Coupling of Action-Perception Brain Networks during Musical Pulse Processing : Evidence from Region-of-Interest-Based Independent Component Analysis

摘要

Our sense of rhythm relies on orchestrated activity of several cerebral and cerebellarstructures. Although functional connectivity studies have advanced our understandingof rhythm perception, this phenomenon has not been sufficiently studied as a function ofmusical training and beyond the General Linear Model (GLM) approach. Here, we studiedpulse clarity processing during naturalistic music listening using a data-driven approach(independent component analysis; ICA). Participants’ (18 musicians and 18 controls)functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses were acquired while listeningto music. A targeted region of interest (ROI) related to pulse clarity processing wasdefined, comprising auditory, somatomotor, basal ganglia, and cerebellar areas. The ICAdecomposition was performed under different model orders, i.e., under a varying numberof assumed independent sources, to avoid relying on prior model order assumptions. Thecomponents best predicted by a measure of the pulse clarity of the music, extractedcomputationally from the musical stimulus, were identified. Their corresponding spatialmaps uncovered a network of auditory (perception) and motor (action) areas in anexcitatory-inhibitory relationship at lower model orders, while mainly constrained to theauditory areas at higher model orders. Results revealed (a) a strengthened functionalintegration of action-perception networks associated with pulse clarity perception hiddenfrom GLM analyses, and (b) group differences between musicians and non-musicians inpulse clarity processing, suggesting lifelong musical training as an important factor thatmay influence beat processing.