Functional connectivity of the cortical network supporting statistical learning in musicians and non-musicians: an MEG study

Abstract

Statistical learning is a cognitive process of great importance for the detection and representation of environmental regularities. Complex cognitive processes such as statistical learning usually emerge as a result of the activation of widespread cortical areas functioning in dynamic networks. The present study investigated the cortical large-scale network supporting statistical learning of tone sequences in humans. The reorganization of this network related to musical expertise was assessed via a cross-sectional comparison of a group of musicians to a group of non-musicians. The cortical responses to a statistical learning paradigm incorporating an oddball approach were measured via Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings. Large-scale connectivity of the cortical activity was calculated via a statistical comparison of the estimated transfer entropy in the sources’ activity. Results revealed the functional architecture of the network supporting the processing of statistical learning, highlighting the prominent role of informational processing pathways that bilaterally connect superior temporal and intraparietal sources with the left IFG. Musical expertise is related to extensive reorganization of this network, as the group of musicians showed a network comprising of more widespread and distributed cortical areas as well as enhanced global efficiency and increased contribution of additional temporal and frontal sources in the information processing pathway.

Neural bases of learning and recognition of statistical regularities

“…67 Functional connectivity studies have also revealed a broad cortical network involved in statistical learning, with strong functional connections between both left and right STG, which we also observed here, along-side the LIFG. 68 Overall, our recognition results are in line with the conclusion of Skosnik et al 35 that grammaticality and recognition judgments rely on different networks. Since both words and phantoms are statistically congruent, the recognition of words must rely on additional support from memory representations derived from the learning phase, which recruits additional neural networks, different from those engaged in phantom recognition.…”

Neurophysiological Markers of Statistical Learning in Music and Language: Hierarchy, Entropy, and Uncertainty

“…For instance, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) [ 121 ] and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) [ 111 ] studies have suggested that SL is linked to the left auditory association cortex or the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) [ 112 , 122 ], which include Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas, respectively. Furthermore, one previous study has indicated that brain connectivity between bilateral superior temporal sources and the left IFG is important for auditory SL [ 45 ]. On the other hand, another study has shown that the right posterior temporal cortex (PTC), which represents the high levels of the peri-Sylvian auditory hierarchy, is related to higher-order auditory SL [ 35 ] (i.e., second-order TPs).…”

“…Nonetheless, a body of evidence indicates that neurophysiological and behavioural responses can unveil musical and linguistic SL effects [ 14 , 32 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ] in the framework of predictive coding [ 20 ]. Furthermore, recent studies have detected the effects of musical training on linguistic SL of words [ 41 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] and the interactions between musical and linguistic SL [ 10 ] and between auditory and visual SL [ 44 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. On the other hand, some studies have also suggested that SL is impaired in humans with domain-specific disorders such as dyslexia [ 51 , 52 , 53 ] and amusia [ 54 , 55 ], disorders that affect linguistic and music processing, respectively (though Omigie and Stewart (2011) [ 56 ] have suggested that SL is intact in congenital amusia).…”

Time-course variation of statistics embedded in music: Corpus study on implicit learning and knowledge

“…According to the previous studies, statistical learning could modulate strategies of musical composition, and the musical training and experience is associated with cognitive model of probabilistic structure in music involved in statistical learning [ 43 , 12 – 18 ]. The neurophysiological studies also demonstrated that musical training modulates the abilities of statistical learning [ 76 , 77 , 78 ]. These previous findings may suggest that musical experience allows a composer to change the strategies of musical composition based on the acquired statistical knowledge over his/her lifetime.…”