Differential effects of ageing on the neural processing of speech and singing production

Nella Moisseinen; Teppo Särkämö; Jaakko Kauramäki; Boris Kleber; Aleksi J Sihvonen; Noelia Martínez-Molina

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2023.1236971

Differential effects of ageing on the neural processing of speech and singing production

Front Aging Neurosci. 2023 Sep 4:15:1236971. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1236971. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Nella Moisseinen¹, Teppo Särkämö¹, Jaakko Kauramäki¹, Boris Kleber², Aleksi J Sihvonen^{1

3

4}, Noelia Martínez-Molina^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and the Brain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
² Centre for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
³ School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Centre for Clinical Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
⁵ Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Centre for Brain and Cognition, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

Background: Understanding healthy brain ageing has become vital as populations are ageing rapidly and age-related brain diseases are becoming more common. In normal brain ageing, speech processing undergoes functional reorganisation involving reductions of hemispheric asymmetry and overactivation in the prefrontal regions. However, little is known about how these changes generalise to other vocal production, such as singing, and how they are affected by associated cognitive demands.

Methods: The present cross-sectional fMRI study systematically maps the neural correlates of vocal production across adulthood (N=100, age 21-88 years) using a balanced 2x3 design where tasks varied in modality (speech: proverbs / singing: song phrases) and cognitive demand (repetition / completion from memory / improvisation).

Results: In speech production, ageing was associated with decreased left pre- and postcentral activation across tasks and increased bilateral angular and right inferior temporal and fusiform activation in the improvisation task. In singing production, ageing was associated with increased activation in medial and bilateral prefrontal and parietal regions in the completion task, whereas other tasks showed no ageing effects. Direct comparisons between the modalities showed larger age-related activation changes in speech than singing across tasks, including a larger left-to-right shift in lateral prefrontal regions in the improvisation task.

Conclusion: The present results suggest that the brains' singing network undergoes differential functional reorganisation in normal ageing compared to the speech network, particularly during a task with high executive demand. These findings are relevant for understanding the effects of ageing on vocal production as well as how singing can support communication in healthy ageing and neurological rehabilitation.

Keywords: ageing; fMRI; hemispheric laterality; language; music; vocal production.