scholarly journals Trait empathy modulates music-related functional connectivity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishnu Moorthigari ◽  
Emily Carlson ◽  
Petri Toiviainen ◽  
Peter Vuust ◽  
Elvira Brattico ◽  
...  

It has been well established through behavioural studies that empathy significantly influences music perception. Such individual differences typically manifest as variability in whole brain functional connectivity patterns. To date, nobody has examined the modulatory effect of empathy on functional connectivity patterns during continuous music listening. In the present study, we seek to investigate the global and local connectivity patterns of 36 participants whose fMRI scanning was done by employing the naturalistic paradigm wherein they listened to a continuous piece of music. We used graph-based measures of functional connectivity to identify how cognitive and affective components of empathy modulate functional connectivity. Partial correlation between Eigenvector centrality and measures of empathy showed that cognitive empathy is associated with higher centrality in the sensorimotor regions responsible for motor mimicry while affective empathy showed higher centrality in regions related to auditory affect processing. We furthermore identified a left-hemispheric dominance in the modulatory effect of affective empathy particularly in the Orbitofrontal cortex and the temporal pole. Results are discussed in relation to various theoretical models of empathy and music cognition.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuo Nakai ◽  
Hiroki Nishibayashi ◽  
Tomohiro Donishi ◽  
Masaki Terada ◽  
Naoyuki Nakao ◽  
...  

AbstractWe explored regional functional connectivity alterations in intractable focal epilepsy brains using resting-state functional MRI. Distributions of the network parameters (corresponding to degree and eigenvector centrality) measured at each brain region for all 25 patients were significantly different from age- and sex-matched control data that were estimated by a healthy control dataset (n = 582, 18–84 years old). The number of abnormal regions whose parameters exceeded the mean + 2 SD of age- and sex-matched data for each patient were associated with various clinical parameters such as the duration of illness and seizure severity. Furthermore, abnormal regions for each patient tended to have functional connections with each other (mean ± SD = 58.6 ± 20.2%), the magnitude of which was negatively related to the quality of life. The abnormal regions distributed within the default mode network with significantly higher probability (p < 0.05) in 7 of 25 patients. We consider that the detection of abnormal regions by functional connectivity analysis using a large number of control datasets is useful for the numerical assessment of each patient’s clinical conditions, although further study is necessary to elucidate etiology-specific abnormalities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. van Besouw ◽  
Benjamin R. Oliver ◽  
Mary L. Grasmeder ◽  
Sarah M. Hodkinson ◽  
Heidi Solheim

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a prototype interactive music awareness program (IMAP) for adult cochlear implant (CI) users. An unblinded, randomized crossover design was used. Twenty-one CI users were recruited and allocated to two groups. Group 1 received the IMAP first, followed by a retention of learning phase. Group 2 were given the IMAP after 12 weeks. Participants were instructed to undertake two half-hour sessions per week at home over 12 weeks. Both groups attended appointments at the start, halfway through, and at the end of the trial. At each appointment participants completed tests of speech perception, melodic contour identification, and instrument recognition, rated the sound quality of music, and indicated their music listening habits. Sixteen participants completed the study. Following training both groups showed improved instrument recognition abilities and feedback suggests further positive impact on participants’ lives. The findings suggest that the IMAP is beneficial for music perception and in particular, improved instrument recognition.


2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 120-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Gfeller ◽  
Jacob Oleson ◽  
John F. Knutson ◽  
Patrick Breheny ◽  
Virginia Driscoll ◽  
...  

The research examined whether performance by adult cochlear implant recipients on a variety of recognition and appraisal tests derived from real-world music could be predicted from technological, demographic, and life experience variables, as well as speech recognition scores. A representative sample of 209 adults implanted between 1985 and 2006 participated. Using multiple linear regression models and generalized linear mixed models, sets of optimal predictor variables were selected that effectively predicted performance on a test battery that assessed different aspects of music listening. These analyses established the importance of distinguishing between the accuracy of music perception and the appraisal of musical stimuli when using music listening as an index of implant success. Importantly, neither device type nor processing strategy predicted music perception or music appraisal. Speech recognition performance was not a strong predictor of music perception, and primarily predicted music perception when the test stimuli included lyrics. Additionally, limitations in the utility of speech perception in predicting musical perception and appraisal underscore the utility of music perception as an alternative outcome measure for evaluating implant outcomes. Music listening background, residual hearing (i.e., hearing aid use), cognitive factors, and some demographic factors predicted several indices of perceptual accuracy or appraisal of music. La investigación examinó si el desempeño, por parte de adultos receptores de un implante coclear, sobre una variedad de pruebas de reconocimiento y evaluación derivadas de la música del mundo real, podrían predecirse a partir de variables tecnológicas, demográficas y de experiencias de vida, así como de puntajes de reconocimiento del lenguaje. Participó una muestra representativa de 209 adultos implantados entre 1965 y el 2006. Usando múltiples modelos de regresión lineal y modelos mixtos lineales generalizados, se seleccionaron grupos de variables óptimas de predicción, que pudieran predecir efectivamente el desempeño por medio de una batería de pruebas que permitiera evaluar diferentes aspectos de la apreciación musical. Estos análisis establecieron la importancia de distinguir entre la exactitud en la percepción musical y la evaluación de estímulos musicales cuando se utiliza la apreciación musical como un índice de éxito en la implantación. Importantemente, ningún tipo de dispositivo o estrategia de procesamiento predijo la percepción o la evaluación musical. El desempeño en el reconocimiento del lenguaje no fue un elemento fuerte de predicción, y llegó a predecir primariamente la percepción musical cuando los estímulos de prueba incluyeron las letras. Adicionalmente, las limitaciones en la utilidad de la percepción del lenguaje a la hora de predecir la percepción y la evaluación musical, subrayan la utilidad de la percepción de la música como una medida alternativa de resultado para evaluar la implantación coclear. La música de fondo, la audición residual (p.e., el uso de auxiliares auditivos), los factores cognitivos, y algunos factores demográficos predijeron varios índices de exactitud y evaluación perceptual de la música.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinliang Zhang ◽  
Gaoyan Zhang ◽  
Xianglin Li ◽  
Peiyuan Wang ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny Skagerlund ◽  
Taylor Bolt ◽  
Jason S. Nomi ◽  
Mikael Skagenholt ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll ◽  
...  

What are the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms that give rise to mathematical competence? This study investigated the relationship between tests of mathematical ability completed outside the scanner and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) of cytoarchitectonically defined subdivisions of the parietal cortex in adults. These parietal areas are also involved in executive functions (EFs). Therefore, it remains unclear whether there are unique networks for mathematical processing. We investigate the neural networks for mathematical cognition and three measures of EF using resting-state fMRI data collected from 51 healthy adults. Using 10 ROIs in seed to whole-brain voxel-wise analyses, the results showed that arithmetical ability was correlated with FC between the right anterior intraparietal sulcus (hIP1) and the left supramarginal gyrus and between the right posterior intraparietal sulcus (hIP3) and the left middle frontal gyrus and the right premotor cortex. The connection between the posterior portion of the left angular gyrus and the left inferior frontal gyrus was also correlated with mathematical ability. Covariates of EF eliminated connectivity patterns with nodes in inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus, suggesting neural overlap. Controlling for EF, we found unique connections correlated with mathematical ability between the right hIP1 and the left supramarginal gyrus and between hIP3 bilaterally to premotor cortex bilaterally. This is partly in line with the “mapping hypothesis” of numerical cognition in which the right intraparietal sulcus subserves nonsymbolic number processing and connects to the left parietal cortex, responsible for calculation procedures. We show that FC within this circuitry is a significant predictor of math ability in adulthood.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Lewis ◽  
Gleb Bezgin ◽  
Vladimir S. Fonov ◽  
D. Louis Collins ◽  
Alan C. Evans

AbstractBoth the cortex and the subcortical structures are organized into a large number of distinct areas reflecting functional and cytoarchitectonic differences. Mapping these areas is of fundamental importance to neuroscience. A central obstacle to this task is the inaccuracy associated with mapping results from individuals into a common space. The vast individual differences in morphology pose a serious problem for volumetric registration. Surface-based approaches fare substantially better, but have thus far been used only for cortical parcellation. We extend this surface-based approach to include also the subcortical deep gray-matter structures. Using the life-span data from the Enhanced Nathan Klein Institute - Rockland Sample, comprised of data from 590 individuals from 6 to 85 years of age, we generate a functional parcellation of both the cortical and subcortical surfaces. To assess this extended parcellation, we show that our extended functional parcellation provides greater homogeneity of functional connectivity patterns than do arbitrary parcellations matching in the number and size of parcels. We also show that our subcortical parcels align with known subnuclei. Further, we show that this parcellation is appropriate for use with data from other modalities; we generate cortical and subcortical white/gray contrast measures for this same dataset, and draw on the fact that areal differences are evident in the relation of white/gray contrast to age, to sex, to brain volume, and to interactions of these terms; we show that our extended functional parcellation provides an improved fit to the complexity of the life-span changes in the white/gray contrast data compared to arbitrary parcellations matching in the number and size of parcels. We provide our extended functional parcellation for the use of the neuroimaging community.


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