Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
Sci Rep. 2020 Mar 6;10(1):4207. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61044-9.
Induced beta-band power modulations in auditory and motor-related brain areas have been associated with automatic temporal processing of isochronous beats and explicit, temporally-oriented attention. Here, we investigated how explicit top-down anticipation before upcoming tempo changes, a sustained process commonly required during music performance, changed beta power modulations during listening to isochronous beats. Musicians' electroencephalograms were recorded during the task of anticipating accelerating, decelerating, or steady beats after direction-specific visual cues. In separate behavioural testing for tempo-change onset detection, such cues were found to facilitate faster responses, thus effectively inducing high-level anticipation. In the electroencephalograms, periodic beta power reductions in a frontocentral topographic component with seed-based source contributions from auditory and sensorimotor cortices were apparent after isochronous beats with anticipation in all conditions, generally replicating patterns found previously during passive listening to isochronous beats. With anticipation before accelerations, the magnitude of the power reduction was significantly weaker than in the steady condition. Between the accelerating and decelerating conditions, no differences were found, suggesting that the observed beta patterns may represent an aspect of high-level anticipation common before both tempo changes, like increased attention. Overall, these results indicate that top-down anticipation influences ongoing auditory beat processing in beta-band networks.
听觉和运动相关脑区的诱导β频带功率调制与等时节拍的自动时间处理以及明确的、面向时间的注意力有关。在这里，我们研究了在音乐演奏过程中经常需要的、在即将到来的节奏变化之前进行明确的自上而下的预期，如何改变等时节拍听时的β功率调制。在特定方向视觉提示后预期加速、减速或稳定节拍的任务中，记录了音乐家的脑电图。在针对节奏变化起始检测的单独行为测试中，发现这些提示可以加快反应速度，从而有效地诱导高级别预期。在脑电图中，在前额中央顶区有一个与听觉和运动感觉皮层种子相关的源贡献的局部场电位功率降低，在所有条件下都可以在有预期的情况下观察到等时节拍，通常复制了以前在被动听等时节拍时发现的模式。在加速前进行预期时，功率降低的幅度明显小于稳定状态。在加速和减速条件之间，没有发现差异，这表明观察到的β模式可能代表了在两种节奏变化之前都存在的高级别预期的一个方面，例如注意力增加。总的来说，这些结果表明自上而下的预期会影响β频带网络中正在进行的听觉节拍处理。
