[Lyrical and musical auditive mental imagery in functional MRI]

to explore with functional MRI cerebral areas involved in musical and lyrical sounds signal processing with the mental imagery method.

and

nine volunteers (mean age: 27 years old) underwent functional MRI with BOLD contrast at 1.5 T. Box-car paradigms of partial recollections of musical or lyrical memories tasks were performed. Statistical correlations mappings were calculated and superimposed on previously realigned anatomical reference imaging to observe activated cerebral areas.

all except one subjects had activation areas in primary and secondary auditive cortices in the temporal Heschl gyrus and the Planum Temporale, unilaterally (n=2) or bilaterally (n=6) during both mental tasks. Contralateral activation improvement was observed in 4 cases when the lyrical tasks were performed. Temporal and insular regions involved in language processing were observed in eight of nine subjects.

auditive mental imagery can show in functional MRI cerebral areas involved in auditive functions and some of the areas involved in language processing.