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Paper Detail

Paper: PS-2B.35
Session: Poster Session 2B
Location: Symphony/Overture
Session Time: Friday, September 7, 19:30 - 21:30
Presentation Time:Friday, September 7, 19:30 - 21:30
Presentation: Poster
Publication: 2018 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, 5-8 September 2018, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Paper Title: Music selectivity in the cortex is independent of extensive musical training
Manuscript:  Click here to view manuscript
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32470/CCN.2018.1143-0
Authors: Dana Boebinger, Harvard University, United States; Sam Norman-Haignere, Ecole Normale Superieure, France; Josh McDermott, Nancy Kanwisher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
Abstract: Speech and music perception are core functions of the human auditory system, but we know very little about the neural systems that process these complex auditory signals. While speech selectivity is an established feature of non-primary auditory cortex, clear neural selectivity for music has only recently been demonstrated (Norman-Haignere, Kanwisher, & McDermott, 2015). Here we ask whether music selectivity in the cortex requires extensive musical training, or whether it is present even in individuals with minimal musical training. To answer this question, we scanned 10 people with extensive musical training and 10 with almost none, and used the voxel decomposition methods of Norman-Haignere et al. (2015) to test whether the magnitude or anatomical extent of music- selective neural populations is influenced by musical training. Overall, we found no major differences in the patterns of fMRI responses to music stimuli between musicians and non-musicians, suggesting that music selectivity in the brain is not dependent on extensive musical training. These data raise the possibility that music selective brain responses could be a universal property of human auditory cortex.