Increased functional connectivity in the ventral and dorsal streams during retrieval of novel words in professional musicians

Abstract

Current models of speech and language processing postulate the involvement of two parallel processing streams (the dual stream model): a ventral stream involved in mapping sensory and phonological representations onto lexical and conceptual representations and a dorsal stream contributing to sound-to-motor mapping, articulation, and to how verbal information is encoded and manipulated in memory. Based on previous evidence showing that music training has an influence on language processing, cognitive functions, and word learning, we examined EEG-based intracranial functional connectivity in the ventral and dorsal streams while musicians and nonmusicians learned the meaning of novel words through picture-word associations. In accordance with the dual stream model, word learning was generally associated with increased beta functional connectivity in the ventral stream compared to the dorsal stream. In addition, in the linguistically most demanding "semantic task," musicians outperformed nonmusicians, and this behavioral advantage was accompanied by increased left-hemispheric theta connectivity in both streams. Moreover, theta coherence in the left dorsal pathway was positively correlated with the number of years of music training. These results provide evidence for a complex interplay within a network of brain regions involved in semantic processing and verbal memory functions, and suggest that intensive music training can modify its functional architecture leading to advantages in novel word learning.

Testing the influence of musical expertise on novel word learning across the lifespan using a cross-sectional approach in children, young adults and older adults

“…Learning the meaning of novel words constitutes a multifaceted task that relies on several functions, including phonological perception and categorization, short-term memory, lexical-semantic access and focused attention (Dittinger et al, 2016). Recently, Dittinger and colleagues (Dittinger et al, 2016;Dittinger, Chobert, Ziegler, and Besson, 2017;Dittinger, Valizadeh, Jäncke, Besson, and Elmer, 2017) evaluated word learning in young adults and children with and without musical expertise using concatenated tasks and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). In these studies, the participants had to (1) categorize monosyllabic Thai words varying in terms of non-native phonetic contrasts, (2) learn the meaning of novel words through picture-word associations (i.e., learning phase), (3) judge whether combinations of pictures and words matched or mismatched those previously learned (i.e., matching task), and (4) to generalize the meaning of the learned words to semantically affine pictures (i.e., semantic task; see Fig.…”

Music Training, Working Memory, and Neural Oscillations: A Review

“…During spatial working memory tasks, musicians show enhanced gamma coherence in fronto-parietal (Bhattacharya et al, 2001) and fronto-temporal (Boutorabi and Sheikhani, 2018) networks. During verbal memory tasks, musicians show enhanced intra-hemispheric theta coherence (Cheung et al, 2017;Dittinger et al, 2017). Group differences in spectral coherence complement fMRI findings that musicians engage different but overlapping brain regions during verbal vs. tonal working memory tasks, while non-musicians recruit the same regions regardless of task (Schulze et al, 2011).…”

“…Higher theta coherence in musicians also correlated with subsequent memory performance (Cheung et al, 2017). Likewise, compared to non-musicians, musicians show increased left hemispheric theta coherence when judging the semantic relatedness of a new stimulus to that of previously learned information (Dittinger et al, 2017). Although not working memory maintenance per se, these tasks required sustained activation of memory representations for later processing; thus, music training may enhance theta coherence during…”

“…While there are not many studies that have explored the relationship between age-related declines in functional connectivity and working memory, it has been shown that working memory may improve by restoring theta synchronization in frontotemporal regions through transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS; Reinhart and Nguyen, 2019). As mentioned previously, young adult musicians show higher theta synchrony during working memory tasks as well as better performance in those tasks (Cheung et al, 2017;Dittinger et al, 2017). Improved coherence as a result of music training may underlie the cognitive and working memory benefits seen in older musicians.…”

Relationships between music training, speech processing, and word learning: a network perspective

“…Finally, on the basis of our experience with EEG and inverse solution approaches, we want to emphasize that the frequency band of interest is often dependent on the distance between the brain regions used for functional connectivity analyses. 78,84,85 In this context, there is evidence indicating that information integration 86 and neuronal communication between distinct brain regions over long-range circuits 86,87 is preferentially mediated by low-frequency oscillations (i.e., delta, theta, and alpha), whereas short-range communication is often reflected by high-frequency oscillations (i.e., beta and higher). Furthermore, the frequency band of interest is dependent on the nature of the perceptual or cognitive processes analyzed.…”