{"id":1206,"date":"2021-01-16T21:23:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T21:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicianscience.org\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2021-01-17T01:58:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T01:58:45","slug":"brain-attending-to-alto-line-of-a-bruckner-motet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicianscience.org\/index.php\/brain-attending-to-alto-line-of-a-bruckner-motet\/","title":{"rendered":"Images of brain attending to alto line of a Bruckner motet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Title of paper under discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activated brain regions in musicians during an ensemble: a PET study<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masayuki Satoh, Katsuhiko Takeda, Ken Nagata, Jun Hatazawa, Shigeki Kuzuhara<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cognitive Brain Research, 12 (2001), pp101\u2013108<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link to paper<\/a> (free access)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many different ways of listening to music, for instance with attention directed toward the harmony as a whole, or honing in on one particular line within the score. Prof Satoh and colleagues recruited music students from Akita University, Japan to investigate if such different modes of listening involved different patterns of activity in the brain. Whilst playing Bruckner motets through participants\u2019 earphones and directing them either to pay attention to the overall harmony or solely to the alto line within the score, the researchers took images of their listening brains.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When concentrating on the alto line, blood flow increased to four brain regions – superior parietal lobules, precunei, premotor areas and orbitofrontal cortices – areas associated with attention and analysis. Concentrating on the harmony as a whole stimulated increased blood flow to four different regions – temporal poles, anterior cingulate gyrus, occipital cortex and medial cerebellum – areas associated with music perception and recognition.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above: Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896)<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Method<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine music students were injected with radioactive tracers and asked to lie down in a PET (positron emission tomography) scanner. Three four-part Bruckner motets, pre-recorded by a pianist, were played through their earphones as their brains were being scanned, and the participants were asked to perform two tasks in turn as they listened: 1) Harmony-listening task – \u201clisten to the harmony as a whole, and if you hear a minor chord make a sign with the index finger of your right hand\u201d and 2) Alto-part-listening task – \u201clisten to and concentrate on the alto line; if you hear the tonic or dominant note in that line then make a sign with the index finger of your right hand\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each experiment was ordered thus: Motet one, task 1 then task 2; Motet two, task 1 then task 2; Motet three, task 1 then task 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example of the tasks illustrated by an excerpt of one of the motets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above – Excerpt from Bruckner Motet. In task A (Harmony-listening condition) students listened to harmony as a whole, identifying minor chords (m). In task B (Alto-line condition) they attended to the alto line, identifying tonic and dominant (d) notes<\/em><\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our music students did well in the tasks (recognising minor chords; recognising tonic or dominant in the alto line) responding correctly around 70% of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brain imaging during those tasks is presented in reverse order, task 2 then task 1. The \u2018brain activity map\u2019 for task 2 (below) highlights those regions that are significantly more active during alto-part-listening as compared with during harmony-listening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above: activation maps for alto-line listening (compared with harmony-listening). The five views of the brain are: ‘ll’ = lateral surface of left hemisphere, ‘lm’ = medial surface of left hemisphere, ‘rl’ =- lateral surface of right hemisphere, ‘rm’ = medial surface of right hemisphere, ‘up’ = upper surface of whole brain<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking at these scans (and all will be explained in the ‘discussion’ below), brain anatomists identified that \u201cthe alto-part-listening condition produced increases in blood flow in bilateral [both sides of the brain] superior parietal lobules, bilateral precunei, bilateral pre-motor areas and bilateral orbital frontal cortices, compared with the harmony-listening condition\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brain activity map for task 1 (below), in contrast, highlights those regions that are significantly more active during harmony-listening as compared with during alto-part-listening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above: activation maps for harmony-listening (compared with alto-line listening). The five views of the brain are as in previous figure.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Revealed here is \u201csignificantly greater activation\u201d in \u201cbilateral temporal poles, bilateral cingulate gyri, bilateral occipital cortices and medial surface of bilateral cerebellum\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alto-line listening<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four brain regions \u2018lit up\u2019 as the students were concentrating on the alto line; from previous research each area is known to be associated either with \u2018paying attention\u2019 or \u2018analysing\u2019. These regions are, in turn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n