Change in left inferior frontal connectivity with less unexpected harmonic cadence by musical expertise

PLoS One. 2019 Nov 12;14(11):e0223283. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223283. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

In terms of harmonic expectancy, compared to an expected dominant-to-tonic and an unexpected dominant-to-supertonic, a dominant-to-submediant is a less unexpected cadence, the perception of which may depend on the subject's musical expertise. The present study investigated how aforementioned 3 different cadences are processed in the networks of bilateral inferior frontal gyri (IFGs) and superior temporal gyri (STGs) with magnetoencephalography. We compared the correct rate and brain connectivity in 9 music-majors (mean age, 23.5 ± 3.4 years; musical training period, 18.7 ± 4.0 years) and 10 non-music-majors (mean age, 25.2 ± 2.6 years; musical training period, 4.2 ± 1.5 years). For the brain connectivity, we computed the summation of partial directed coherence (PDC) values for inflows/outflows to/from each area (sPDCi/sPDCo) in bilateral IFGs and STGs. In the behavioral responses, music-majors were better than non-music-majors for all 3 cadences (p < 0.05). However, sPDCi/sPDCo was prominent only for the dominant-to-submediant in the left IFG. The sPDCi was more strongly enhanced in music-majors than in non-music-majors (p = 0.002, Bonferroni corrected), while the sPDCo was vice versa (p = 0.005, Bonferroni corrected). Our data show that music-majors, with higher musical expertise, are better in identifying a less unexpected cadence than non-music-majors, with connectivity changes centered on the left IFG.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Adult
  • Auditory Perception
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetoencephalography
  • Male
  • Music*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Seoul National University Research Grant in 2018. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.