Operatic voices engage the default mode network in professional opera singers

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Auditory Perception
• Music Cognition

Background:

• Instrumental musical training impacts brain processing of acoustic features.
• Neural correlates of singing training on voice perception, especially vocal vibrato, are less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the neural effects of operatic singing training on voice perception.
• Examine brain responses to vocal vibrato in trained singers versus untrained controls.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
• Participants included trained opera singers and musically untrained controls.
• Stimuli comprised operatic singing with and without vocal vibrato.

Main Results:

• Opera singers exhibited distinct fMRI activations in auditory cortex and default mode network when perceiving operatic voices.
• Untrained controls showed differences only in bilateral auditory cortex.
• Experience-dependent neural changes were observed in trained singers.

Conclusions:

• Operatic singing training induces neural changes in auditory and self-referential brain networks.
• Embodiment of acoustic features may explain heightened self-referential network activation in singers.
• Singing training shapes neural responses to salient vocal characteristics like vibrato.