Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

Appendix 3.03 Survey of The Neurosciences

and Music III Conference 2008

Disorders and Plasticity

Title, Category

Aim

Mus. Material, Cultural Ref.

Technology & Procedure

Main focus of interest

Conclusion

64S

. Pet

ersen et al.

(437

-440)

Musical ear training after cochlear implantation

Cat. 10. Training

Cat. 11: Deficit 65S

. Särkämö et al.
(442

-445)

Amusia and cognitive defects after stroke

Cat. 11: Deficit

To evaluate the behavioral and neurologic effects of musical ear training

on

Cochlear Implant (CI) users’ speech and music pe

rception

.

3 and 6 months training in playing, singing,

and

listening

To study the relationship between

musical and

cognitive deficits by testing Middle Cerebral Arterial (MCA) stroke

patients

for

amusia and for

memory,

verbal and visuospatial abilities

Test stimuli: Melodies in pure tones f3 to c5. Rhythm patterns: Sampled sound of cowbell for ”call”, woodblock sound for ”response” in same/different task

CR: Western

Test material:

A shortened

version of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA): Subtests of scale, contour, interval, rhythm, meter, and memory

.

Synthesized piano tones

CR: Western

Speech tests: 1. repeat

words

correctly. 2. identify ”sad” or ”happy” sentenc

es.

Music tests :

1. Melody and

rhy

thm. 2. Pitch

-ranking.

3. Timbre recognition 53 patients were studied

1

week after stroke. On the basis of their performance on the MBE

A scale and rhythm

subtests, 32

were classified

as

amusic and 21 as non

• 
  

amusic. Plus

examination

using an extensive neuro

• 
  

psychological testing battery

PET scanning to detect regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in auditory brain areas with relation to music and speech. Scan and test procedures before training, and

after 3 and 6 months

Amusics’ deficits in executive functioning, working memory and learnin

g, verbal

expression and comprehension, and visuospatial cognition and attention

The goal is to find and work out musical methods to improve CI users’ auditory capabilities and, in a l

onger

perspective, provide a strategy for improving speech understanding

Acquired amusia is a common deficit after an acute MCA stroke

in the left or right hemi

• 
  

sphere, esp. if it affects

the

frontal lobe

and auditory

cortex.

Domain

-general

attention, executive, and working memory proce

sses

are associated with amusia

Part VII. Music, Language, and Motor Programming: A Common Neural Organization?

(66

-76)

Title, Category

Aim

Mus. Material, Cultural Ref.

Technology & Procedure

Main focus of interest

Conclusion

66. Fadiga et al.
    (448

-458)

Broca’s area in language, action, and music

Cat. 17: Sensory

-motor

67. Patel et al.

(459

-469)

Synchronization to musical beat in animals

Cat. 4: Meter Cat. 17: Sensory

-motor

To review research show

ing

that the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) are activated for tasks other than language production

To discuss: What kind of animals can synchronize to musical rhythms,

and what

are the key m

ethodological

issues for resea

rch in this

area?

No particular musical material

CR:

---

Reference to the author’s experiment with a

cockatoo

bird which exhibits genuine synchronization to a musical beat at several different musical tempi CR: Neutral

Review of literature. 87 references

Review of literature. 49 references

The involvement of IFG and PMv in language compre

• 
  

hension, action execution and observation, and music execution and listening. Pos

sible relationship to mirror

neu

ron syst

em.

Hypothesis: Beat Perception and S

ynchronization

(BPS)

builds on the brain circuitry for vocal learning. i.e.

learning to

produce co

mplex acoustic

communication signals based on imitation

Broca’s area (the posterior part of the IFG) may be a center of

a brain network

encoding hierarchic

al

structures regardless of their use in action

,

language and music

The study of animal synchro

• 
  

nization to music may have broader signifiance, e.g. for the understanding of Parkinson’s disease, because BPS has a powerful impact on the human motor system