Music and words in the visual cortex: The impact of musical expertise

Mongelli, Valeria; Dehaene, Stanislas; Vinckier, Fabien; Peretz, Isabelle; Bartolomeo, Paolo; Cohen, Laurent

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2016.05.016

Cited by 34 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…So the results suggest that music readers automatically recruit a specialized network of multimodal areas upon seeing musical notes. Using more complex musical-note sequences, the recruitment of V1/V2 was observed less consistently in some studies (Sergent, Zuck, Terriah, & MacDonald, 1992; Y. K. Wong & Gauthier, 2010) but not in others (Mongelli et al, 2016;Nakada, Fujii, Suzuki, & Kwee, 1998;Schön & Besson, 2002;Stewart et al, 2003), which might be related by the use of different types of visual control stimuli and tasks across studies. The selective engagement of both early and late visual areas associated with expertise has not been reported for object categories other than musical notes with the exception of written words in Szwed et al's (2011) fMRI study, in which V1/ V2, V3v/V4, and the visual word-form area were identified.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Visual training with musical notes changes late but not early electrophysiological responses in the visual cortex

Wong

Lui

et al. 2019

Journal of Vision

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Visual expertise with musical notation is unique. Fluent music readers show selectively higher activity to musical notes than to other visually similar patterns in both the retinotopic and higher-level visual areas and both very early (e.g., C1) and later (e.g., N170) visual event-related potential (ERP) components. This is different from domains such as face and letter perception, of which the neural expertise marker is typically found in the higherlevel ventral visual areas and later (e.g., N170) ERP components. An intriguing question concerns whether the visual skills and neural selectivity observed in musicreading experts are a result of the effects of extensive visual experience with musical notation. The current study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between visual experience and its neural changes with musical notation. Novices with no formal musical training experience were trained to visually discriminate between note patterns in the laboratory for 10-26 hr such that their performance was comparable with fluent music readers. The N170 component became more selective for musical notes after training. Training was not, however, followed by changes in the earlier C1 component. The findings show that visual training is enough for causing changes in the responses of the higher-level visual areas to musical notation while the engagement of the early visual areas may involve additional nonvisual factors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Visual training with musical notes changes late but not early electrophysiological responses in the visual cortex

Wong

Lui

et al. 2019

Journal of Vision

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“…What is striking in humans, however, is that this mosaic of specialized regions is partially changed by the culture we live in. The acquisition of musical [ 6 ], mathematical [ 7 , 8 ], and reading abilities [ 9 ] leads to systematic changes in ventral visual organization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The emergence of the visual word form: Longitudinal evolution of category-specific ventral visual areas during reading acquisition

2018

Self Cite

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How does education affect cortical organization? All literate adults possess a region specialized for letter strings, the visual word form area (VWFA), within the mosaic of ventral regions involved in processing other visual categories such as objects, places, faces, or body parts. Therefore, the acquisition of literacy may induce a reorientation of cortical maps towards letters at the expense of other categories such as faces. To test this cortical recycling hypothesis, we studied how the visual cortex of individual children changes during the first months of reading acquisition. Ten 6-year-old children were scanned longitudinally 6 or 7 times with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and throughout the first year of school. Subjects were exposed to a variety of pictures (words, numbers, tools, houses, faces, and bodies) while performing an unrelated target-detection task. Behavioral assessment indicated a sharp rise in grapheme–phoneme knowledge and reading speed in the first trimester of school. Concurrently, voxels specific to written words and digits emerged at the VWFA location. The responses to other categories remained largely stable, although right-hemispheric face-related activity increased in proportion to reading scores. Retrospective examination of the VWFA voxels prior to reading acquisition showed that reading encroaches on voxels that are initially weakly specialized for tools and close to but distinct from those responsive to faces. Remarkably, those voxels appear to keep their initial category selectivity while acquiring an additional and stronger responsivity to words. We propose a revised model of the neuronal recycling process in which new visual categories invade weakly specified cortex while leaving previously stabilized cortical responses unchanged.

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“…As this relationship showed a trend ( p = 0.02), one should consider this finding with caution. The relationship between music and language has been investigated for decades as reflected, among others, in the elegant work of Patel [ 42 ] or Peretz [ 43 ]. Various studies have confirmed a relationship between music listening and language as they share similar capacities in terms of perception and processing as well as neuroanatomical markers in language aptitude and musicality [ 41 – 48 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to a musically-enriched environment; Its relationship with executive functions, short-term memory and verbal IQ in primary school children

Jaschke¹,

Honing

Scherder

2018

PLoS ONE

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BackgroundPrevious literature has shown a putative relationship between playing a musical instrument and a benefit in various cognitive domains. However, to date it still remains unknown whether the exposure to a musically-enriched environment instead of playing an instrument yourself might also increase cognitive domains such as language, mathematics or executive sub-functions such as for example planning or working memory in primary school children.DesignCross-sectionalMethodExposure to a musically-enriched environment like listening to music at home, during play or when attending concerts was assessed using a comprehensive intake questionnaire administered to a sample of 176 primary school children. Furthermore, participants completed the verbal intelligence section of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (WISC III), performed executive sub-function tasks such as planning (Tower of London), working memory (Klingberg Matrix backward span) and inhibition (Go/no-Go task), and a short-term memory task (Klingberg Matrix forward span).ResultsLinear and multiple regression analyses showed no significant relationship between exposure to a musically-enriched environment, executive sub-functions (planning, inhibition and working memory), and short-term memory. The relationship between an enriched musical environment and verbal IQ has revealed trends.DiscussionExperiencing a musically enriched environment does not serve as predictor for higher performance on executive sub-functions, however, can influence verbal IQ.

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Music and words in the visual cortex: The impact of musical expertise

Cited by 34 publications

References 68 publications

Visual training with musical notes changes late but not early electrophysiological responses in the visual cortex

Visual training with musical notes changes late but not early electrophysiological responses in the visual cortex

The emergence of the visual word form: Longitudinal evolution of category-specific ventral visual areas during reading acquisition

Exposure to a musically-enriched environment; Its relationship with executive functions, short-term memory and verbal IQ in primary school children

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