We already knew that specific neurons were sensitive to music. What we did not know is that there are neurons that are activated only if the voice is added to the notes, therefore in the presence of sung pieces.
Today a research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has identified these nerve cells in the auditory cortex that recognize and selectively “turn on” when we listen to a song. The same team identified neurons that respond to music in 2015. The results are published on Current Biology.
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A complex study
The approach used to arrive at the result is innovative and is based on the combination of images of the functioning of the brain obtained through functional magnetic resonance and a specific analysis of the brain’s electrical activity, using a technique called electrocorticography. This examination is more targeted and precise for this kind of investigation, however it is rather invasive: for this reason the authors selected 15 patients with epilepsy, who should have undergone the procedure anyway.
The authors were able to collect data from the 15 volunteers for several years, studying the brain responses to 165 different sounds and melodies. These include various types of music, including unsung songs, spoken dialogue (without music), noises related to everyday life such as finger tapping on a table or a barking dog.
The singing neurons
In addition to collecting the data from electrocorticography and resonance, the researchers found a way to combine them, through a mathematical method developed for the occasion. According to the authors, this path identifies a significant step forward from a procedural point of view.
The results allowed us to observe that there is a specific activation and neural response linked to singing, understood as music plus voice, absent if other types of music or dialogues are taken. The point of activation is located at the top of the temporal lobe, one of the 4 main lobes of the cerebral cortex, near regions responsible for language and music recognition. This is an unexpected outcome, according to reports from the researchers, who now aim to deepen the study.
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How to interpret the results
“The study is interesting,” he comments Roberta FerrucciProfessor of Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology at the Università degli Studi di Milano Statale, not involved in the work, “both from the point of view of the results and the methodology used. Integrating functional magnetic resonance with cortical recordings (through the other technique) allows us to detect brain activity in a very precise way. This allows us to associate cognitive functions with neural populations with greater precision “.
The MIT group had already shown in 2015 that there is a set of neurons that selectively respond to music, even in people without particular musical training and exposed to genres they were not used to.
“The new study deepens the knowledge we have about how our brain processes musical stimuli”, adds Ferrucci, “by analyzing the neural basis that allow us to distinguish between a spoken conversation, a melody and a song in which the music is accompanied by the I sing”. According to the expert, these studies can help to better understand some mechanisms of neurodevelopment and cognitive functioning linked to music and language.
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From music to language alterations
Knowing that there are neurons responsible for singing, in fact, is not just a curiosity, but it could have some applications, in the future, even in the clinical setting. “Better understanding how areas of the brain process these stimuli can also provide information on neurological disorders and language-related alterations, such as aphasias,” concludes Ferrucci. “Knowing that there are specialized areas in musical understanding can provide new insights into therapies aimed at recovering other functions, such as the ability to produce verbal language.”