title: Differential parietal and temporal contributions to music perception in improvising and score-dependent musicians, an fMRI study.
abstract: Using fMRI, cerebral activations were studied in 24 classically-trained keyboard performers and 12 musically unskilled control subjects. Two groups of musicians were recruited: improvising (n=12) and score-dependent (non-improvising) musicians (n=12). While listening to both familiar and unfamiliar music, subjects either (covertly) appraised the presented music performance or imagined they were playing the music themselves. We hypothesized that improvising musicians would exhibit enhanced efficiency of audiomotor transformation reflected by stronger ventral premotor activation. Statistical Parametric Mapping revealed that, while virtually 'playing along׳ with the music, improvising musicians exhibited activation of a right-hemisphere distribution of cerebral areas including posterior-superior parietal and dorsal premotor cortex. Involvement of these right-hemisphere dorsal stream areas suggests that improvising musicians recruited an amodal spatial processing system subserving pitch-to-space transformations to facilitate their virtual motor performance. Score-dependent musicians recruited a primarily left-hemisphere pattern of motor areas together with the posterior part of the right superior temporal sulcus, suggesting a relationship between aural discrimination and symbolic representation. Activations in bilateral auditory cortex were significantly larger for improvising musicians than for score-dependent musicians, suggesting enhanced top-down effects on aural perception. Our results suggest that learning to play a music instrument primarily from notation predisposes musicians toward aural identification and discrimination, while learning by improvisation involves audio-spatial-motor transformations, not only during performance, but also perception.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, P.O. Box 30.001, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands; BCN Neuroimaging Center, University of Groningen, A. Deusinglaan 2, 9713AW Groningen, The Netherlands; Prince Claus Conservatoire, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Veemarktstraat 76, 9724 GA Groningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: r.i.harris@pl.hanze.nl.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, P.O. Box 30.001, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands; BCN Neuroimaging Center, University of Groningen, A. Deusinglaan 2, 9713AW Groningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: b.m.de.jong@umcg.nl.
authors.forename: Bauke M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: de Jong
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007858:Learning; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000098:blood supply; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply*; D011361:Professional Competence; D011930:Reaction Time; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Audiomotor transformation; Aural perception; Music improvisation; Parietal cortex; Premotor cortex; Score-dependency