Musical expertise modulates functional connectivity of limbic regions during continuous music listening.

Abstract

Recent neural studies have established 3 limbic regions, namely the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the
\nnucleus accumbens (NAc), as the fundamental nodes of the neural circuit responsible for experiencing
\nmusical emotions. Here we investigate how musical expertise modulates this circuit during continuous
\nmusic listening. Eighteen nonmusicians and 21 musicians were measured with functional MRI (fMRI)
\nwhile they listened to three 8-min long musical pieces representing different musical styles (tango nuevo,
\nmodern classical, and progressive rock). Functional connectivity maps of seeds belonging to the
\namygdala, hippocampus, and NAc were obtained for each participant. Group-level t tests revealed that,
\noverall, musicians exhibited enhanced connectivity with the supplementary motor area (SMA), and with
\nventromedial and ventrolateral cerebral and cerebellar affective regions. On the contrary, nonmusicians
\ndisplayed greater connectivity with subcortical regions only. We found the amygdala network
\npreviously associated with perceiving negative valence in music to be more tightly coupled in
\nmusicians than nonmusicians. Similarly, the hippocampal network previously related to tracking
\nrepeating musical motifs during continuous music listening was more coupled in musicians. The lack
\nof group differences observed for right NAc connectivity reinforce the notion that the mesocorticolimbic
\nreward network is not modulated by musical expertise, whereas left NAc connectivity
\nresults suggest that musical expertise intensifies the rewarding aspect of music selectively in the left
\nhemisphere. In sum, during music listening musicians’ deep perceptual and motoric knowledge of
\nmusic increases the coupling between areas that process musical emotions with areas that process
\nmotor commands and pleasure.