Discerning the functional networks behind processing of music and speech through human vocalizations

Abstract

Musicality refers to specific biological traits that allow us to perceive, generate and enjoy music. These abilities can be studied at different organizational levels (e.g., behavioural, physiological, evolutionary), and all of them reflect that music and speech processing are two different cognitive domains. Previous research has shown evidence of this functional divergence in auditory cortical regions in the superior temporal gyrus (such as the planum polare), showing increased activity upon listening to music, as compared to other complex acoustic signals. Here, we examine brain activity underlying vocal music and speech perception, while we compare musicians and non-musicians. We designed a stimulation paradigm using the same voice to produce spoken sentences, hummed melodies, and sung sentences; the same sentences were used in speech and song categories, and the same melodies were used in the musical categories (song and hum). Participants listened to this paradigm while we acquired functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI). Different analyses demonstrated greater involvement of specific auditory and motor regions during music perception, as compared to speech vocalizations. This music sensitive network includes bilateral activation of the planum polare and temporale, as well as a group of regions lateralized to the right hemisphere that included the supplementary motor area, premotor cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus. Our results show that the simple act of listening to music generates stronger activation of motor regions, possibly preparing us to move following the beat. Vocal musical listening, with and without lyrics, is also accompanied by a higher modulation of specific secondary auditory cortices such as the planum polare, confirming its crucial role in music processing independently of previous musical training. This study provides more evidence showing that music perception enhances audio-sensorimotor activity, crucial for clinical approaches exploring music based therapies to improve communicative and motor skills.

Distinct functional levels of human voice processing in the auditory cortex

“…The PPo is associated with many sound processing functions, such as pitch chroma ( Warren et al. 2003 ) and melodic aspects of human vocalizations ( Angulo-Perkins and Concha 2019 ). Unlike the PPo, the very anterior and posterior regions of STC are assumed to be higher-order association areas, especially for the multimodal integration of social information ( Kreifelts et al.…”

The Neural Basis of Tonal Processing in Music: An ALE Meta-Analysis

“…Contrasting a scale with a non-scale condition is thus one way to reveal tonality-specific brain regions. Studies that have directly contrasted music with non-musical functions like speech have revealed the importance of the aSTG bilaterally for music (Angulo-Perkins et al, 2014; Angulo-Perkins & Concha, 2019).…”

“…It is important to note that our tonality meta-analysis did not show a cluster in the right temporal lobe, except for a right pSTG cluster that emerged when the cluster-forming threshold was reduced beyond the standard threshold of p < 0.001. Nevertheless, studies that have directly contrasted music with speech highlight the importance of the bilateral aSTG for music (Angulo-Perkins et al, 2014; Angulo-Perkins & Concha, 2019), and a study on pitch-based hierarchical structure building reported activation in the right pSTG (Martins et al, 2020). Thus, the specificity of the right temporal lobe for higher-level tonal processing needs further clarification, despite the well-established role of this area in low-level pitch processing for music (Zatorre et al, 1994, 1992).…”

“…For music, Brown et al's (2004) production study of singing found that the aSTG was the main area present when melodic singing was contrasted with monotone chanting. Angulo-Perkins et al (2014) and Angulo-Perkins and Concha (2019) directly compared the perception of song to the perception of speech, and found evidence of music specificity in the aSTG bilaterally. This effect was stronger in trained musicians than in non-musicians (see also Boebinger et al, 2021).…”

Quality standards and recommendations for research in music and neuroplasticity

“…For our study, 89 articles 47–132 were extracted from the Google Scholar and PubMed databases using the keywords “neuroplasticity,” “brain changes,” “music,” and “sound.” Based on these keywords, we included all articles that were published in 2019, written in English, and peer‐reviewed. The sample included both quantitative and qualitative studies.…”