Functional network connectivity during Jazz improvisation

Abstract

One of the most complex forms of creativity is musical improvisation where new music is produced in real time. Brain behavior during music production has several dimensions depending on the conditions of the performance. The expression of creativity is suspected to be different whether novel ideas must be externalized using a musical instrument or can be imagined internally. This study explores whole brain functional network connectivity from fMRI data during jazz music improvisation compared against a baseline of prelearned score performance. Given that creativity might be affected by external execution, another dimension where musicians imagine or vocalize the music was also tested. We found improvisation was associated with a state of weak connectivity necessary for attenuated executive control network recruitment associated with a feeling of “flow” allowing unhindered musical creation. In addition, elicited connectivity for sensorimotor and executive control networks is not different whether musicians imagine or externalize (through vocalization) musical performance.

Brain-to-brain communication during musical improvisation: a performance case study

“…Improvising jazz musicians experience weaker connectivity in pre-frontal areas during musical improvisation, compared to performing pre-learned segments. 80 Studies in the literature resembling our findings regarding gamma band activity in music related processes have been reported; expert musicians exhibit neural synchronization between multiple cortical areas in the gamma band 81 and left hemispheric gamma synchrony while listening to music 82 while such patterns are not observed for non-musicians. Inter-brain synchronization in the theta/alpha amplitudes between temporal and lateral-parietal regions has also been described during speech-rhythm coordination in.…”

Hodological organization of spoken language production and singing in the human brain

“…Both tasks used in the study mitigate the confound of working memory on language production, allowing us to focus on the production of language (main outcome in the study). However, it must be borne in mind that the tasks are not identical in the two domains (speech, singing) and a fully comparable singing-based task to the connected spoken language production task would translate coarsely to improvising a novel song which would then necessitate improvising both the lyrics and the melody and would require additional neural resources, tapping into additional interhemispheric as well as right-hemispheric networks involved in acoustic information as well as musical syntactic processing 50 . For these reasons, we did not directly and quantitatively compare the two tasks.…”

The transformative power of music: Insights into neuroplasticity, health, and disease

“…Musical improvisation and music creation is linked to feelings of ‘flow’ arising from a weak activity of the executive control network. The connectivity of sensorimotor and executive control networks does not differ when imagining the performance or performing ( Vergara et al, 2021 ).…”