title: Musical groove modulates motor cortex excitability: a TMS investigation.
abstract: Groove is often described as a musical quality that can induce movement in a listener. This study examines the effects of listening to groove music on corticospinal excitability. Musicians and non-musicians listened to high-groove music, low-groove music, and spectrally matched noise, while receiving single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the primary motor cortex either on-beat or off-beat. We examined changes in the amplitude of the motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), recorded from hand and arm muscles, as an index of activity within the motor system. Musicians and non-musicians rated groove similarly. MEP results showed that high-groove music modulated corticospinal excitability, whereas no difference occurred between low-groove music and noise. More specifically, musicians' MEPs were larger with high-groove than low-groove music, and this effect was especially pronounced for on-beat compared to off-beat pulses. These results indicate that high-groove music increasingly engages the motor system, and the temporal modulation of corticospinal excitability with the beat could stem from tight auditory-motor links in musicians. Conversely, non-musicians' MEPs were smaller for high-groove than low-groove music, and there was no effect of on- versus off-beat pulses, potentially stemming from suppression of overt movement. In sum, high-groove music engages the motor system, and previous training modulates how listening to music with a strong groove activates the motor system.
authors: Research Group Music Cognition and Action, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Stupacher
authors: Michael J
authors: MJ
authors: Hove
authors: Giacomo
authors: G
authors: Novembre
authors: Simone
authors: S
authors: Schütz-Bosbach
authors: Peter E
authors: PE
authors: Keller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D004576:Electromyography; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D009146:Music; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000502:physiology*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation