Neural Basis of Processing Temporal Structure in Music

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Dr. Vinod Menon, with funding from the National Science Foundation, and with his collaborator at McGill University, Dr. Daniel Levitin, is studying how the temporal structure in music is processed in the human brain. His work extends to investigating the neural underpinnings of pattern perception in general. His project is designed to extend earlier promising work on important theoretical issues related to music processing. The research methods include behavioral measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The project takes into account that simply knowing where an operation occurs in the brain is not necessarily useful. The present series of investigations, however, is designed in such a way that knowing where processing occurs in the brain may elucidate the more interesting questions of what is being processed in the brain, and how this processing occurs. Evidence from neuroanatomical studies can inform and constrain theories of cognition. Dr. Menon's project builds on his previous observation that Brodmann Area 47 in the Inferior Frontal Cortex (IFC) is responsible for processing structure in music, as well as spoken and sign language. This raises the intriguing possibility that this region instantiates a general purpose "temporal organization module." Accordingly, the specific aims of the proposed research are to: (1) extend his previous musical structure study with a new group of subjects so as to (a) obtain a more precise localization of temporal processing functions and (b) investigate similarities and differences in IFC and temporal lobe response and connectivity for familiar and unfamiliar music; (2) Manipulate the level of expectation present in the musical stimuli, in an effort to provide additional evidence for the syntactic operations subserved by the IFC; and (3) Examine the differential effects of variation in pitch and rhythm structure on brain responses in, and connectivity of, the IFC and the auditory cortex. Findings will be relevant to theories of modularity of mental function, temporal coherence, pattern perception, music cognition, and brain organization. This research will contribute to understanding the neural architecture supporting music and auditory perception and cognition in humans.The broader impacts include strong involvement of students, including undergraduates, doctoral, and postdoctoral scholars. The project is multidisciplinary, bringing together two different groups of researchers, one trained in classical cognitive psychology, and the other trained in cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging.. Findings can help to better understand prefrontal and temporal cortex dysfunction in neurological and psychiatric disorders.