Neuromusicology

Effect of music on brain nerves

1. Presentation by : SOURAV DEY ROY BSC.PHYSIOLOGY HONOURS SILIGURI COLLEGE

2. NEUROMUSICOLOGY A BRANCH OF NEUROSCIENCE THAT DEALS WITH EFFECT OF MUSIC ON BRAIN

3. INTRODUCTION It includes brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive process underlying music. These behaviour includes music :listening ,performing, composing, reading and writing. Researchers have incorporated music therapy into attempts to treat behaviour problems and facilitate social learning and it is possible because of neuro-musicology.

4. NEUROLOGICAL BASES ①Pitch-it is the degree of highness or lowness of a tone. Quality of pitch is determined by both auditory cortex: 1) primary auditory cortex -it is tonotopically organised . It is thought to identify music such as pitch and loudness and here lies the pitch centre called “ Heschl’s Gyrus’ 2)secondary auditory cortex -neural activity corresponding to the pitch of individual notes occur over here. This area is correlates with perception i.e., melody processing ( tune diff). The right secondary auditory cortex has finer pitch resolution than the left -concluded by doing fMRI scan........

5. ....CONTINUED ②Rhythm-regular repeated pattern of movement or sound The belt and parabelt region areas of the right hemisphere are involved in processing rhythm. When individual are preparing to tap out a rhythm of regular intervals(1:2 or 1:3) the left frontal cortex ,left parietal cortex and right cerebellum are all activated. With more different rhythm more areas of cerebral cortex and cerebellum are involved.

6. MUSIC PRODUCTION AND PERFORMANCE Motor control function Musical performance usually involves at least three elementary motor control functions. Timing -accuracy is timing of movement is related with musical rhythm and is represented by clock mechanism. Functional neuroimaging studies as well as studies of brain damaged patients have linked movement with cortical,sub cortical,cerebellum,basal ganglia and supplementary motor area(SMA ).........

7. .....continue Sequencing and spatial organisation -it relates to the expression of individual notes on musical instrument such as finger sequence for key presses , on the coordination of multi joint movement. Various cortical and sub cortical regions , including basal ganglia,the SMA and pre-SMA, cerebellum and the premotor and prefrontal cortex are involved in production and learning of motor sequence.

8. Why does the brain responds so strongly to music? One direct suggestion is because it activates at least 6 different pathways to emotions in our brains. - multiple mechanism theory( Juslin & Vastfjall and their co workers in 2008) 1.brain stem reflex: a hard-wired attention response causes by extreme loudness 2.evaluation conditioning: a pairing of music to that with either positive or negative stimuli leading to conditioning association. 3.contagion:doing internal mimicry of the perceived voice like expressions of the music 4.visual imagery: inner image of an emotional character (can be lyrics of the song,or the singer itself)evoked by the listener. 5.epsiodeic memory: a conscious recollection of any event happened with the listeners that is triggered by music( soundtrack of our life) 6.musical expectancy: a gradual unfolding of musical structure and its continuation process( happens when we no longer feel connect with particular music after period of time

9. Music helps in the production of neurotransmitter,cortisol,hormones Serotonin : a neurotransmitter involved in the transmission of nerve impulses that helps maintaining joyous feelings. Released when the brain is “positively shocked" and reduces tension. Dopamine :it is a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal found that dopamine level was 9% higher when volunteers were listening to music they enjoyed. Music decreases plasma conc.of cortisol,epinephrne and t-PA in patients exposed to regional aesthesia. Music also is known to aid in fighting cerebrovascular disease by activation of parasympathetic nervous system , lowering conc of IL-6,TNF,adrenaline and nor adrenaline. Music influences production of of steroids including cortisol,testosterone,estrogen and as well as receptor protein leading to neurogenesis and improves learning on brain. Thus ,psychological mechanisms influence physiological processes.

10. MUSIC AND LANGUAGE Positron Emission Tomography (PET),showed that both linguistic & melodic phrases produce activation in almost identical functional brain areas. These areas include primary motor cortex,SMA,Broca’s area(part of frontal lobe),anterior insula , primary & secondary corticles ,temporal lobe,basal ganglia,ventral thalamus and posterior cerebellum Language processing is a function more of a left brain,but music processing is part of both left and right brain. In a simple sentence,how musical tone are perceived varies by the influence of language.

11. MUSICAL Vs NON-MUSICAL PROCESSING STRUCTURAL DIFFERENCE Brain structure of musicians and non-musicians is distinctly different. Gaser and Schlaug(2003 ),compared the brain structure and found gray matter vol.difference in motor areas, auditory and visual spatial brain regions, anterior superior parietal areas and in inferior temporal gyrus bilaterally. This difference are not innate but acquired by rehearsal of musical skills. FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENCE Brains of musicians also shows functional difference from those of non-musicians . Krings and his co workers utilised fMRI to study brain area involvement of professional pianists by performing complex finger movement.......

12. ...CONTINUED They found that professional piano player showed lower level of cortical activation in motor areas of the brain. It was concluded that lesser amount of neurons needed to be activated for the piano players due to long term motor practice which results in different cortical activation pattern. Same result was found in keyboard players. In a nutshell, person who plays musical instrument has greater motor function because less neuron is needed to activate cortical areas.

13. GENDER DIFFERENCE Minor neurological difference regarding hemisphere processing exist between males & females. Koelsch,Maess,Grossman and Friederici (2003 ) investigated music through EEG and ERPs and discovered gender differences. It was concluded that ,females process music from both left & right hemisphere(bilaterally),but males perceive music from right hemisphere(lateralised) From the above conclusion, interesting thing to look is males finds it easier to focus on musical activity for longer period of time(eg.,90 min of music lesson) whereas, females are more generalised and want more variety and find it challenging to prepare for one specific performances.

14. MUSIC AND EMOTIONS Emotion induced by music activate similar frontal brain regions compared to emotions elicited by other stimuli. It was found by EEG that many limbic system of brain act differently, when a pleasant music is played and pleasurable experience called ‘chill’ is felt. Limbic system- amygdala,hypothalamus,hippocampus,nucleus accumbens and critical areas of cortex including insula,lingula and orbitofrontal cortex is activated which causes the flow of emotion either by ........continued

15. Core emotion networks Amygdala : the amygdala has three layers of neurons. It is the centre of much of the brain activity related to emotional. It responds to especially –happy music Nucleus accumbens :the NA is highly correlated with pleasure and is responsible for the chills and shivers-skin i.e.., goose bumps that occurs with scintillating music.NA is highly connected to many other brain regions-higher and lower hypothalamus. All this regions are related with pleasure from music. Hippocampus: it produces no responses of reward from food,sex and money, but it is highly connected with music such as happy,sad,painful,chills and fearful.

16. treatment Neuromusicology aid in treatment of diseases like Parkinson,Alzheimer’s,traumatic brain injury. It also helpful in curing Aphasia(impairment in the use of language because of damage in cerebral cortex),verbal Apraxia(impairment in the planning of speech) and Dysarthria (impairment of speech articulation caused by any disorder affecting the tongue or vocal muscle.

17. Reference/bibliography 1.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/congenital _neuroscience_of music. 2.www.slideshare.com 3.www.youtube.com(NCCIH)

18. THANKYOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!!