L4 - Music and the brain

Question 1

role of outer ear

Answer 1

Pinnae and ear canal

amplifies certain frequencies, important for locating sounds

Question 2

role of middle ear

Answer 2

malleus, incus and stapes

converts airborne vibrations to liquid borne vibrations

Question 3

role of inner ear

Answer 3

cochlea and semicircular canals (SCC)

important for senses of both hearing (cochlear) and balance (SCC)
converts liquid-borne vibrations to neural impulses.

Question 4

pure tones

Answer 4

sounds with a sinusoid waveform (when pressure change is plotted against time)

Question 5

pitch

Answer 5

the perceived property of sounds that enables them to be ordered from low to high

Question 6

loudness

Answer 6

the perceived intensity of the sound

Question 7

fundamental frequency

Answer 7

the lowest frequency component of a complex sound that determines the perceived pitch

Question 8

from ear to brain

Answer 8

outer - middle - inner

4-5 synapses from ear to cortex

• medial geniculate nucleus projects to the primary auditory cortex (also called core)
• core area is surrounded by secondary auditory cortex (including belt and parabelt)
• info ascends nd descends in the pathway

Question 9

organisation of the auditory nerve and auditory cortex

Answer 9

tonotopic

Question 10

primary and secondary auditory cortex

Answer 10

• primary located in Heschl’s gyrus in the temporal lobes and is surrounded by adjacent secondary auditory cortex area
• secondary made up of planum polare and planum temporal (belt and parabelt?)

Question 11

the membrane in the cochlear…

Answer 11

basilar membrane

Question 12

mechanical properties of the basilar membrane:

Answer 12

the end nearest the oval window is narrow and stiffer - so maximal deflection to high-frequency sounds

the end nearest the spiral shape is wider and more elastic and shows maximal deflection to low-frequency sounds.

Question 13

neuroanatomy of music

Answer 13

prefrontal cortex: activated when the note is unexpected

motor cortex: important for playing and dancing music

cerebellum: important for balance and dancing and emotional reaction to music

Question 14

belt and parabelt regions

Answer 14

make up the secondary audiotyr cortical areas

belt region: has many projects from primary auditory cortex
parabelt region: received projections from adjacent belt region

Question 15

auditory versus visual system (thalamocortical route)

Answer 15

auditory : medial geniculate nucleus projects to primary audtory cortex

visual : lateral geniculate nucleus projects to primary visual cortex

Question 16

auditory versus visual system: temporal and spatial sensitivity

Answer 16

auditory: temporal > spatial
visual: spatial > temporal

Question 17

neurons in the core/belt regions

Answer 17

in the core - neurons respond to narrowly defined frequencies

in the belt regions - neurons to a broader range

Question 18

what do neurons in the auditory cortex respond to:

Answer 18

Respond to:

• frequnecy
• loudness
• spatial locations

Question 19

the basilar membrane contains:

Answer 19

hair cells linked to receptors

• sound induces mechanical movement of the basilar membrane and hair cells on it
• these movements induce a flow of ions through STRECTH-SENSITIVE ION CHANNELS

Question 20

musical development

Answer 20

newborn: percieve and remember pitch sequences, percieve a beat, sensitivity to contour, preference for consonance

4-6 years - respond to TONAL more then atonal music

7 years - sensitive to rules of harmony

10 years - understand finer aspects of key structure

12 years - develop tastes and recognition fo sytles

Question 21

mozart effect

Answer 21

• claims that people perfom better on tests of spatial abilities after listening to music composed by Mozart
• evidence been found for the effect being an artifact of arousal and mood

Question 22

congenital amusia

Answer 22

• this is a lifelong disease where you cannot tell the difference between two tones (no pitch perception)
• difficulty in eprceiving, making sens of music
• ‘tone-deafness
• associated with R Hemispher abnormalities in white and gray matter desntiy in R auditory cortex and IFG

e.g. Hyde et al 2006 found: reduced white matter in right IFG

Peretz et al 2005: increased grary mater in auditory cortex

Question 23

amusia

Answer 23

• unaware when music off key
• difficulty dscriminating melodies without lyrics
• disliking of musical sounds and avoidance
• no spatial difficulties

Question 24

pitch perception problems in amusia (Foxton et al 2004)

Answer 24

• many amuics have problems telling whether melody goes up or down - affects small changes which are often used in music (semitones)
• problems with pitch direction

Question 25

speech problem (Liu et al 2010)

Answer 25

- most have difficutlies with speech but only with subtle changes - have problems with contour pitch is important - most languages are tonal intonation (questions?) speaker identity

Question 26

pitch memory problems in amusia (Williamson and Stewart, 2010)

Answer 26

``` tone span (how many tones can you remember) digit span (similar test) ``` - amusics have issues

Question 27

anatomical measures supported functionally

Answer 27

Peretz et al 2009: - ERPs measured in amusic Ps whilst they monitored sequences for pitch changes - difference seen in P600 component - amusics can track quarter tone pitch differences, showing an early right-laterized neg brain response N200 (but UNAWARE)

Question 28

shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis

Answer 28

Patel 2003 - does the brain use the same circuits to process grammar of music and language?

Question 29

syntactic overlap between music and language

Answer 29

Patel, 1998 The woman paid the baker and TAKE the bread home – P 600 The woman paid the baker and TOOK the zebra home – N 400 - violation in syntax = took not take - violation in semantic = why is zebra in bakery found: responses are hgihlighy similar in vicinity of 600ms following incongruity - overlap at p600 = music and language share same resources for processing grammar

Question 30

What did Thompson Forde et al 2012 find

Answer 30

- music and language share mechanisms that trigger emotional responses - common evolutionary link of language and music

Question 31

the chills effect

Answer 31

musicc can elicit physchological (MOOD) and physiological changes (SHIVERS, GOOSE BUMPS, TINGLING) music induced emotion - euphoria or the chills effects has been shown to recruit reward motivational circuit: basal forebrain, midbrain, OFC regions and DEACTIVATE amygdala

Question 32

brain areas associated wtih chills

Answer 32

nucleus accumbens, orbitofrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area

Question 33

why do we move to the beat?

Answer 33

basal gangia - has an evolutionary modifcation for beat perception

Question 34

musical expertise

Answer 34

- auditory perception consequence of dynamic processes involving cortical and subcortcial regions - reflecting bottom-up and top-down processing

Question 35

effect of musical training

Answer 35

- motor cortex activvated - auditory cortex activated (even if cannot hear) - therefore must be an overlap - interacting closely (Baumann et al 2005)

Question 36

how do musicians differ from non-musicians

Answer 36

- differnces observed in PLANUM TEMPORAL and DORSOLATERAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX (specifically on left) - left laterisation fo musicians - left posterior temporal gyrus (near Wernickes) - left lateral frontal cortex (in or near Brocas)

Question 37

inter-aural time differnce

Answer 37

differnce in timign between a soudn arriving in each ear (used to localise sounds)

Question 38

inter-aural itnensity difference

Answer 38

the differnce in loiduness between a sound arriving in each ear (used to localise sound)

Question 39

head-related transfer function

Answer 39

an internal model of sounds get distorted by the unique shape of one's own head and ears