Cross-modal music integration in expert memory: Evidence from eye movements

The study investigated the cross-modal integration hypothesis for expert musicians using eye tracking. Twenty randomized excerpts of classical music were presented in two modes (auditory and visual), at the same time (simultaneously) or successively (sequentially). Musicians (N = 53, 26 experts and 27 non-experts) were asked to detect a note modified between the auditory and visual versions, either in the same major/minor key or violating the key. Experts carried out the task faster and with greater accuracy than non-experts. Sequential presentation was more difficult than simultaneous (longer fixations and higher error rates) and the modified notes were more easily detected when violating the key (fewer errors), but with longer fixations (speed/accuracy trade-off strategy). Experts detected the modified note faster, especially in the simultaneous condition in which cross-modal integration may be applied. These results support the hypothesis that the main difference between experts and non-experts derives from the difference in knowledge structures in memory built over time with practice. They also suggest that these high-level knowledge structures in memory contain harmony and tonal rules, arguing in favour of cross-modal integration capacities for experts, which are related to and can be explained by the long-term working memory (LTWM) model of expert memory (e.g. Drai-Zerbib & Baccino, 2014; Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995)

Audition, learning and experience: expertise through development

Our experience with the auditory world can shape and modify perceptual, cognitive and neural processes with respect to audition. Such experience can occur over multiple timescales, and can vary in its specificity and intensity. In order to understand how auditory perceptual, cognitive and neural processes develop, it is important to explore the different means through which experience can influence audition. This thesis aims to address these issues. Using an expertise framework, we explore how the auditory environment and ontogenetic factors can shape and guide perceptual, cognitive and neural processes through long- and short-term profiles of experience. In early chapters, we use expertly-trained musicians as a model for long-term experience accrued under specific auditory constraints. We find that expertise on a particular instrument (violin versus piano) yields training-specific auditory perceptual advantages in a musical context, as well as improvements to ‘low-level’ auditory acuity (versus non-musicians); yet we find limited generalisation of expertise to cognitive tasks that require some of the skills that musicians hone. In a subsequent chapter, we find that expert violinists (versus non-musicians) show subtle increases in quantitative MR proxies for cortical myelin at left auditory core. In latter chapters, we explore short-term sound learning. We ask whether listeners can learn combinations of auditory cues within an active visuo-spatial task, and whether development can mediate learning of auditory cue combinations or costs due to cue contingency violations. We show that auditory cue combinations can be learned within periods of minutes. However, we find wide variation in cue learning success across all experiments, with no differences in overall cue combination learning between children and adults. These experiments help to further understanding of auditory expertise, learning, development and plasticity, within an experience-based framework

Auditory but Not Audiovisual Cues Lead to Higher Neural Sensitivity to the Statistical Regularities of an Unfamiliar Musical Style

It is still a matter of debate whether visual aids improve learning of music. In a multisession study, we investigated the neural signatures of novel music sequence learning with or without aids (auditory-only: AO, audiovisual: AV). During three training sessions on 3 separate days, participants (nonmusicians) reproduced (note by note on a keyboard) melodic sequences generated by an artificial musical grammar. The AV group (n = 20) had each note color-coded on screen, whereas the AO group (n = 20) had no color indication. We evaluated learning of the statistical regularities of the novel music grammar before and after training by presenting melodies ending on correct or incorrect notes and by asking participants to judge the correctness and surprisal of the final note, while EEG was recorded. We found that participants successfully learned the new grammar. Although the AV group, as compared to the AO group, reproduced longer sequences during training, there was no significant difference in learning between groups. At the neural level, after training, the AO group showed a larger N100 response to lowprobability compared to high-probability notes, suggesting an increased neural sensitivity to statistical properties of the grammar; this effect was not observed in the AV group. Our findings indicate that visual aids might improve sequence reproduction while not necessarily promoting better learning, indicating a potential dissociation between sequence reproduction and learning. We suggest that the difficulty induced by auditory-only input during music training might enhance cognitive engagement, thereby improving neural sensitivity to the underlying statistical properties of the learned material

Degree of Musical Expertise Modulates Higher Order Brain Functioning

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show for the first time that levels of musical expertise stepwise modulate higher order brain functioning. This suggests that degree of training intensity drives such cerebral plasticity. Participants (non-musicians, amateurs, and expert musicians) listened to a comprehensive set of specifically composed string quartets with hierarchically manipulated endings. In particular, we implemented 2 irregularities at musical closure that differed in salience but were both within the tonality of the piece (in-key). Behavioral sensitivity scores (d′) of both transgressions perfectly separated participants according to their level of musical expertise. By contrasting brain responses to harmonic transgressions against regular endings, functional brain imaging data showed compelling evidence for stepwise modulation of brain responses by both violation strength and expertise level in a fronto-temporal network hosting universal functions of working memory and attention. Additional independent testing evidenced an advantage in visual working memory for the professionals, which could be predicted by musical training intensity. The here introduced findings of brain plasticity demonstrate the progressive impact of musical training on cognitive brain functions that may manifest well beyond the field of music processin

Music in the brain

Music is ubiquitous across human cultures — as a source of affective and pleasurable experience, moving us both physically and emotionally — and learning to play music shapes both brain structure and brain function. Music processing in the brain — namely, the perception of melody, harmony and rhythm — has traditionally been studied as an auditory phenomenon using passive listening paradigms. However, when listening to music, we actively generate predictions about what is likely to happen next. This enactive aspect has led to a more comprehensive understanding of music processing involving brain structures implicated in action, emotion and learning. Here we review the cognitive neuroscience literature of music perception. We show that music perception, action, emotion and learning all rest on the human brain’s fundamental capacity for prediction — as formulated by the predictive coding of music model. This Review elucidates how this formulation of music perception and expertise in individuals can be extended to account for the dynamics and underlying brain mechanisms of collective music making. This in turn has important implications for human creativity as evinced by music improvisation. These recent advances shed new light on what makes music meaningful from a neuroscientific perspective

Audition, learning and experience: expertise through development

Our experience with the auditory world can shape and modify perceptual, cognitive and neural processes with respect to audition. Such experience can occur over multiple timescales, and can vary in its specificity and intensity. In order to understand how auditory perceptual, cognitive and neural processes develop, it is important to explore the different means through which experience can influence audition. This thesis aims to address these issues. Using an expertise framework, we explore how the auditory environment and ontogenetic factors can shape and guide perceptual, cognitive and neural processes through long- and short-term profiles of experience. In early chapters, we use expertly-trained musicians as a model for long-term experience accrued under specific auditory constraints. We find that expertise on a particular instrument (violin versus piano) yields training-specific auditory perceptual advantages in a musical context, as well as improvements to ‘low-level’ auditory acuity (versus non-musicians); yet we find limited generalisation of expertise to cognitive tasks that require some of the skills that musicians hone. In a subsequent chapter, we find that expert violinists (versus non-musicians) show subtle increases in quantitative MR proxies for cortical myelin at left auditory core. In latter chapters, we explore short-term sound learning. We ask whether listeners can learn combinations of auditory cues within an active visuo-spatial task, and whether development can mediate learning of auditory cue combinations or costs due to cue contingency violations. We show that auditory cue combinations can be learned within periods of minutes. However, we find wide variation in cue learning success across all experiments, with no differences in overall cue combination learning between children and adults. These experiments help to further understanding of auditory expertise, learning, development and plasticity, within an experience-based framework

Pitch Imitation Ability in Mental Transformations of Melodies

Previous research suggests that individuals with a vocal pitch imitation deficit (VPID, a.k.a. poor-pitch singers ) experience less vivid auditory images than accurate imitators (pfordresher & halpern, 2013), based on self-report. in the present research we sought to test this proposal directly by having accurate and VPID imitators produce or recognize short melodies based on their original form (untransformed), or after mentally transforming the auditory image of the melody. For the production task, group differences were largest during the untransformed imitation task. importantly, producing mental transformations of the auditory image degraded performance for all participants, but were relatively more disruptive to accurate than to VPID imitators. These findings suggest that VPID is due partly to poor initial imagery formation, as manifested by production of untransformed melodies. By contrast, producing a transformed mental image may rely on working memory ability, which is more equally matched across participants. This interpretation was further supported by correlations with self-reports of auditory imagery and measures of working memory