Cortical Regions Involved in the Generation of Musical Structures during Improvisation in Pianists

Bengtsson, Sara; Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály; Ullén, Fredrik

doi:10.1162/jocn.2007.19.5.830

Cited by 155 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Some studies relied on ecological tasks attempting to imitate creativity in real life, but most of them employed tasks drawn from theoretical cognitive models. Studies with a more ecological approach used tasks such as story writing (Bechtereva et al, 2004; Howard-Jones et al, 2005; Shah et al, 2013), object design (Kowatari et al, 2009; Ellamil et al, 2012), or music improvisation (Bengtsson et al, 2007; Berkowitz and Ansari, 2008; Limb and Braun, 2008; de Manzano and Ullen, 2012). …”

Section: Experimental Studies On the Neural Correlates Of Creativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontal lobe neurology and the creative mind

et al. 2014

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Concepts from cognitive neuroscience strongly suggest that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a crucial role in the cognitive functions necessary for creative thinking. Functional imaging studies have repeatedly demonstrated the involvement of PFC in creativity tasks. Patient studies have demonstrated that frontal damage due to focal lesions or neurodegenerative diseases are associated with impairments in various creativity tasks. However, against all odds, a series of clinical observations has reported the facilitation of artistic production in patients with neurodegenerative diseases affecting PFC, such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD). An exacerbation of creativity in frontal diseases would challenge neuroimaging findings in controls and patients, as well as the theoretical role of prefrontal functions in creativity processes. To explore this paradox, we reported the history of a FTD patient who exhibited the emergence of visual artistic productions during the course of the disease. The patient produced a large amount of drawings, which have been evaluated by a group of professional artists who were blind to the diagnosis. We also reviewed the published clinical cases reporting a change in the artistic abilities in patients with neurological diseases. We attempted to reconcile these clinical observations to previous experimental findings by addressing several questions raised by our review. For instance, to what extent can the cognitive, conative, and affective changes following frontal damage explain changes in artistic abilities? Does artistic exacerbation truly reflect increased creative capacities? These considerations could help to clarify the place of creativity—as it has been defined and explored by cognitive neuroscience—in artistic creation and may provide leads for future lesion studies.

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Section: Experimental Studies On the Neural Correlates Of Creativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontal lobe neurology and the creative mind

et al. 2014

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“…Using an ecologically valid approach—studying the artist during the natural act of creation—allows us to examine creative behavior as a whole and in situ, without the superimposition of unrelated, potentially confounding cognitive task demands. Such paradigms have been used more frequently in recent year [Bengtsson et al, 2007; Berkowitz and Ansari, 2010; Brown et al, 2006; Ellamil et al, 2011; Shah et al, 2013; Villarreal et al, 2013]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Activation of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is perhaps the most consistent finding across studies [Dietrich and Kanso, 2010]. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has also been implicated, albeit in a variety of ways that will be discussed below [Bengtsson et al, 2007; Berkowitz and Ansari, 2008]. Notably, a dissociation between activity in these prefrontal regions has been reported in a series of studies: focal activation of the MPFC was coupled with deactivation of the DLPFC during both melodic and lyrical improvisation [Limb and Braun, 2008; Liu et al, 2012].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we evaluate the quality of the creative product by assessing the responses of an audience, in this case an independent panel of experts, to the poems subjects produced. Previous studies rated the complexity or novelty of improvised musical [Bengtsson et al, 2007; Villarreal et al, 2013] or literary material [Liu et al, 2012; Shah et al, 2013] and correlated these measures with the amplitude of brain activity. Other studies utilizing sensorimotor tasks [Baldassarre et al, 2012; Koyama et al, 2011] have suggested that performance is strongly associated with functional connections between brain regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process

Liu

Erkkinen

Healey

et al. 2015

Human Brain Mapping

147

102

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Creativity, a multifaceted construct, can be studied in various ways, for example, investigating phases of the creative process, quality of the creative product, or the impact of expertise. Previous neuroimaging studies have assessed these individually. Believing that each of these interacting features must be examined simultaneously to develop a comprehensive understanding of creative behavior, we examined poetry composition, assessing process, product, and expertise in a single experiment. Distinct activation patterns were associated with generation and revision, two major phases of the creative process. Medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) was active during both phases, yet responses in dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal executive systems (DLPFC/IPS) were phase‐dependent, indicating that while motivation remains unchanged, cognitive control is attenuated during generation and re‐engaged during revision. Experts showed significantly stronger deactivation of DLPFC/IPS during generation, suggesting that they may more effectively suspend cognitive control. Importantly however, similar overall patterns were observed in both groups, indicating the same cognitive resources are available to experts and novices alike. Quality of poetry, assessed by an independent panel, was associated with divergent connectivity patterns in experts and novices, centered upon MPFC (for technical facility) and DLPFC/IPS (for innovation), suggesting a mechanism by which experts produce higher quality poetry. Crucially, each of these three key features can be understood in the context of a single neurocognitive model characterized by dynamic interactions between medial prefrontal areas regulating motivation, dorsolateral prefrontal, and parietal areas regulating cognitive control and the association of these regions with language, sensorimotor, limbic, and subcortical areas distributed throughout the brain. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3351–3372, 2015. © 2015 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc..

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“…Bengtsson et al [63] used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate which brain regions are involved in free generation of responses in a complex creative behavior: musical improvisation. Eleven professional pianists participated in the study.…”

Section: Studies About the Relationship Between The Brain And The Musmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amusia and Musical Functioning

Alossa¹,

Castelli²

2009

Eur Neurol

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Music, as language, is a universal and specific trait to humans; it is a complex ability with characteristics that are unique compared to other cognitive abilities. Nevertheless, several issues are still open to debate, such as, for example, whether music is a faculty that is independent from the rest of the cognitive system, and whether musical skills are mediated by a single mechanism or by a combination of processes that are independent from one another. Moreover, the anatomical correlations of music have yet to be clarified. The goal of this review is to illustrate the current condition of the neuropsychology of music and to describe different approaches to the study of the musical functions. Hereby, we will describe the neuropsychological findings, suggesting that music is a special function carried out by different and dedicated processes that are probably subserved by different anatomical regions of the brain. Moreover, we will review the evidence obtained by working with brain-damaged patients suffering from music agnosia, a selective impairment in music recognition.

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Cortical Regions Involved in the Generation of Musical Structures during Improvisation in Pianists

Cited by 155 publications

References 53 publications

Frontal lobe neurology and the creative mind

Frontal lobe neurology and the creative mind

Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process

Amusia and Musical Functioning

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