Tracking Training-Related Plasticity by Combining fMRI and DTI: The Right Hemisphere Ventral Stream Mediates Musical Syntax Processing

Abstract

As a functional homolog for left-hemispheric syntax processing in language, neuroimaging studies evidenced involvement of right prefrontal regions in musical syntax processing, of which underlying white matter connectivity remains unexplored so far. In the current experiment, we investigated the underlying pathway architecture in subjects with 3 levels of musical expertise. Employing diffusion tensor imaging tractography, departing from seeds from our previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study on music syntax processing in the same participants, we identified a pathway in the right ventral stream that connects the middle temporal lobe with the inferior frontal cortex via the extreme capsule, and corresponds to the left hemisphere ventral stream, classically attributed to syntax processing in language comprehension. Additional morphometric consistency analyses allowed dissociating tract core from more dispersed fiber portions. Musical expertise related to higher tract consistency of the right ventral stream pathway. Specifically, tract consistency in this pathway predicted the sensitivity for musical syntax violations. We conclude that enduring musical practice sculpts ventral stream architecture. Our results suggest that training-related pathway plasticity facilitates the right hemisphere ventral stream information transfer, supporting an improved sound-to-meaning mapping in music.

Impact of major and minor mode on EEG frequency range activities of music processing as a function of expertise

“…The current data thus also manifest some gradual changes with expertise, as we could show before [4,6].…”

“…The present study explored modulation of EEG brain oscillatory activities in several frequency ranges in people with 3 different levels of expertise in response to major and minor mode compositions. We expected first an effect of expertise revealed by differences in the degree of neuronal synchronization in low and high frequencies ranges [15,21,22], essentially in the right hemisphere [1,2,4,6,28,29].…”

“…Musical experience progressively modulates musical processing, resulting in functional and structural brain plasticity [1][2][3][4][5][6]. But information is lacking on specific modulation of functional brain responses to major and minor mode as a function of expertise level in natural musical stimuli evolving over time.…”

Recursion in action: An fMRI study on the generation of new hierarchical levels in motor sequences

“…Numerous studies in the domains of language, music, and vision have investigated the discrimination of hierarchical structures by asking participants to evaluate whether sequences of items are well‐formed according to a previously learned system of rules (Bahlmann, Schubotz, & Friederici, ; Bahlmann, Schubotz, Mueller, Koester, & Friederici, ; Bianco et al, ; Friederici, Bahlmann, Friedrich, & Makuuchi, ; Maess, Koelsch, Gunter, & Friederici, ; Sammler, Koelsch, & Friederici, ). These studies suggest that lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC, particularly inferior frontal gyrus, IFG) might contribute multi‐domain resources to the processing of hierarchies (Fadiga, Craighero, & D'Ausilio, ; Friederici et al, ; Patel, ), in interaction with areas along ventral visual/auditory streams that may store domain‐specific schematic information (Bianco et al, ; Martins et al, ; Oechslin, Gschwind, & James, ; Pallier, Devauchelle, & Dehaene, ; Sammler et al, ). Recent anatomical research has shown that IFG in humans is expanded (Schenker et al, ) and more strongly connected with the posterior temporal regions in comparison to other primates (Neubert, Mars, Thomas, Sallet, & Rushworth, ; Rilling et al, ).…”

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

“…In addition, since playing a musical instrument constitutes a multidimensional task, the investigation of professional musicians can contribute to a better understanding of how the human brain integrates information from different modalities . Such integrative computational demands have previously been shown to abet architectural changes in several fiber bundles, including the corpus callosum, the arcuate fasciculus, the extreme capsule, and the corticospinal tract . Furthermore, since white matter alterations have an influence on the speed and synchrony of impulse transmission, musicians often demonstrate increased functional connectivity between brain regions essentially contributing to music performance .…”