Dataset Information

Prefrontal High Gamma in ECoG Tags Periodicity of Musical Rhythms in Perception and Imagination.

ABSTRACT: Rhythmic auditory stimuli are known to elicit matching activity patterns in neural populations. Furthermore, recent research has established the particular importance of high-gamma brain activity in auditory processing by showing its involvement in auditory phrase segmentation and envelope tracking. Here, we use electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings from eight human listeners to see whether periodicities in high-gamma activity track the periodicities in the envelope of musical rhythms during rhythm perception and imagination. Rhythm imagination was elicited by instructing participants to imagine the rhythm to continue during pauses of several repetitions. To identify electrodes whose periodicities in high-gamma activity track the periodicities in the musical rhythms, we compute the correlation between the autocorrelations (ACCs) of both the musical rhythms and the neural signals. A condition in which participants listened to white noise was used to establish a baseline. High-gamma autocorrelations in auditory areas in the superior temporal gyrus and in frontal areas on both hemispheres significantly matched the autocorrelations of the musical rhythms. Overall, numerous significant electrodes are observed on the right hemisphere. Of particular interest is a large cluster of electrodes in the right prefrontal cortex that is active during both rhythm perception and imagination. This indicates conscious processing of the rhythms' structure as opposed to mere auditory phenomena. The autocorrelation approach clearly highlights that high-gamma activity measured from cortical electrodes tracks both attended and imagined rhythms.

SUBMITTER: Herff SA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7405071 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul/Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Prefrontal High Gamma in ECoG Tags Periodicity of Musical Rhythms in Perception and Imagination.

Herff S A SA Herff C C Milne A J AJ Johnson G D GD Shih J J JJ Krusienski D J DJ

eNeuro 20200731 4

Rhythmic auditory stimuli are known to elicit matching activity patterns in neural populations. Furthermore, recent research has established the particular importance of high-gamma brain activity in auditory processing by showing its involvement in auditory phrase segmentation and envelope tracking. Here, we use electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings from eight human listeners to see whether periodicities in high-gamma activity track the periodicities in the envelope of musical rhythms during r ...[more]

PMID: 32586843

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Project description:The strong association between music and speech has been supported by recent research focusing on musicians' superior abilities in second language learning and neural encoding of foreign speech sounds. However, evidence for a double association--the influence of linguistic background on music pitch processing and disorders--remains elusive. Because languages differ in their usage of elements (e.g., pitch) that are also essential for music, a unique opportunity for examining such language-to-music associations comes from a cross-cultural (linguistic) comparison of congenital amusia, a neurogenetic disorder affecting the music (pitch and rhythm) processing of about 5% of the Western population. In the present study, two populations (Hong Kong and Canada) were compared. One spoke a tone language in which differences in voice pitch correspond to differences in word meaning (in Hong Kong Cantonese, /si/ means 'teacher' and 'to try' when spoken in a high and mid pitch pattern, respectively). Using the On-line Identification Test of Congenital Amusia, we found Cantonese speakers as a group tend to show enhanced pitch perception ability compared to speakers of Canadian French and English (non-tone languages). This enhanced ability occurs in the absence of differences in rhythmic perception and persists even after relevant factors such as musical background and age were controlled. Following a common definition of amusia (5% of the population), we found Hong Kong pitch amusics also show enhanced pitch abilities relative to their Canadian counterparts. These findings not only provide critical evidence for a double association of music and speech, but also argue for the reconceptualization of communicative disorders within a cultural framework. Along with recent studies documenting cultural differences in visual perception, our auditory evidence challenges the common assumption of universality of basic mental processes and speaks to the domain generality of culture-to-perception influences.

Dataset Information

Prefrontal High Gamma in ECoG Tags Periodicity of Musical Rhythms in Perception and Imagination.

Publications

Prefrontal High Gamma in ECoG Tags Periodicity of Musical Rhythms in Perception and Imagination.

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