Lu Ching-I, Greenwald Margaret, Lin Yung-Yang, Bowyer Susan M
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States.
Department of Neurology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2022 May 16;16:866256. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.866256. eCollection 2022.
Musical transposing is highly demanding of working memory, as it involves mentally converting notes from one musical key (i.e., pitch scale) to another key for singing or instrumental performance. Because musical transposing involves mental adjustment of notes up or down by a specific amount, it may share cognitive elements with arithmetical operations of addition and subtraction. We compared brain activity during high and low working memory load conditions of musical transposing versus math calculations in classically trained musicians. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was sensitive to differences of task and working memory load. Frontal-occipital connections were highly active during transposing, but not during math calculations. Right motor and premotor regions were highly active in the more difficult condition of the transposing task. Multiple frontal lobe regions were highly active across tasks, including the left medial frontal area during both transposing and calculation tasks but the right medial frontal area only during calculations. In the more difficult calculation condition, right temporal regions were highly active. In coherence analyses and neural synchrony analyses, several similarities were seen across calculation tasks; however, latency analyses were sensitive to differences in task complexity across the calculation tasks due to the high temporal resolution of MEG. MEG can be used to examine musical cognition and the neural consequences of music training. Further systematic study of brain activity during high versus low memory load conditions of music and other cognitive tasks is needed to illuminate the neural bases of enhanced working memory ability in musicians as compared to non-musicians.
音乐移调对工作记忆要求很高，因为它涉及在脑海中将音符从一个音乐调（即音高标度）转换到另一个调以便演唱或乐器演奏。由于音乐移调涉及将音符在音高上向上或向下进行特定量的心理调整，它可能与加减法的算术运算共享认知元素。我们比较了在经过古典音乐训练的音乐家进行音乐移调与数学计算的高工作记忆负荷条件和低工作记忆负荷条件下的大脑活动。脑磁图（MEG）对任务和工作记忆负荷的差异很敏感。在移调过程中，额枕连接高度活跃，但在数学计算过程中则不然。在移调任务较困难的条件下，右侧运动和运动前区高度活跃。多个额叶区域在各项任务中都高度活跃，包括在移调和计算任务期间左侧内侧额叶区域活跃，但右侧内侧额叶区域仅在计算期间活跃。在较困难的计算条件下，右侧颞叶区域高度活跃。在相干分析和神经同步分析中，在各项计算任务中发现了一些相似之处；然而，由于MEG的高时间分辨率，潜伏期分析对计算任务中任务复杂性的差异很敏感。MEG可用于研究音乐认知以及音乐训练的神经后果。需要进一步系统研究音乐和其他认知任务在高记忆负荷条件与低记忆负荷条件下的大脑活动，以阐明与非音乐家相比音乐家工作记忆能力增强的神经基础。
