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Translational Brain Mapping at the University of Rochester Medical Center: Preserving the Mind Through Personalized Brain Mapping

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Published on: August 12, 2019

Are left fronto-temporal brain areas a prerequisite for normal music-syntactic processing?

Daniela Sammler¹, Stefan Koelsch, Angela D Friederici

¹Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. sammler@cbs.mpg.de

Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior

|June 24, 2010

Summary

Broca's area, crucial for language, is also vital for processing musical syntax. Lesions in this brain region impair music structure detection, suggesting a domain-general role for syntax processing.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Music Cognition
Electrophysiology

Background:

Neuroimaging suggests language areas are involved in music syntax processing.
The prerequisite role of these areas for normal music syntax processing remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if lesions in Broca's area or left anterior temporal lobe impair music syntax processing.
To determine if Broca's area is a prerequisite for normal music syntax processing.

Main Methods:

Electrophysiological experiment using a chord sequence paradigm.
Examined Early Right Anterior Negativity (ERAN) in patients with Broca's area (N=6) or left anterior temporal lobe (N=7) lesions compared to controls (N=13).

Main Results:

Patients with left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) lesions showed abnormal ERAN distribution and subtle behavioral deficits in detecting music-syntactic irregularities.
One IFG patient 7 months post-stroke had an extinguished ERAN and chance-level performance.

Conclusions:

The left IFG plays a functional role in processing musical syntax.
Broca's area supports syntax processing in a domain-general manner, applicable to both language and music.