Mapping the contents of consciousness during musical imagery
Mor Regev, Andrea R. Halpern, Adrian M. Owen, Aniruddh D. Patel, Robert J. Zatorre
bioRxiv Preprint Server November 20, 2020 preprint DOI: 10.1101/2020.11.20.391375 via bioRxiv
Summary
When people imagine music they have previously memorized, the brain's auditory cortices show melody-specific activity patterns similar to those during actual listening. Functional MRI data from participants who memorized six one-minute instrumental pieces revealed that during silent imagery, these patterns reappeared in right associative auditory cortices. Adding rhythmic tapping while imagining extended the melody-specific neural patterns to both left and right associative cortices. The findings suggest that the contents of conscious auditory experience are encoded similarly during imagery and perception, and that rhythmic motion can enhance the reinstatement of neural patterns associated with complex sounds, supporting models of motor-to-sensory influences in auditory processing.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational cohort |
|---|---|
| Key finding | During imagery, melody-specific temporal response patterns were reinstated in right associative auditory cortices, and rhythmic tapping extended these patterns to associative cortices bilaterally. |
Abstract
Humans can internally represent auditory information without an external stimulus. When imagining music, how similar are unfolding neural representations to those during the original perceived experience? Can rhythmic motion influence the neural representation of music during imagery as during perception? Participants first memorized six one-minute-long instrumental musical pieces with high accuracy. Functional MRI data were collected during: 1) silent imagery of melodies to the beat of a visual metronome; 2) same but while tapping to the beat; and 3) passive listening. During imagery, inter-subject comparison showed that melody-specific temporal response patterns were reinstated in right associative auditory cortices. When tapping accompanied imagery, the melody-specific neural patterns were extended to associative cortices bilaterally. These results indicate that the specific contents of conscious experience are encoded similarly during imagery and perception in the dynamic activity of auditory cortices. Furthermore, rhythmic motion can enhance the reinstatement of neural patterns associated with the experience of complex sounds, in keeping with models of motor to sensory influences in auditory processing.