Monitoring Music Processing of Harmonic Chords using fMRI: Comparison between Professional Musicians and Amateurs

I. Huang1, C. Chen1, F. Wang1, H. Chung1, C. Chen2

1

Dept. of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, 2Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan

Synopsis In this study, perception of harmonic relationship was studied using fMRI. Professional musicians and amateurs participated in two different harmony experiments: identifying simple triads name and distinguishing triads from non-harmonic chords, respectively. Brocas area (BA44, 45) is shown to be related to these two tasks. Also, a left hemisphere lateralization was observed on professional musicians when dealing with chords. Introduction In previous investigations utilizing different neuroimaging techniques such as PET and fMRI, temporal and frontal lobes were found to be involved in the processing of individual music components, for instance, melody, rhythm, and chord [1,2]. It was also claimed by some researchers that brain responses were lateralized to left hemisphere when processing language while right lateralization was observed as processing music. However the relationship between lateralization and music processing strategy that varies among different groups like professions and amateurs remains unclear. In this study, fMRI was used to explore the neural correlates of music chords processing in professional musicians and amateurs. In addition, the lateralization of brain responses was also compared. Subjects and Methods Auditory stimuli of harmonic and non-harmonic chords were randomly played and delivered using headphone to subjects in the scanner. e.g. Harmonic chords (C major triads) and non-harmonic chords. For the naming task, subjects with informed consent were asked to name the harmonic chords among a sequence of randomly ordered harmonic and non-harmonic chords. For the distinguishing task, subjects only needed to verify individually if the chord is harmonic. 6 and 7 professional musicians (all females, ages 23.43.0 and 22.73.0) undertook the distinguishing and naming experiments, respectively, while 10 (6 females and 4 males, ages 29.46.3) serious amateurs took the distinguishing task, and one (male, age 24) of them also accepted the naming task. All subjects are right-handed. A box-car paradigm and sparse temporal sampling [3] of 8 s time intervals were employed. Multi-slice EPI sequence was performed on a 1.5T scanner (Siemens Vision+) with the following parameters: TE=66ms, FOV=384mm, Matrix size=128x128,slice thickness=7mm, 12 slices with acquisition time=2 s. Following motion correction, smoothing (FWHM 6x6x14 mm3) and spatial normalization, grouped data were analyzed using SPM99. Areas of significant activation are reported for p (corrected) <0.05. Results and Discussion Activated cortices are listed in Table 1 ordered by Brodmanns areas. Total activated area numbers showed that the professional musicians with long-term training have left lateralized music processing. On the contrary, the amateurs utilize both hemispheres to manage the stimuli. Fig. 1 demonstrates the lateralization difference of averaged group data at the same slice on z=16mm of Talairach and Tournouxs system. Brocas area (BA44 and 45) is also shown at this position. Although BA44 and 45 were activated in both groups, note that the activation area of BA44 and 45 on the left hemisphere is larger for professional musicians. While the difference between professional musicians and amateurs is formal music training, it may explain the activated area shift from right to left hemisphere when comparing the results of professions and amateurs [4]. In addition, it is possible that the naming task means more of analyzing triads than distinguishing task, and formal music training means learning more about how to analyze music rather than naturally perceiving it. However, since volunteers of amateurs seldom can name triads, the reason of lateralization shift by training needs more cases to verify. References 1.Parsons LM, Ann NY Acad Sci 930:211-31,2001. 2.Koelsch S et al., NeuroImage 17:956-66,2002. 3.Hall DA et al., HBM 7:213-23,1999. 4.Ohnishi T et al., Cerebral Cortex 11:754-760,2001. Table 1. The activations of four experiments ordered by Brodmanns area. Note that the well-trained professional musicians are shown to have left lateralized processing of harmonic chords. The amateurs do not show this tendency explicitly.

Fig. 1. Distinguishing of professions, naming of professions, distinguishing of amateurs, and naming of amateurs are shown from left to right. Note that the activation area of BA44 and 45 (red arrows) on the left side is larger than the right in profession but not amateur cases.

Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 11 (2003)

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