by my colleagues and me in four recent neuroimaging and neurological studies of music
performance, perception, and comprehension. These investigations were attempts to elucid-
ate the neural subsystems supporting major components of music—specifically, pitch,
melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, meter, and duration.
Functional neuroanatomy of musical performance
Our first experiment focused on musical expression or performance. This experiment, con-
ducted in collaboration with Peter Fox, Donald Hodges, and Justine Sergent, attempted to
clarify and extend a pioneering functional neuroimaging study of right-handed piano per-
formance of a sight-read musical score.^15 In this early study, positron emission tomo-
graphy (PET) was used to measure regional cerebral blood flow, an index of neural activity, in
performing pianists. Among the main findings of this study was the observation that cor-
tical areas distinct from, but adjacent to, those underlying language operations were activ-
ated during sight-reading. The relationship between music and language has continued to
be a target of fruitful investigations.16–20
In our study, which built upon the foregoing results, we used PET to study bimanual
piano performance of memorized music.^21 By recording brain activity when both hands
were equally and concurrently producing music, we examined neural systems in both cereb-
ral hemispheres when the left and right sides were fully involved in performance. In the
prior study, although the score was read with both eyes and piano output was heard with
both ears, only the right hand performed the music. This feature of the study left unclear
which particular right hemispheric areas may be involved in music performance.
In addition, by eliminating musical score reading from scanned task performance, we
examined brain activation during a more purely musical performance. Sight-reading a
score during performance adds an additional cognitive load not directly related to music
per se. Indeed, there is a strong belief among musicians that a fully memorized piece, one
performed without score reading, engenders a distinctly deeper understanding of the
music and more satisfying realization of the piece in performance.
We furthermore contrasted brain activity during the piano performance of a musical
piece by J. S. Bach with that during the two-handed performance of scales. Our intent was
to reveal the outline of brain areas that are specifically involved in the cognitive, perceptual,
and emotional representation and performance of effective, strongly engaging music per se.
The Bach and scales performances here required movements of nearly comparable fre-
quency and complexity from each hand. (However, the Bach required somewhat more
complicated, finely controlled fingering than the scales, and we expected this to be reflected
in different patterns of activity when Bach and scales brain states were directly contrasted.)
After giving informed consent, eight right-handed professional musicians participating
in three PET conditions performed three times in pseudorandom order (Figure 17.1). In
the Bach condition, the third movement of the Italian Concerto (BMV 971) was performed
from memory. Scales were executed synchronously (from memory) with both hands at a
pace approximating that of the Bach performance. Subjects performed on a full-sized
Yamaha P-132 electronic piano and heard the sounds they produced. In all conditions,
subjects’ eyes were closed and covered.
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