title: Tunes stuck in your brain: The frequency and affective evaluation of involuntary musical imagery correlate with cortical structure.
abstract: Recent years have seen a growing interest in the neuroscience of spontaneous cognition. One form of such cognition is involuntary musical imagery (INMI), the non-pathological and everyday experience of having music in one's head, in the absence of an external stimulus. In this study, aspects of INMI, including frequency and affective evaluation, were measured by self-report in 44 subjects and related to variation in brain structure in these individuals. Frequency of INMI was related to cortical thickness in regions of right frontal and temporal cortices as well as the anterior cingulate and left angular gyrus. Affective aspects of INMI, namely the extent to which subjects wished to suppress INMI or considered them helpful, were related to gray matter volume in right temporopolar and parahippocampal cortices respectively. These results provide the first evidence that INMI is a common internal experience recruiting brain networks involved in perception, emotions, memory and spontaneous thoughts.
authors.affiliation: Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK. Electronic address: n.farrugia@gold.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Farrugia
authors.affiliation: Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK; Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jakubowski
authors.affiliation: Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada.
authors.forename: Rhodri
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cusack
authors.affiliation: Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stewart
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D009929:Organ Size; D020534:Parahippocampal Gyrus / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Cortical thickness; Imagery; Involuntary; Music; Voxel-based morphometry