3. Music and the Brain Flashcards
Attracting mates, social cohesion, and being a precursor for language are all functions of
Music
Function of the outer ear (pinna and ear canal)
- amplify frequencies and transport vibrations
- locate sound on the vertical plane
Converting air vibrations into liquid vibrations are functions of
The middle ear: malleus, incus and stapes bones
Converting liquid vibrations to neural signals via hair cells is the function of the:
inner ear/cochlea
Name the connections (4) from the ear to primary auditory cortex?
Auditory cortex –> superior olive –> inferior colliculus –> medial geniculate nucleus of thalamus –> A1
is in the temporal lobe, on Heschl’s gyrus, arranged tonotopically by frequency
Primary auditory cortex
The end of the basilar membrane nearest the oval window is __ (narrow + stiff, wide + flexible) and deflects most to __ (high/low) frequency sound waves
- narrow and stiff
- high frequency
The secondary auditory cortices are called what, and where are they located
The belt and parabelt regions
- planum polare and planum temporale
Central neurons in the auditory cortex respond more to __ (high/low) frequencies. Peripheral neurons respond more to __ (high/low) frequencies.
Low
High
Why is music useful for studying cognition?
It engages many cognitive processes
This side of A1 is more sensitive to spatial properties of sound
Right auditory cortex
Brain region needed for auditory perception and sound analysis of music
primary auditory cortex
brain region responsible for memory and associations of music
association cortex in parietal and parabelt regions
brain region responsible for expectancy generation in music
prefrontal cortex
- Notes that, when played together, sound right
- notes that clash when played together
- consonance
- dissonance
True or false, different cultures organise pitch differently. Eg in west, each octave (C to C) has 12 notes, with the difference between black and white keys being semitones
TRUE
What is the only universal pitch organisation
Pentatonic Scale
True or false, infants from 4-6 months don’t have preference for consonance and cannot notice if music is going up or down (contour)
FALSE
True or false, being able to distinguish rhythms begins from 3 days old
TRUE
Due to positive mood changes it brings, listening to Mozart leads to better performance on spatial ability tests eg paper cutting/folding. This is known as
The Mozart Effect
Congenital amusia results in a deficit of __ perception. they usually perform normally in __ perception
- Pitch - needs to be a larger difference for them to hear
- Rhythm
What was the ability of patient Monica in terms of her pitch perception
Could detect a pitch change of 11 semitones, only if the pitch was going up
True or false, most amusics have problems with pitch going either up or down, affecting small changes (between semitones)
TRUE
Amusics are impaired, compared to controls, on what experimental paradigm. What conclusion can be drawn from this
The tone span
- difficulty with pitch memory
What brain changes occur in amusics between frontal and temporal lobes? Any particular regions affected? Any changes to auditory cortex?
- decreased white matter between frontal and temporal. Impaired Arcuate Fasciculus tract between the two.
- Broca’s and Wernicke’s affected
- increased Grey matter in A1
Which ERP wave is associated with violations in musical key AND syntactic violations, and is much smaller in amusics?
P600
N200 peak is present in processing of what in music?
quarter tones
This ERG wave is associated with semantic violations in language
N400
The hypothesis that syntax and music share common brain circuits, specifically in the left inferior frontal cortex, is known as
The shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis SSIRH
How do amusics perform, compared to controls, when presented with sentences that sound emotional (despite words being neutral)
Amusics were less likely to be able to identify the emotion, aside from fear (evolutionary)
What musical sensation leads to activation of the ventral tegmentum, forebrain, orbitofrontal and nucleus accumbens, and a decrease in ___?
- the chills/euphoria
- the amygdala - this may be due to anticipating the chills (seen in drug abuse)
What uniquely human musical behaviour activates the bilateral superior temporal gyrus, the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and SMA
Keeping a beat
Vocal learning
Can produce and imitate complex sound patterns based on hearing them
What brain region enables us to move to the beat of music
The basal ganglia
After being trained in a simple melody, what brain activity did Baumann et al 2005 find? What about when asked to play the tune?
- Activation of A1 and motor cortex - SMA to anticipate how to play it
- activation of the premotor and primary motor cortex as well as A1
When playing music, the motor cortex moves the hands, and feedback is brought from __, which then sends information to __ to adjust the playing.
- A1
- somatosensory cortex
Ohinishi found that musical experts had differences in which brain regions, on which side of the brain, compared to just bilateral A1 activation in non-musicians?
dorsolateral PFC and Planum temporale - near Broca’s and Wernicke’s for speech production and comprehension
This side of which brain region is more sensitive to spatial properties of sound
right A1
Expectancy generation is controlled in this brain region
prefrontal cortex
Hippocampus is responsible for what in music
memorisation and reciting lyrics/memories
P600 in amusic patients
smaller than in controls following musical key violation
hypothesis that syntax of language and music share common circuits in the frontal brain regions
shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis (SSIRH)
