title: Silent music reading: auditory imagery and visuotonal modality transfer in singers and non-singers.
abstract: In daily life, responses are often facilitated by anticipatory imagery of expected targets which are announced by associated stimuli from different sensory modalities. Silent music reading represents an intriguing case of visuotonal modality transfer in working memory as it induces highly defined auditory imagery on the basis of presented visuospatial information (i.e. musical notes). Using functional MRI and a delayed sequence matching-to-sample paradigm, we compared brain activations during retention intervals (10s) of visual (VV) or tonal (TT) unimodal maintenance versus visuospatial-to-tonal modality transfer (VT) tasks. Visual or tonal sequences were comprised of six elements, white squares or tones, which were low, middle, or high regarding vertical screen position or pitch, respectively (presentation duration: 1.5s). For the cross-modal condition (VT, session 3), the visuospatial elements from condition VV (session 1) were re-defined as low, middle or high "notes" indicating low, middle or high tones from condition TT (session 2), respectively, and subjects had to match tonal sequences (probe) to previously presented note sequences. Tasks alternately had low or high cognitive load. To evaluate possible effects of music reading expertise, 15 singers and 15 non-musicians were included. Scanner task performance was excellent in both groups. Despite identity of applied visuospatial stimuli, visuotonal modality transfer versus visual maintenance (VT>VV) induced "inhibition" of visual brain areas and activation of primary and higher auditory brain areas which exceeded auditory activation elicited by tonal stimulation (VT>TT). This transfer-related visual-to-auditory activation shift occurred in both groups but was more pronounced in experts. Frontoparietal areas were activated by higher cognitive load but not by modality transfer. The auditory brain showed a potential to anticipate expected auditory target stimuli on the basis of non-auditory information and sensory brain activation rather mirrored expectation than stimulation. Silent music reading probably relies on these basic neurocognitive mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Germany. Electronic address: christian.hoppe@ukb.uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hoppe
authors.affiliation: Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Splittstößer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fliessbach
authors.affiliation: Life & Brain Center, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Trautner
authors.affiliation: Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Germany; Life & Brain Center, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Elger
authors.affiliation: Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Germany; Life & Brain Center, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Germany; Center for Economics and Neuroscience, University of Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weber
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009146:Music; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011932:Reading; D063346:Singing / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Mental imagery; Modality transfer; Music reading; Musical expertise; Working memory