4 The Hearing Brain and Music Flashcards
why study music and the brain
Musical behaviours are universal across human populations and, at the same time are highly diverse in their structures, roles and cultural interpretations. The study of music perception and cognition is one of the oldest topics in experimental psychology. The last 30 years of research have seen a special interest in understanding the neuroanatomy of music processing in humans (and some animals!) using different imaging techniques and lesion studies.
what did plato say about music and the mind
Plato (428 BC): music can elevate or degrade the mind
“rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul “
was worried about the youth of athens and thought the music they listened to was corrupting their mind
what did aristoxenus say about music and the mind
Aristoxenus (4 th century BC) - effects on listeners as opposed to examining their mathematical ratios
Aristoxenus - belonged to Pythagorean’s school of philosophy - interested in describing the world in terms of mathematic equation and rations
Described music in terms of mathematical ratios but wrong way to go about it what we should really study is the effect music had on listeners as opposed to just describing it as mathematical ratios - psychological effect music has on people not just describing what music sounds like or just objective description of what we hear
what is music according the edgar varese
music is organised sound
what is music according to leonard mayer
a form of emotional communication
what is music according to wittgenstein
a new exemplar can be considered music if it bears a “family resemblance” to other examples that are generally agreed to be “music” - Wittgenstein
if we agree something is music then it probably is music
what are the properties of music
universl
unique
context specific for birds
function
music as universal
Universal– all cultures ever described have some form of music (if no instruments, still sing)
music as unique
Unique - you don’t need to be human to sing - Birds
music as context specific for birds
Context specific for birds: neural and hormonal changes vs. many contexts for humans
music as a function
Function: only male birds sing: attract mate, defend territory
what are the functions of music
- Human musical tendencies derived from a system for attracting mates (Darwin, 1871)
- music exists because it brings people together - social cohesion which lead to survival benefits (Huron, 2001)
- Precursor for language (Mithen, 2005)
- “Music is auditory cheesecake” – evolutionary byproduct of the adaptation for human language (Pinker, 1997)
what does music is auditory cheesecake mean
• “Music is auditory cheesecake” – evolutionary byproduct of the adaptation for human language (Pinker, 1997)
Evolutionary adaptation is language sp what gives us an advantage in survival is language - humans develop language in order to survive - music is using language pathways and in a way is more pleasurable and nicer than language - auditory cheesecake
We need to eat to survive - crave foods that aren’t great for survival but we still like and eat - same as music we like music although it might not be necessary for survival
why do people disagree with pinker
Other cognitive scientists and philosophers disagree with pinker bc they proposed that music is one of the most abstract art forms - classical music - abstract - everybody has their own impression of certain musical piece - so abstract it gave us an evolutionary advantage in one sense bc we can engage in imagination and this gives us evolutionary advantage in terms of hypothetical situations - so then plan and explore hypothetical situations - evolutionary advantage
hearing is more than detection of sounds it involves…
Hearing is more than detection of sounds
It involves constructing a model of the world:
• What objects do the sounds correspond to?
• Where are they?
• What do they mean?
what does the outer ear do
• Outer ear (pinnae and ear canal): amplifies certain frequencies, important for locating sounds
what does the middle ear do
• Middle ear (includes malleus, incus, stapes): converts airborne vibrations to liquid-borne vibrations
what does the inner ear do
• Inner ear (includes cochlea): converts liquid-borne vibrations to neural impulses
what happens when music goes from ear to brain
Hear a sound first comes to outer ear - important for detecting where the sound comes from, then the ear canal is also part of the outer ear and is really important in amplifying certain frequencies of sound that we hear, when we hear these airborne frequencies get to the tympanic membrane and it starts to vibrate and then these air borne vibrations are then transferred to the liquid borne vibrations in the middle of the ear by the vibration of three little bones called the ossicles - the malleus, incus and stapes and they convert air borne vibrations to liquid borne vibrations found in the inner ear and part of that is called the cochlea and this cochlea is filled with liquid and these ossicles convert the vibration and then the liquid starts to vibrate as well, the liquid vibrations can be picked up by the auditory nerve and that auditory nerve carries the information to the CNS.
what 3 bones cause air borne vibrations into liquid vibrations
air borne vibrations are then transferred to the liquid borne vibrations in the middle of the ear by the vibration of three little bones called the ossicles - the malleus, incus and stapes
how many synapses from ear to cortex
4-5 synapses
music in the brain
- Medial geniculate nucleus projects to primary auditory cortex (also called “core”)
- Core area is surrounded by secondary auditory cortex (including belt and parabelt regions)
- Information ascends and descends in the pathway
- The auditory nerve and auditory cortex have a tonotopic organization
what is the organisation of the auditory nerve and cortex
tonotopic organisation
maps certain frequencies to certain parts of the cortex
what are belt and parabelt regions
Primary auditory cortex is surrounded by secondary auditory cortex - sometimes called belt and parabelt regions - where belt is referring to primary auditory region and parabelt regions are referred to secondary auditory cortex
where is primary auditory cortex located
heschl’s gyrus
what is the secondary auditory cortex made up of
Secondary auditory cortex are made up of planum polare which is to the front and the planum temporale which his at the back of the heschl’s gyrus
what is the right primary auditory cortex is more sensitive to
Right primary auditory cortex is more sensitive to spatial location of the sound
Speech also activates this regions
Acoustic properties of speech sound are important in coding speech
Tonotopic organisation - with high and low frequencies located at different areas of the primary auditory cortex
the right hemisphere or primary auditory cortex
- One region is sensitive to the spatial properties of sound (R>L)
- Speech also activates these regions, but neurons are probably responding to the complex acoustic properties in the sound.
- Perceptual attributes may be important
what brain functions does music engage
- Emotion
- Memory
- Learning & plasticity
- Attention
- Motor control
- Pattern perception
- Imagery
what brain area is important for auditory perception and analysis
Primary auditory cortex - important for auditory perception and analysis
Association cortices such as the cortices in parietal areas and parabelt regions as well
what brain area is important for expectancy generation
violation and satisfaction
Prefrontal cortex - engaged especially when we hear a sour note or when we know something was played differently bc prefrontal cortex is important for expectations and as we know in music we are always expecting something to come at a later point
what brain area is important for sensory feedback from playing an instrument or dancing
Motor cortex - important when playing an instrument or just moving to the beat - tapping, dancing
Cerebellum - important for fine motor movement especially for playing an instrument
Sensory cortex’s - sensory feedback from playing an instrument or dancing - whether we are playing it properly - e.g. playing a sour note and whether we have to adjust our playing or whether we are dancing to rhythm
what brain areas important for emotional reactions to music
Emotion - emotional reactions to music are located in the prefrontal cortex and in the cerebellum
subcortical regions important in music perception
amygdala - emotional responses to music
what does nucleus accumbens do in response to music
Nucleus accumbens. - part of the reward system as we know some types of music are highly pleasurable and rewarding therefore we know this area is very much involved when we experience pleasure from music
what does hippocampus do in response to music
important for memorising music, reactivating lyrics or melodies that you already know
what are the perceptual attributes of music
Music is characterized by perceptual attributes, or dimensions, each of which can be varied independently: pitch, rhythm, timbre, tempo, contour, loudness, and spatial location
what is rhythm
the beat
what is timbre
Timbre - attribute that depicts how different instruments sounds - so certain notes sound different on the piano or violin
what is tempo
how fast a certain beat is
what is contour
if the music is going up or down
whats spatial location
where its coming from
Musical and linguistic grammar allow for the generation of infinite number of songs or sentences through combinations and rearrangements of elements
true
what is pitch
perception of sound frequency
what is pitch in music scales
Perception of music
Pitch (perception of sound frequency) - organized in every culture
Pitch organization into musical scales: divides each octave (double-ing of pitch between C&C) into 12 distinct notes (7 white piano keys)
Pentatonic scale
what is difference between white and black piano key
semi-tone
what is an octave
in western culture - pitch is organised into octaves
12 notes
pentatonic scale
organisation of pitch in every culture
pentatonic scale
are we born musical
- Hearing working at 4-6 months
- Infants, unlike monkeys, have natural preference for consonance (McDermott & Hauser, 2004).
- Easily notice changes to contour (ups and downs) (Trehub et al, 1997)
- Understand phrase structure in Mozart (Krumhansl & Jusczyk, 1990)
- At 3 days old infants can distinguish different rhythms (Winkler et al. 2009)
developmental evidence for being born musical
fMRI to measure brain activity in 1- to 3-day-old newborns while they heard excerpts of Western tonal music and altered versions of the same excerpts.
Western music: right-hemispheric activations in primary and higher order auditory cortex
Atonal music: activations emerged in the left inferior frontal cortex and limbic structures
what does developmental evidence show
- infant brain shows a hemispheric specialization in processing music as early as the first postnatal hours
- neural architecture underlying music processing in newborns is sensitive to changes in tonal key
bilateral activation of primary auditory cortices
left inferior frontal areas - expectation in music
music development in newborns
• Newborn – perceive and remember pitch sequences, perceive a beat, sensitivity to contour, preference for consonance
music development in 4-6yrs
4-6yrs – Respond to tonal more than atonal music
music development in 7 yrs
7yrs – Sensitive to the rules of harmony
music development in 10 yrs
10yrs – Understand finer aspects of key structure
music development in 12 yrs
• 12yrs – Develop tastes and recognition of styles
what is the mozart effect
The “Mozart effect” refers to claims that people perform better on tests of spatial abilities after listening to music composed by Mozart
Paper cutting and folding test
what does the mozart effect show
These findings provide evidence that the Mozart effect is an artifact of arousal and mood.
Sad music makes people worse
Mozart is most effective artifact of arousal and mood and isnt necessary related to Mozart but any music that is arousing
what is congential amusia
a lifelong disorder characterized by a difficulty in perceiving, or making sense of, music
Pitch perception (difference between tones) - amusics often require the change to be much greater, for example, close to the distance between the first two notes of Somewhere over the Rainbow (Peretz et al., 2002; Foxton et al., 2004)
‘tone- deafness’ – only 4% of population affected
does congenital amusia score in the normal range or rhythm
People with amusia often score in the normal range for rhythm perception, although this aspect of the disorder seems variable
amusia
- Amusics report having the condition for as long as you can remember
- Unaware when music, including your own singing, is off-key
- Difficulty discriminating or recognizing melodies without lyrics
- Disliking of musical sounds and avoidance of public places and situations where music occurs.
• Unlikely to “use” music in everyday life or experience reactions such as chills,
relaxation or mood enhancement
why is amusia interesting
• Sheds light on cognitive, neural and maybe even genetic basis of normal
musical processing
• How much are musical capacities associated with other skills (language,
spatial awareness)
• Possible origins of other developmental disorders such as dyslexia, prosopagnosia (faces) and dyscalculia (numbers)
what problems do amusics have
pitch perception problems
whether a melody goes up or down
what is a pitch perception problem
Many amusics have problems telling whether a melody goes up or down
Affects the small changes which are often used in music (semitones)
Problems with pitch direction are likely to impact on real world music listening
monica
Case study - Monica
the first documented case of congenital amusia. This disorder refers to a musical disability that cannot be explained by prior brain lesion, hearing loss, cognitive deficits, socio-affective disturbance, or lack of environmental stimulation.
No structural brain changes
what was monicas pitch discrimination like
monica can detect a pitch change of 11 semitones and only if the pitch chane is rising not when falling
shows not a working memory problem
pich perception problem
Pitch Perception problems (Foxton et al., 2004; Williamson et al., 2012)
Many amusics have problems telling whether a melody goes up or down
Affects the small changes which are often used in music (semitones)
Problems with pitch direction are likely to impact on real world music listening
Pitch memory problems (Williamson & Stewart, 2010)
tone span - how many tones can you remember
digit span - similar test
performed worse
speech problems (Liu et al., 2010)
Speech problems (Liu et al., 2010) Most amusics have difficulties with speech but only with these SUBTLE changes!
speech problems in relation to pitch
Pitch is important to speech
1) Tonal languages (65%) - mandarin, cantonese,thai
2) Intonation: question to statement, convey attitude
3) Speaker Identity
findings of liu
Experiment (Liu et al., 2010) Statement-question discrimination with SUBTLE pitch changes: 1. Natural speech 2. Gliding tones 3. Nonsense speech
Most amusics have difficulties with all 3 tasks – but only with these SUBTLE changes!
amusia behavioural studies findings
• Amusia is associated with wider pattern of difficulties than just tone
pitch perception…but…
• All difficulties have a direct pitch basis
whats going on in the brain?
• Hyde et al. (2006) measured white matter density between
the right frontal and temporal lobes.
- Amusics white matter was thinner = a weaker connection.
- Severity of Amusia = Thinner white matter.
what does amusia show in white matter density and grey matter density
Reduction in white matter in right inferior frontal cortex (Hyde et al., 2006) and increases in gray matter in auditory cortex (Peretz et al., 2005)
Congenital amusia : increase in cortical thickness
• increases in gray matter in auditory cortex (Peretz et al., 2005)
Differences in cortical thickness may have compromised the normal development of right fronto-temporal pathway
what do differences in right inferior frontal gyrus link to
Right superior temporal gyrus differences and right inferior frontal gyrus differences
Right homolog of brocas and wernickes ares
what is the Arcuate fasciculus (AF).Loui et al. (2009)
Tract that connects superior temporal gyrus with inferior frontal gyrus
Amusics - this tract is impaired
what happens to the Arcuate fasciculus in amusics
in 9/10 amusics the right superior arcuate fasciclus was unidentifiable
Amusics thinner - structural changes - information carried through the AF cannot be transmitted the way normal participants transmit this auditory information
Anatomical measures supported functionally
Measured ERPs in amusic participants while they monitored sequences for
the presence of pitch change
all overall impaired in semitones and quartertones
much more impaired then controls
can amusics track quartertones
Amusics can track quarter tone pitch differences, showing an early right- lateralized negative brain response N200 – but they are UNAWARE
track but unaware - unable to report them
what represents quarter tones
N200
what represents semitones
p600
• Lack of responsiveness to semitone changes that violate musical keys,
difference seen in P600 component
amusics do not have
P600 component
what is congenital amusia
• Congenital Amusia is a neurodevelopment disorder that impacts on music
listening (and production)
- Pitch perception problems, especially in rising direction
- Pitch memory weaknesses
- Carry over into subtle speech difficulties
- No spatial difficulties
• Most likely brain origin is a breakdown in pathways that carry pitch based
information from auditory to higher brain processing centres
are there spatial difficulties in congenital amusia
no
music and language share many attributes
Music and language share many attributes: auditory based forms of communication, sensory input evolved over time and in coherent manner
Does the brain use the same circuits to process the grammar of music and language?
SSIRH – shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis (Patel, 2003)
Syntax in language and music share a common set of circuits instantiated in frontal brain regions
Listening to music and speech
Areas in frontal brain regions - important for syntax or the grammar in language and music
Both in left inferior frontal regions
Adjacent regions
is there syntactic overlap between music and language
yes
what happened in syntactic violation (syntax)
The woman paid the baker and take the bread home – P 600
prominent P600 component
what happened in semantic violation
Semantic violation - N400
The woman paid the baker and took the zebra home – N 400
in the music and language task was there syntactic overlap between music and language
The responses are highly similar in the vicinity of 600 ms after the onset of the incongruity
music and language share same resources for processing grammar
do music and language have a common orgigin
Music and language have a common origin – overlapping functions and shared circuitry
Sensitivity to emotion in speech prosody derives from our capacity to process music
forde et al 2012
12 amusics made judgments about emotional expressions of spoken phrases
Music and language share mechanisms that trigger emotional responses
Common evolutionary link between language and music
Emotion is conveyed through the sounds and prosody of language as the statement is neutral
Amusics were significantly impaired on all emotions
Fear - not significant - so old - different cues
music and emotion - eliciting psychological and physiological changes
Music can elicit both psychological (mood) and physiological changes
- the chills effect (shivers, goose bumps, tingling)
music induced emotion
Music induced emotion - euphoria or the chills effects has been shown to recruit reward- motivational circuit: basal forebrain, midbrain, orbitofrontal regions and deactivation in amygdala
Chills to instrumental music
Decrease in amygdala activation – anticipation of the chill, rather than the chill itself
Deactivation in ventral prefrontal cortex and activations in amygdala
Amygdala - negative emotion processing
chills -
Deep & ancient areas: N Acc, Orbitofrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area
Reward system in the brain - dopamine
Instrumental music – abstract, at the same time accessing the same brain areas important for survival
rhythm in culture
In every culture beat has important link to movement: dance, almost involuntarily
what is uniquely human behaviour in relation to music
Uniquely human behavior:
anticipatory (tapping to a metronome – people tap a bit ahead – anticipation)
flexible (tap, clap, double the rate) robust (syncopation)
cross modal (something you hear – movement) auditory (patterns – complex tap – visual pattern – flashes of light – temporal info through eyes – hopeless)- temporal information through ears making us tap not from sight
Beat - Parkinson’s disease – having a regular beat helps them walk
what are the brain structures keeping the beat
Brain structures keeping the beat are motor structures
what does the basal ganglia control
basal ganglia (part of the motor circuit) - time intervals, control sequences of move.
how can only humans keep the beat
Vocal learning: learning to produce and imitate complex sound patterns based on what you hear - arbitrary sound sequence mapping
Grahn & Brett, 2007
how can we move to the beat
A key structure involving timing beats (basal ganglia) is involved in motor control
In vocal learning the same structure creates a strong connection auditory
input and motor output
Chimps can’t move to the beat
Basal ganglia – evolutionary modification for beat perception
how does musical experience affect practice and performance and skill transfer
Auditory perception consequence of dynamic processes involving cortical and subcortical regions, reflecting both bottom-up and top-down processing
Motor cortex - hands
Feedback loop - sound to auditory cortex
Somatosensory cortex - adjust playing
Motor cortex - playing
what are the effects of musical training
baumann et al 2005
Overlap: auditory and motor systems interact closely during both perception and production
when listening and playing - active in auditory Cortex and supplementary motor area
how does musical training effect the brain
Skilled musicians are unique in that they
• Start at a young age
• Spend lots of time on practice
Does musical training lead to a difference in brain functional anatomy?
Ohinishi et al. 2001 compared musicians to non-musicians in a passive (music) listening task
to see differences subtract one image from another
• Differences are in Planum Temporale and Dorsolateral Prefronatal Cortex –
especially on the left side
Differences are in or near speech production and comprehension regions
musicians differ from non-musicians broadly
in broad terms musical training seems to push music processes onto language structures
left lateralisation for musicians
left posterior temporal gyrus - in or near wernickes
left lateral frontal cortex - in or near brocas
is music left lateralised in musicians
More active in musicians
Left lateralised
Even though music vocalisation is more of a right lateralised function
Left lateralisation
Musicians treat music as language
Recognise chords and melodic structures they can name - recruit language comprehension and production
what do musical operations involve in the brain
- Musical operations involve disparate regions of the brain: all lobes and both cortical and subcortical structure
- In particular roles of cerebellum (movement) and amygdala (emotion) are becoming appreciated
what are the components of music
• The components of music (pitch, rhythm, timbre, contour) subserved by distinct neural processing units
does music share some circuitry with spoken language
• Music shares some circuitry with spoken language, yet also involves distinct neural circuits
