Biology subjects

Przysinda, E.

Publications and source records attributed to Przysinda, E..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Stimulating music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties

Background music is widely used to sustain attention, but little is known about what musical properties aid attention. This may be due to inter-individual variability in neural responses to music. We test the hypothesis that music can sustain attention by affecting oscillations via acoustic amplitude modulation, differentially for those with varying levels of attentional difficulty. We first show that heavily-modulated music improves sustained attention for participants with more ADHD symptoms. FMRI showed this music elicited greater activity in attentional networks in this group only, and EEG showed greater stimulus-brain coupling for this group in response to the heavily-modulated music. Finally, we parametrically manipulated the depth and rate of amplitude modulations inserted in otherwise-identical music, and found that beta-range modulations helped more than other frequency ranges for participants with more ADHD symptoms. Results suggest the possibility of an oscillation-based neural mechanism for targeted music to support improved cognitive performance.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Improvising at Rest: Differentiating Jazz and Classical Music Training with Resting State Functional Connectivity

Jazz improvisation offers a model for creative cognition, as it involves the real-time creation of a novel, information-rich product. Previous research has shown that when musicians improvise, they recruit regions in the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Executive Control Network (ECN). Here, we ask whether these findings from task-fMRI studies might extend to intrinsic differences in resting state functional connectivity. We compared Improvising musicians, Classical musicians, and Minimally Musically Trained (MMT) controls in seed-based functional connectivity and network analyses in resting state functional MRI. We also examined the functional correlates of behavioral performance in musical improvisation and divergent thinking. Seed-based analysis consistently showed higher connectivity in ventral DMN (vDMN) and bilateral ECN in both groups of musically trained individuals as compared to MMT controls, with additional group differences in primary visual network, precuneus network, and posterior salience network. In particular, primary visual network connectivity to DMN and ECN was highest in Improvisational musicians, whereas within-network connectivity of vDMN and precuneus network was higher in both Improvisational and Classical musicians than in MMT controls; in contrast, connectivity between posterior salience network and superior parietal lobule was highest in Classical musicians. Furthermore, graph-theoretical analysis indicated heightened betweenness centrality, clustering, and local efficiency in Classical musicians. Taken together, results suggest that heightened functional connectivity among musicians can be explained by higher within-network connectivity (more tight-knit cortical networks) in Classical musicians, as opposed to more disperse, globally-connected cortical networks in Improvisational musicians.\n\nHighlightsO_LIMusic training is associated with higher resting state connectivity\nC_LIO_LIHigher connectivity in Improvisational musicians from visual network to ECN and DMN\nC_LIO_LIClassical musicians show higher vDMN and Precuneus within-network connectivity\nC_LIO_LIImprovisation and divergent thinking performance correlate with similar connectivity patterns\nC_LI

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

White Matter Connectivity Reflects Success in Musical Improvisation

Creativity is the ability to produce work that is novel, high in quality, and appropriate to an audience. One domain of creativity comes from musical improvisation, in which individuals spontaneously create novel auditory-motor sequences that are aesthetically rewarding. Here we test the hypothesis that individual differences in creative behavior are subserved by mesial and lateral differences in white matter connectivity. We compare jazz improvising musicians against classical (non-improvising) musicians and non-musician control subjects in musical performance and diffusion tensor imaging. Subjects improvised on short musical motifs and underwent DTI. Statistical measures of fluency and entropy for musical performances predicted expert ratings of creativity for each performance. Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) showed higher Fractional Anisotropy (FA) in the cingulate cortex and corpus callosum in jazz musicians. FA in the cingulate also correlated with entropy. Probabilistic tractography from these mesial regions to lateral seed regions of the arcuate fasciculus, a pathway known to be involved in sound perception and production, showed mesial-to-lateral connectivity that correlated with improvisation training. Results suggest that white matter connectivity between lateral and mesial structures may integrate domain-general and domain-specific components of creativity.

neuroscience↗