Exploring Frequency-Dependent Brain Networks from Ongoing EEG Using Spatial ICA During Music Listening

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Music Psychology

Background:

• Exploring brain activity during naturalistic stimuli like music is challenging due to low signal-to-noise ratios in brain data.
• While fMRI and EEG/MEG have studied the listening brain, the role of neural rhythms in brain network activity during naturalistic stimuli remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the involvement of neural rhythms in brain network activity during music listening.
• To explore the interplay between spatial and spectral patterns of brain networks engaged by music.
• To identify frequency-dependent oscillatory patterns associated with musical feature processing.

Main Methods:

• Utilized ongoing electroencephalography (EEG) and musical feature analysis during free music listening.
• Employed a data-driven approach combining music information retrieval with spatial Fourier Independent Components Analysis (spatial Fourier-ICA).
• Correlated EEG-derived brain network time courses with music feature time series to identify musical feature-related oscillatory patterns.

Main Results:

• Brain networks involved in musical feature processing demonstrated frequency-dependent characteristics.
• Musical features, such as fluctuation centroid and key, correlated with increased beta activation in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus.
• Increased alpha oscillations in the bilateral occipital cortex were observed, aligning with the alpha functional suppression hypothesis.
• Enhanced delta-beta oscillatory activity in the prefrontal cortex was associated with musical feature processing.

Conclusions:

• Neural rhythms play a frequency-dependent role in processing musical features within specific brain networks.
• The study identified distinct oscillatory patterns (alpha, beta, delta-beta) linked to different aspects of music perception.
• The proposed method is valuable for characterizing large-scale, frequency-dependent brain activity during music listening.