Limitations of techniques
Brain images produced by the fMRI technique display distinctions between activated and non-acti-
vated brain regions. These distinctions are based on comparisons of a large number of very small
brain areas, defined as voxels. According to statistics theory, the calculations underlying brain im-
aging have to be corrected for multiple comparisons. In the NM II papers, nine fMRI studies report
correction for multiple comparisons (no. 13, 16, 21, 22, 33, 38, 41, 42, 50). Another seven studies do
not report corrections (no. 7, 9, 12, 17, 12, 39, 43, 51).^14
3.3 The Neurosciences and Music III: Disorders and Plasticity
Conference in Montreal 2008, publication 2009
The themes of the 2008 conference were the following:
I. Rhythms in the Brain: Basic Science and Clinical Perspectives
II. Normal and Impaired Singing
III. Music Training and Induced Cortical Plasticity
IV. Musical Memory: Music is Memory
V. Emotions and Music: Normal and Disordered Development
VI. Listening to and Making Music Facilitates Brain Recovery Processes
VII. Music, Language, and Motor Programming: A Common Neural Organization?
VIII. New Directions: Cochlear Implants
A survey of the papers published in the conference proceedings: Annals of the New York Academy
of Sciences 2009, Vol. 1169, is provided in appendix 3.03, pp. The survey indicates the aim of each
study, its musical material and cultural references, its technology and procedure, and the main focus
and conclusion of the study.
3.3.1. A selection of papers in NM III 2008
This paragraph summarizes noteworthy papers from the 2008 conference. Similar to the papers of
the previous conference, the categories of investigation are grouped as follows:
Neural correlates of sound.
Culture, development, and training.
Deficits, disorders, therapy, and recovery.
Attention and memory.
Embodiment, motion, and emotion.
Neural correlates of sound
Auditory brain stem response
Kraus et al. (NM III No. 79, pp. 543-557) report studies of the auditory brain stem response from
the Kraus laboratory. They point out that pitch, timbre and timing have distinct subcortical represen-
tations. These acoustic properties of the sound are reflected by the auditory brain stem response
(ABR), which is considered a reliable and highly replicable far-field potential recorded from surface
electrodes placed on the scalp. Their studies suggest that the brain stem processing is not merely a
14 The reliability of studies based on uncorrected statistics, the limitations of the fMRI technique, and the interpretation of
fMRI studies remain topics of discussion (Logan & Rowe 2004, 2008; Logothetis 2008)