Music and Language Syntax Interact in Broca’s Area: An fMRI Study

Abstract

Instrumental music and language are both syntactic systems, employing complex, hierarchically-structured sequences built using implicit structural norms. This organization allows listeners to understand the role of individual words or tones in the context of an unfolding sentence or melody. Previous studies suggest that the brain mechanisms of syntactic processing may be partly shared between music and language. However, functional neuroimaging evidence for anatomical overlap of brain activity involved in linguistic and musical syntactic processing has been lacking. In the present study we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with an interference paradigm based on sung sentences. We show that the processing demands of musical syntax (harmony) and language syntax interact in Broca’s area in the left inferior frontal gyrus (without leading to music and language main effects). A language main effect in Broca’s area only emerged in the complex music harmony condition, suggesting that (with our stimuli and tasks) a language effect only becomes visible under conditions of increased demands on shared neural resources. In contrast to previous studies, our design allows us to rule out that the observed neural interaction is due to: (1) general attention mechanisms, as a psychoacoustic auditory anomaly behaved unlike the harmonic manipulation, (2) error processing, as the language and the music stimuli contained no structural errors. The current results thus suggest that two different cognitive domains—music and language—might draw on the same high level syntactic integration resources in Broca’s area.

The neural basis for primary and acquired language skills

“…As is known for neurons in visual cortex (Lamme & Roelfsema, 2000), the real-time contribution of this region may well vary with time, as a consequence of the different dynamic cortical networks in which it is embedded at different points in time. This fits well with the finding that Broca's region as a whole is not language-specific, but also recruited in the service of other cognitive domains, such as music (Patel, 2003;Kunert et al, 2015) and action (Hamzei et al, 2003), and with the finding that its contribution crosses the boundaries of semantics, syntax, and phonology (Hagoort & Levelt, 2009). Ideally, and in order to make progress, we need to determine both the function and the real-time contribution of Broca's region and the other neural nodes in the language network at time-slice t in the context of network N(t).…”

Shared neural resources of rhythm and syntax: An ALE Meta-Analysis

“…Indeed, most of these overlapping clusters are parts of the so-called "extrinsic mode network (EMN)" that are active in a non-specific task-generic manner (Hugdahl et al, 2015). However, these frontal loci have been implicated in numerous neuroimaging studies of music and language; there is a firm consensus that these regions are integral parts of these respective networks (Friederici, 2018;Kunert et al, 2015;Nguyen et al, 2018). Because the EMN includes fronto-parietal-temporal cortices, it is difficult to completely rule out a possibility that some of the overlapping clusters reported here may have appeared due to generic cognitive processes that both rhythm and syntax entail.…”

When tension is exciting: an EEG exploration of excitement in music

“…Specifically, musical tension and prediction are important to processing and experiencing music emotions (Huron, 2006;Koelsch, 2014). Music follows certain structures or rules within time, musical events, intensity and space, enabling musical syntax which is associated with IFG activity (Asano & Boeckx, 2015;Lehne et al, 2014;Koelsch, 2014;Kunert et al, 2015). Musical syntax facilitates predictability and listeners' anticipation of future music moments, which relates to musical tension, positive emotions when predictions are correct, and co-occurring IFG activity (Bianco et al, 2016;Huron, 2006;Koelsch, 2014;Lehne et al, 2014;Schön et al, 2010;Zatorre, Chen, & Penhune, 2007).…”

“…Because music unfolds over time, two musical mechanisms of tension and deviation have previously been associated with positive musical emotions and the previously mentioned brain activity. Perceived music emotions relate to the syntactic structure and experience of musical features, as well as to their predicted and expected future structure; both in terms of anticipation or tension of what is going to happen and of novel, unexpected deviations (Jones, 1982;Huron, 2006;Koelsch, 2014;Kunert et al, 2015;Vuust & Witek, 2014). According to Huron's (2006) ITPRA theory (imagination, tension, prediction, reaction and appraisal), suggesting highly anticipated music moments create tension enabling greater positive emotions when predicted deviations occur due to contrastive valence (Huron, 2006).…”