Musical training predicts cerebello-hippocampal coupling during music listening.

Abstract

Cerebello-hippocampal interactions occur during accurate spatio-temporal prediction of movements. In the context of music listening, differences in cerebello-hippocampal functional connectivity may result from differences in predictive listening accuracy. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we studied differences in this network between 18 musicians and 18 nonmusicians while they listened to music. Musicians possess a predictive listening advantage over nonmusicians facilitated by strengthened coupling between produced and heard sounds through lifelong musical experience. Thus, we hypothesized musicians would exhibit greater functional connectivity than nonmusicians as a marker of accurate online predictions during music listening. To this end, we estimated the functional connectivity between cerebellum and hippocampus as modulated by a perceptual measure of the predictability of the music. Results revealed increased predictability-driven functional connectivity in this network in musicians compared to nonmusicians, which was positively correlated with the length of musical training. Findings may be explained by musicians' improved predictive listening accuracy. Our findings advance the understanding of cerebellar integrative function.

On the Association Between Musical Training, Intelligence and Executive Functions in Adulthood

“…The dataset was obtained from 140 participants recruited among university students or qualified professionals. Further details on this protocol can be found in Burunat et al (2015, 2016, 2018), Kliuchko et al (2015, 2016, 2018), Alluri et al (2017), Bonetti et al (2017, 2018), and Saari et al (2018), where some of the participants involved in this study were included. All experimental procedures for this protocol were approved by the Coordinating Ethics Committee of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (approval number: 315/13/03/00/11, obtained on March the 11th, 2012).…”

Beauty and the brain: Investigating the neural and musical attributes of beauty during a naturalistic music listening experience

“…The data collection for the current study was part of the broad "Tunteet" project, involving additional psychological tests, neuroimaging, neurophysiological measures and genetic mapping. The findings related to the other parts of the project are reported in separate papers (Alluri et al 2015;Alluri et al 2017;Burunat et al 2016;Saari et al 2018;Burunat et al 2017Burunat et al , 2015Bogert et al 2016;Burunat et al 2018;Kliuchko et al 2018Kliuchko et al , 2016Kliuchko et al , 2015Carlson et al 2015). The protocol of this project was approved by the Coordinating Committee of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District, Finland, and complied with the Declaration of Helsinki.…”

Learning to play a musical instrument in the middle school is associated with superior audiovisual working memory and fluid intelligence: A cross-sectional behavioral study

“…In the specific case of WM, retention, processing and integration of complicated pitch and time sequences are all required in music training; consequently, music training and WM are clearly able to activate analogous mechanisms ( Yurgil et al, 2020 ). When playing an instrument, WM integrates sound events, retrieves data from memory systems, connects sounds to meaning and memories, and aids in the development of emotional responses ( Burunat et al, 2018 ; Criscuolo et al, 2019 ). The involvement of a WM network in musical tasks has been reported in several studies with higher brain activation in musicians than in non-musicians ( Schulze et al, 2011b ; Schulze and Koelsch, 2012 ; Burunat et al, 2014 ).…”