitofrontal co-activation occurred 25-40 ms later when compared with the P1 response. Musical practice and musical aptitude contributed equally to the observed activation and co-activation patterns in the auditory and orbitofrontal cortex, confirming the reciprocal, interrelated influence of nature, and nurture in the musical brain. Based on the observed ageindependent differences in the chronology and lateralization of neurological responses, we suggest that orbitofrontal functions may contribute to musical learning at an early age.

Into the Hive-Mind: Shared Absorption and Cardiac Interrelations in Expert and Student String Quartets

Expert musicians portray awe-inspiring precision, timing, and phrasing and may be thought to partake in a “hive-mind.” Such a shared musical absorption is characterized by a heightened empathic relation, mutual trust, and a sense that the music “takes over,” thus uniting the performers’ musical intentions. Previous studies have found correlations between empathic concern or shared experience and cardiac synchrony (CS). We aimed to investigate shared musical absorption in terms of CS by analyzing CS in two quartets: a student quartet, the Borealis String Quartet (BSQ), and an expert quartet, the Danish String Quartet (DSQ), world-renowned for their interpretations and cohesion. These two quartets performed the same Haydn excerpt in seven conditions, some of which were designed to disrupt their absorption. Using multidimensional recurrence quantification analysis (MdRQA), we found that: (1) performing resulted in significantly increased CS in both quartets compared with resting; (2) across all conditions, the DSQ had a significantly higher CS than the BSQ; (3) the BSQ's CS was inversely correlated with the degree of disruption; 4) for the DSQ, the CS remained constant across all levels of disruption, besides one added extreme disruption—a sight-reading condition. These findings tentatively support the claim that a sense of shared musical absorption, as well as group expertise, is correlated with CS.

Supplemental Material for Is Musical Expertise Associated With Self-Reported Foreign-Language Ability?

Supplemental Material for Is Musical Expertise Associated With Self-Reported Foreign-Language Ability?

Prototipe Rancangan Pembelajaran Matematika Untuk Siswa Sekolah Dasar

This study aims to explain the procedure for developing prototypes and producing quality prototypes for learning Mathematics in Elementary Schools. The research method used is Research and Development (R&D). The prototype was prepared using Sugiyono's six development steps including: 1) potential and problems, 2) data collection, 3) product design, 4) design validation, 5) design revision, 6) product trials. Data collection techniques used were interviews and questionnaires. The results of the questionnaire which were distributed to 22 students in grade 15 of SD, the researcher obtained data that 60% of students had difficulty understanding fractional material. From these data the researcher was motivated to relate the material containing the concept of fractions to the song. Prototypes are validated by experts and practitioners. The average score of the three validators is 3.5 in the "very good" category, so it's worth testing. Limited trials were conducted by researchers to 22 fourth grade elementary school students. From the results of the evaluation, the researchers obtained data that 90.9% of students scored above the KKM for addition and subtraction of whole numbers. From the results of reflection, students are happy to learn fractional material using song media. The quality of the thematic Mathematics learning design for fractional materials using song media is included in the very good criteria and is appropriate for students' understanding. included in the very good criteria and feasible to use. This was obtained based on the results of validation by mathematicians 3.15, from music experts it was 3.41 and from grade IV elementary school teachers it was 3.21. The average validation result of the three validators is 3.25.

Неопубликованное наследие Б.В. Асафьева о М.П. Мусоргском

Boris Asafyev’s unpublished works about M.P. Mussorgsky fundamentally change the existing perceptions of his contribution to the study and publication of the great Russian composer’s legacy. Published in the Soviet times, Asafyev’s works provided insights just into a tiny part of the art history texts about Mussorgsky’s music. The completed research project based on the materials from Moscow and St. Petersburg archives (transcripts of unpublished writings (around 150 letters), official documents, and marginalia on music sheets) fully uncovers the activities of the musicologist that have, until recently, remained unexplored in the context of the humanities. Asafyev took part in the publication of Mussorgsky’s works as P.A. Lamm’s co-editor, music expert and textual critic, music editor preparing the score of “Boris Godunov” for publication, co-author-composer completing the unfinished musical fragments, and composer-orchestrator who fully instrumented “Khovanshchina” in stylistic synchrony with Mussorgsky’s original score.

PSYCHO-ACOUSTIC ASSESSMENT OF VIOLINS WITH DIFFERENT ANATOMICAL FEATURES OF WOOD

In this paper, the manufacturing technologies of violins, followed by a study on the psycho-acoustic evaluation of violins with different anatomic structure of wood are presented. The evaluation was performed by music experts (performers, teachers, students) based on music auditions of excerpts recorded on the violins studied. The musical performance was performed by the same violinist, under the same conditions. Respondents rated five acoustic criteria. The statistic results showed that age, experience, gender influence the acoustic perception and also that the geometric characteristics of the violins produce different acoustic impressions.

Expert or advocate? The role(s) of the expert witness when rap is on trial

AbstractThis paper considers the role of the rap music expert in criminal cases involving the use of rap as evidence. In addition to describing ways that an expert can help the defence challenge the use of rap, both before and during trial, it also offers strategies for intervening beyond the criminal justice system. These strategies may require an expert to balance the roles of objective observer on the one hand and criminal justice advocate on the other, but whatever the risks or challenges associated with this balancing act, this paper argues that doing so opens up important avenues for intervention and impact that can more effectively end the racially motivated and unjust practice of ‘rap on trial’.

Mismatch negativity-stimulation paradigms in past and in future.

Mismatch negativity (MMN) studies were initiated as part of a well-controlled experimental research tradition with the aim to identify some key principles of auditory processing and memory. During the past two decades, empirical paradigms have moved toward more ecologically valid ones while retaining rigid experimental control. In this paper, I will introduce this development of MMN stimulation paradigms starting from the paradigms used in basic science and then moving to paradigms that have been particularly relevant for studies on music learning and musical expertise. Via these historical and thematic perspectives, I wish to stimulate paradigm development further to meet the demands of naturalistic ecologically valid studies also when using MMN in the context of event-related potential technique that necessarily requires averaging across several stimulus presentations.

Emotional expression in vocal skill from the perspective of multiculturalism

The research is devoted to study the influence of emotional singing on the listeners' perception of vocal mastery in the process of intercultural musical dialogue. In the context of studying the influence of emotional singing on the quality of perception by listeners, an experiment was conducted; it involved 11 student vocalists from China, Russia, Italy, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Greece, India, Canada, Korea, Nigeria, 5 independent listeners, and 5 music experts. The analytical experiment created an opportunity to reveal the impact of the vocalist's emotional expression when performing a national folk song on the listener perception. The percentage of coherence between emotional production and listener perception ranged from 62.8% to 76.2%. Vocal skills of a singer can reveal the emotional aspects of a piece of music to the public, which are of great value in contemporary art; they determine the popularity of a performer on the world stage.

Whole-brain computation of cognitive versus acoustic errors in music: A mismatch negativity study

Previous studies have evidenced how the local prediction of physical stimulus features may affect the neural processing of incoming stimuli. Less known are the effects of cognitive priors on predictive processes, and how the brain computes local versus cognitive predictions and their errors. Here, we determined the differential brain mechanisms underlying prediction errors related to high-level, cognitive priors for melody (rhythm, contour) versus low-level, local acoustic priors (tuning, timbre). We measured with magnetoencephalography the mismatch negativity (MMN) prediction error signal in 104 adults having varying levels of musical expertise. We discovered that the brain regions involved in early predictive processes for local priors were primary and secondary auditory cortex and insula, whereas cognitive brain regions such as cingulate and orbitofrontal cortices were recruited for early melodic errors in cognitive priors. The involvement of higher-level brain regions for computing early cognitive errors was enhanced in musicians, especially in cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and supplementary motor area. Overall, the findings expand knowledge on whole-brain mechanisms of predictive processing and the related MMN generators, previously mainly confined to the auditory cortex, to a frontal network that strictly depends on the type of priors that are to be computed by the brain.

Hearing functional harmony in jazz: A perceptual study of music-theoretical accounts of extended tonality

Functional harmony is an integral part of many repertoires in the Western musical practices, including both diatonic and extended tonality. In the latter context, music-theoretical accounts suggest that the three octatonic equivalence classes (OECs) consisting of pitch-classes related by stacked minor-third intervals may be associated with tonic (T), dominant (D), and subdominant (S) functions. Whether this theoretical description of music is also relevant to the perception of music has not yet been tested empirically. In this study, 100 participants familiar with Western repertoires were presented with jazz chord progressions containing chord substitutions. When each stimulus had been played, participants predicted how many more chords they would have expected to hear before the progression could reach a plausible conclusion. We computed the similarity of responses for pairs of stimuli containing different harmonic substitutions and modeled such similarity values based on different measures of harmonic relatedness between substitutions. Data show that the OEC membership of substitutions strongly predicts the similarity of participants’ completion ratings. Bayesian mixed-effects modeling of similarity values further showed a categorical distinction between D and S as functional categories, on one hand, and T, on the other hand. The data also appear to reflect the prevalent influence of rock and pop repertoires on the participants, encouraging further research into the influence of stylistic diversity and musical expertise. Overall, results contribute to the characterization of listeners’ implicit knowledge of the principles of harmonic structure in extended tonality and support the relevance of OECs not only as descriptors of extended-tonal compositional practices but also parsimonious predictors of perceived functionality.

Individual differences in musical ability among adults with no music training.

Good musical abilities are typically considered to be a consequence of music training, such that they are studied in samples of formally trained individuals. Here, we asked what predicts musical abilities in the absence of music training. Participants with no formal music training (N = 190) completed the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index, measures of personality and cognitive ability, and the Musical Ear Test (MET). The MET is an objective test of musical abilities that provides a Total score and separate scores for its two subtests (Melody and Rhythm), which require listeners to determine whether standard and comparison auditory sequences are identical. MET scores had no associations with personality traits. They correlated positively, however, with informal musical experience and cognitive abilities. Informal musical experience was a better predictor of Melody than of Rhythm scores. Some participants (12%) had Total scores higher than the mean from a sample of musically trained individuals (⩾6 years of formal training), tested previously by Correia et al. Untrained participants with particularly good musical abilities (top 25%, n = 51) scored higher than trained participants on the Rhythm subtest and similarly on the Melody subtest. High-ability untrained participants were also similar to trained ones in cognitive ability, but lower in the personality trait openness-to-experience. These results imply that formal music training is not required to achieve musician-like performance on tests of musical and cognitive abilities. They also suggest that informal music practice and music-related predispositions should be considered in studies of musical expertise.

Musical expertise shapes visual-melodic memory integration.

Music can act as a mnemonic device that can elicit multiple memories. How musical and non-musical information integrate into complex cross-modal memory representations has however rarely been investigated. Here, we studied the ability of human subjects to associate visual objects with melodies. Musical laypersons and professional musicians performed an associative inference task that tested the ability to form and memorize paired associations between objects and melodies ("direct trials") and to integrate these pairs into more complex representations where melodies are linked with two objects across trials ("indirect trials"). We further investigated whether and how musical expertise modulates these two processes. We analyzed accuracy and reaction times (RTs) of direct and indirect trials in both groups. We reasoned that the musical and cross-modal memory demands of musicianship might modulate performance in the task and might thus reveal mechanisms that underlie the association and integration of visual information with musical information. Although musicians showed a higher overall memory accuracy, non-musicians' accuracy was well above chance level in both trial types, thus indicating a significant ability to associate and integrate musical with visual information even in musically untrained subjects. However, non-musicians showed shorter RTs in indirect compared to direct trials, whereas the reverse pattern was found in musicians. Moreover, accuracy of direct and indirect trials correlated significantly in musicians but not in non-musicians. Consistent with previous accounts of visual associative memory, we interpret these findings as suggestive of at least two complimentary mechanisms that contribute to visual-melodic memory integration. (I) A default mechanism that mainly operates at encoding of complex visual-melodic associations and that works with surprising efficacy even in musically untrained subjects. (II) A retrieval-based mechanism that critically depends on an expert ability to maintain and discriminate visual-melodic associations across extended memory delays. Future studies may investigate how these mechanisms contribute to the everyday experience of music-evoked memories.

Superior visual rhythm discrimination in expert musicians is most likely not related to cross-modal recruitment of the auditory cortex.

Training can influence behavioral performance and lead to brain reorganization. In particular, training in one modality, for example, auditory, can improve performance in another modality, for example, visual. Previous research suggests that one of the mechanisms behind this phenomenon could be the cross-modal recruitment of the sensory areas, for example, the auditory cortex. Studying expert musicians offers a chance to explore this process. Rhythm is an aspect of music that can be presented in various modalities. We designed an fMRI experiment in which professional pianists and non-musicians discriminated between two sequences of rhythms presented auditorily (series of sounds) or visually (series of flashes). Behavioral results showed that musicians performed in both visual and auditory rhythmic tasks better than non-musicians. We found no significant between-group differences in fMRI activations within the auditory cortex. However, we observed that musicians had increased activation in the right Inferior Parietal Lobe when compared to non-musicians. We conclude that the musicians' superior visual rhythm discrimination is not related to cross-modal recruitment of the auditory cortex; instead, it could be related to activation in higher-level, multimodal areas in the cortex.

Musicians show more integrated neural processing of contextually relevant acoustic features.

Little is known about expertise-related plasticity of neural mechanisms for auditory feature integration. Here, we contrast two diverging hypotheses that musical expertise is associated with more independent or more integrated predictive processing of acoustic features relevant to melody perception. Mismatch negativity (MMNm) was recorded with magnetoencephalography (MEG) from 25 musicians and 25 non-musicians, exposed to interleaved blocks of a complex, melody-like multi-feature paradigm and a simple, oddball control paradigm. In addition to single deviants differing in frequency (F), intensity (I), or perceived location (L), double and triple deviants were included reflecting all possible feature combinations (FI, IL, LF, FIL). Following previous work, early neural processing overlap was approximated in terms of MMNm additivity by comparing empirical MMNms obtained with double and triple deviants to modeled MMNms corresponding to summed constituent single-deviant MMNms. Significantly greater subadditivity was found in musicians compared to non-musicians, specifically for frequency-related deviants in complex, melody-like stimuli. Despite using identical sounds, expertise effects were absent from the simple oddball paradigm. This novel finding supports the integrated processing hypothesis whereby musicians recruit overlapping neural resources facilitating more integrative representations of contextually relevant stimuli such as frequency (perceived as pitch) during melody perception. More generally, these specialized refinements in predictive processing may enable experts to optimally capitalize upon complex, domain-relevant, acoustic cues.

Local Culture-Based Music Game Model for Early Childhood Education

Many music experts and educators have researched to see the positive effects of several types of music. Music turns out to be able to affect the intellectual development of children as well as make children wise to socialize. Many facts were revealed from this research. Among them, there is an exciting relationship between music and human intelligence. This study uses a qualitative methodology, with the research object being PIAUD IAIMNU Metro Lampung students. The results of this study indicate that playing music can increase a child's intelligence level because it includes sensitivity to mastery of rhythm, tone patterns, rhythms, tempos, instruments, and musical expressions to be able to sing a song or play it. Learning or playing in early childhood has several advantages, including being able to hone memory because children will recognize and try to memorize the tones of the music.

Sweet spot in music-Is predictability preferred among persons with psychotic-like experiences or autistic traits?

People prefer music with an intermediate level of predictability; not so predictable as to be boring, yet not so unpredictable that it ceases to be music. This sweet spot for predictability varies due to differences in the perception of predictability. The symptoms of both psychosis and Autism Spectrum Disorder have been attributed to overestimation of uncertainty, which predicts a preference for predictable stimuli and environments. In a pre-registered study, we tested this prediction by investigating whether psychotic and autistic traits were associated with a higher preference for predictability in music. Participants from the general population were presented with twenty-nine pre-composed music excerpts, scored on their complexity by musical experts. A participant's preferred level of predictability corresponded to the peak of the inverted U-shaped curve between music complexity and liking (i.e., a Wundt curve). We found that the sweet spot for predictability did indeed vary between individuals. Contrary to predictions, we did not find support for these variations being associated with autistic and psychotic traits. The findings are discussed in the context of the Wundt curve and the use of naturalistic stimuli. We also provide recommendations for further exploration.

Individual differences in nonnative lexical tone perception: Effects of tone language repertoire and musical experience.

This study sought to understand the effects of tone language repertoire and musical experience on nonnative lexical tone perception and production. Thirty-one participants completed a tone discrimination task, an imitation task, and a musical abilities task. Results showed that a larger tone language repertoire and musical experience both enhanced tone discrimination performance. However, the effects were not additive, as musical experience was associated with tone discrimination performance for single-tone language speakers, but such association was not seen for dual-tone language speakers. Furthermore, among single-tone language speakers, but not among dual-tone language speakers, musical experience and musical aptitude positively correlated with tone discrimination accuracy. It is thus concluded that individuals with varying extents of tone language experience may adopt different strategies when performing tone discrimination tasks; single-tone language speakers may draw on their musical expertise while dual-tone language speakers may rely on their extensive tone language experience instead.

P01.13.A The effect of musicality on language recovery after awake glioma surgery

Abstract Background Awake craniotomy is used to resect tumor while preserving language. However, differences between patients in post-operative speech/language outcome are observed despite careful intra-operative monitoring. Literature describes improved performance in language tasks during cognitive tests in musicians. Moreover increased white matter connectivity properties in the corpus callosum are described in musicians compared to non-musicians. We hypothesize better recovery of language in musical patients after awake glioma surgery, caused by higher connectivity properties from the corpus callosum. Material and Methods Adult patients undergoing resection for glioma with an awake resection procedure at two neurosurgical centers were prospectively included. Patients without standardized language tests at pre- and post-operative level, with a glioblastoma multiforme (WHO grade 4) or undergoing re-resection were excluded. Language was assessed with the Diagnostic Instrument for Mild Aphasia (DIMA) and corrected for age and education years from a healthy population. The patients’ musical skill was assessed through questionnaires, and divided in groups based on the Musical Expertise Criterion (MEC) which defines musicality based the duration and intensity of musical training. Volumetric measures of the corpus callosum, corrected for total brain volumes, was calculated of each included patient based on the pre-operative structural MRI. Results Forty-six patients, enrolled between June 2015 and September 2019, were followed-up (mean/SD; 240/174 days after craniotomy) and divided in: non-musician (41.3%, n = 19), amateur-musician (34.8%, n=16) and trained-musician (23.9%, n = 11). Overall a decrease in language was observed after craniotomy (mean/SD) of -0.361/0.771. Musical abilities correlated with less decrease in language (mean/SD) when comparing non-musicians (-0.543/0.683) to amateur (-0.272/0.910) and trained (-0.176/0.693) musicians. An increased but non-significant trend (p=0.28) between musicality and corpus callosum / brain ratio (mean/SD) was observed in non-musicians (0.763, 0.718;0.808), amateur musicians (0.792, 0.745;0.838) and trained musicians (0.835, 0.778;0.891). Conclusion Musicality seemed to improve language outcome after awake glioma surgery, possibly attributed due to a higher white matter connectivity in the corpus callosum. Future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm our findings.

Brain-to-brain communication during musical improvisation: a performance case study

Understanding and predicting others' actions in ecological settings is an important research goal in social neuroscience. Here, we deployed a mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) methodology to analyze inter-brain communication between professional musicians during a live jazz performance. Specifically, bispectral analysis was conducted to assess the synchronization of scalp electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from three expert musicians during a three-part 45 minute jazz performance, during which a new musician joined every five minutes. The bispectrum was estimated for all musician dyads, electrode combinations, and five frequency bands. The results showed higher bispectrum in the beta and gamma frequency bands (13-50 Hz) when more musicians performed together, and when they played a musical phrase synchronously. Positive bispectrum amplitude changes were found approximately three seconds prior to the identified synchronized performance events suggesting preparatory cortical activity predictive of concerted behavioral action. Moreover, a higher amount of synchronized EEG activity, across electrode regions, was observed as more musicians performed, with inter-brain synchronization between the temporal, parietal, and occipital regions the most frequent. Increased synchrony between the musicians' brain activity reflects shared multi-sensory processing and movement intention in a musical improvisation task.