4 research outputs found
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The neural basis for understanding imitation-induced musical meaning: the role of the human mirror system
Music can convey meanings by imitating phenomena of the extramusical world, and these imitation-induced musical meanings can be understood by listeners. Although the human mirror system (HMS) is implicated in imitation, little is known about the HMS’s role in making sense of meaning that derives from musical imitation. To answer this question, we used fMRI to examine listeners’ brain activities during the processing of imitation-induced musical meaning with a cross-modal semantic priming paradigm. Eleven normal individuals and 11 individuals with congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder of musical processing, participated in the experiment. Target pictures with either an upward or downward movement were primed by semantically congruent or incongruent melodic sequences characterized by the direction of pitch change (upward or downward). When contrasting the incongruent with the congruent condition between the two groups, we found greater activations in the left supramarginal gyrus/inferior parietal lobule and inferior frontal gyrus in normals but not in amusics. The implications of these findings in terms of the role of the HMS in understanding imitation-induced musical meaning are discussed
Does sonification of action simulation training impact corticospinal excitability and audiomotor plasticity?
© The Author(s) 2021. Sonification is a sensory augmentation strategy whereby a sound is associated with, and modulated by, movement. Evidence suggests that sonification could be a viable strategy to maximize learning and rehabilitation. Recent studies investigated sonification of action observation, reporting beneficial effects, especially in Parkinson’s disease. However, research on simulation training—a training regime based on action observation and motor imagery, in which actions are internally simulated, without physical execution—suggest that action observation alone is suboptimal, compared to the combined use of action observation and motor imagery. In this study, we explored the effects of sonified action observation and motor imagery on corticospinal excitability, as well as to evaluate the extent of practice-dependent plasticity induced by this training. Nineteen participants were recruited to complete a practice session based on combined and congruent action observation and motor imagery (AOMI) and physical imitation of the same action. Prior to the beginning, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, one group (nine participants) completed the practice block with sonified AOMI, while the other group (ten participants) completed the practice without extrinsic auditory information and served as control group. To investigate practice-induced plasticity, participants completed two auditory paired associative stimulation (aPAS) protocols, one completed after the practice block, and another one completed alone, without additional interventions, at least 7 days before the practice. After the practice block, both groups significantly increased their corticospinal excitability, but sonification did not exert additional benefits, compared to non-sonified conditions. In addition, aPAS significantly increased corticospinal excitability when completed alone, but when it was primed by a practice block, no modulatory effects on corticospinal excitability were found. It is possible that sonification of combined action observation and motor imagery may not be a useful strategy to improve corticospinal, but further studies are needed to explore its relationship with performance improvements. We also confirm the neuromodulatory effect of aPAS, but its interaction with audiomotor practice remain unclear
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Neurophysiological investigation of auditory augmentation to facilitate observational learning of everyday actions
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThis thesis explores the neurophysiology of auditory augmentation of observed actions, and its
effects on motor learning, neural activity, and plasticity. To this end, three studies were
conducted. In the first study, we used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to determine
the effects of practising a motor task via sonification of combined action observation and motor
imagery (sAOMI) on corticospinal excitability, compared to practising without extrinsic
auditory information. In addition, we aimed at probing practice-dependent audiomotor
plasticity. To this extent we used a variation of a commonly used method to probe and induce
plasticity in humans, auditory paired associative stimulation (aPAS). Practice significantly
increased corticospinal excitability, but sonification did not affect it. In addition, while aPAS
completed alone significantly modulated corticospinal excitability, when practice primed
aPAS, no neuromodulation was found. In a follow-up study, we explored the effects of sAOMI
on corticospinal excitability during action observation (AO) or AOMI of the same action, and
whether sonification induced audiomotor resonance, which is usually interpreted as
development of an audiomotor association. The results corroborated and extended the findings
of the previous study: practice increased corticospinal excitability at rest and during AO and
AOMI, but sonification did not affect it. In addition, with sonification did not induce an
audiomotor association. In a third study, we used electroencephalography (EEG) and other
psychophysical measures, including a motor imagery questionnaire and mental chronometry,
to assess changes resulting from practising with sonified action observation, followed by motor
imagery of the same action. After two practice sessions, performance and kinaesthetic motor
imagery vividness significantly improved, and participants’ mental chronometry was
significantly more aligned with the speed of the observed action, compared to pre-practice
measures. Sonification did not induce changes in any measure. EEG analysis revealed that
participants who practised with sonification were able to sustain event-related
desynchronization (ERD) in the lower alpha band (7-10 Hz) for longer, compared to
participants who practices without sonification. No changes in higher alpha (10-12 Hz) or Beta
(16-25 Hz) bands were found. Taken together, convergent results from this thesis suggest that
sonified action observation has little effect on neurophysiological and behavioural markers of
motor imagery ability and performance in healthy individuals. On the other hand, practising
with sonified action observation may induce attentional modulations that enhance the learner’s
ability to sustain action-related attentional processing for longer. We discuss these results in
the context of contemporary neurocomputational theories of perception and action