It's time for some music

Music is a multifunctional and strong stimulus that activates large neuronal networks. Further, performing musical activities requires the integration of several sources of information, like reading notes, playing the instrument, and perceiving the auditory feedback. In particular listening to rhythmic music activates not only the auditory system but also the motor system. Of increasing clinical interest is the discovery that learning to play a music instrument can cause neuroplastic changes in the brain, also in the adult brain. All these different aspects of music are in the focus of this project. Using a new experimental design and advanced analysis strategies, the connection between the auditory and motor system has been demonstrated and confirmed by the first functional neuroimaging. Participants were listening to dance-floor-like music, which particularly increased the functional connectivity between areas of the frontal cortex and the motor system. In addition, it has been observed that the reward system is stimulated just by listening to the music. A second, ongoing study, using electro-encephalography (EEG), demonstrated a synchronisation between neuronal activity and rhythmic auditory stimulation. This indicates that music is able to generate neuronal activity that is synchronised with the rhythm. Following this lead, the corresponding study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), explores this relationship on much more deeper, anatomical level. Through the inclusion of patients, suffering from Parkinson's disease, the underlying mechanisms are subject of this multi-modal study, since some these patients show a disturbed processing av rhythm. A third, just completed study focuses on possible therapeutical application of music. Therefore, a group of healthy, adult participants, as well as a group of patients with traumatic brain injury, learned to play piano, over a period of eight weeks. The results indicate specific cognitive improvements in the patient group, as examined with neuropsychological testing and functional neuroimaging. The results point to functional and structural changes within the frontal lobe, especially in areas related to cognitive control and social interaction. A fourth, almost completed study explores the relationship between viewing movie scenes and background music with respect to emotional responses. First results indicate strong interaction between, on the one hand, happy and sad music, and, on the other hand, romantic or farewell scenes. Perceiving those scenes and music seem to involve a distributed network, not only involved in emotion processing but also social interaction and third person perspectives.

Music has become an everyday part of our life, since we are surrounded by it at many different places and during many different occasions. But does it also influence us, perhaps even without letting us recognising it? For investigating these questions, st ate of the art neuroimaging methods will be used, such as combined EEG-fMRI recordings, multivariate analysis techniques, and the already established dynamic "sound morphing" stimulation technique, in combination with behavioural measures. There will be t wo lines of research. The first line of studies will target the aspect of time, i.e. how music affects our perception of time(-flow), as well as how the brain is perceiving and processing temporal aspects of music, such as rhythm. These studies comprise t heoretical approaches such as the ?mental clock?, presumably located in the cerebellum, as well as the idea of an individually preferred rhythm, triggering activations within several brain areas, outside of the auditory system. The second line of studies will focus on the content of music, especially the aspect of culturally flavoured music. It is known that music contains both culturally influenced and universal aspects, with emotional valence being one example for a more universal component. Therefore, participants will be exposed to culturally familiar and unfamiliar music while collecting behavioural as well as brain responses. It is expected to be able to separate general brain responses to music from those deeply coded ? like the mother tongue ? and emotionally more valuable music. It is assumed that these unique responses to individual rhythms and unique, mother-tongue like responses to culturally bounded music exist and thus the results of Brain&Music will fundamentally improve our understanding o f the origin of music. This will give us a more holistic insight into how our brain perceives music, how it influences our experiences, and how the cultural background shapes the processing and perception of music.