The rediscovered motor-related area 55b emerges as a core hub of music perception.

Passive listening to music, without sound production or evident movement, is long known to activate motor control regions. Nevertheless, the exact neuroanatomical correlates of the auditory-motor association and its underlying neural mechanisms have not been fully determined. Here, based on a NeuroSynth meta-analysis and three original fMRI paradigms of music perception, we show that the long-ignored pre-motor region, area 55b, an anatomically unique and functionally intriguing region, is a core hub of music perception.

Is there a prediction network? Meta-analytic evidence for a cortical-subcortical network likely subserving prediction.

Predictive coding is an increasingly influential and ambitious concept in neuroscience viewing the brain as a 'hypothesis testing machine' that constantly strives to minimize prediction error, the gap between its predictions and the actual sensory input. Despite the invaluable contribution of this framework to the formulation of brain function, its neuroanatomical foundations have not been fully defined. To address this gap, we conducted activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of 39 neuroimaging studies of three functional domains (action perception, language and music) inherently involving prediction.

Robust inter-subject audiovisual decoding in functional magnetic resonance imaging using high-dimensional regression.

Major methodological advancements have been recently made in the field of neural decoding, which is concerned with the reconstruction of mental content from neuroimaging measures. However, in the absence of a large-scale examination of the validity of the decoding models across subjects and content, the extent to which these models can be generalized is not clear. This study addresses the challenge of producing generalizable decoding models, which allow the reconstruction of perceived audiovisual features from human magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data without prior training of the algorithm on the decoded content.

Common modulation of limbic network activation underlies musical emotions as they unfold.

Music is a powerful means for communicating emotions among individuals. Here we reveal that this continuous stream of affective information is commonly represented in the brains of different listeners and that particular musical attributes mediate this link. We examined participants' brain responses to two naturalistic musical pieces using functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI).

Spatial vision is superior in musicians when memory plays a role.

Musicians' perceptual advantage in the acoustic domain is well established. Recent studies show that musicians' verbal working memory is also superior. Additionally, some studies report that musicians' visuospatial skills are enhanced although others failed to find this enhancement.

The enigma of dyslexic musicians.

Musicians are known to have exceptional sensitivity to sounds, whereas poor phonological representations (or access to these representations) are considered a main characteristic of dyslexic individuals. Though these two characteristics refer to different abilities that are related to non-verbal and verbal skills respectively, the recent literature suggests that they are tightly related. However, there are informal reports of dyslexic musicians.

Effects of arginine vasopressin on musical working memory.

Previous genetic studies showed an association between variations in the gene coding for the 1a receptor of the neuro-hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP) and musical working memory (WM). The current study set out to test the influence of intranasal administration (INA) of AVP on musical as compared to verbal WM using a double blind crossover (AVP-placebo) design. Two groups of 25 males were exposed to 20 IU of AVP in one session, and 20 IU of saline water (placebo) in a second session, 1 week apart.

Accuracy of pitch matching significantly improved by live voice model.

Singing is, undoubtedly, the most fundamental expression of our musical capacity, yet an estimated 10-15% of Western population sings "out-of-tune (OOT)." Previous research in children and adults suggests, albeit inconsistently, that imitating a human voice can improve pitch matching. In the present study, we focus on the potentially beneficial effects of the human voice and especially the live human voice.

Electrophysiological evidence for a two-stage process underlying single chord priming.

In this study, we examine through electrophysiological measures three alternative mechanisms underlying musical chord priming: psychoacoustic distance, common parent-key, and distance along the circle of fifths. In contrast with previous behavioral studies, we present complex tones which do not blur the melodic component, we present various chord arrangements, and we focus on nonmusicians. Target major chords, in three different harmonic conditions (1, 2, and 4 steps along the circle of fifths between prime and target chords), elicited two centro-anterior negativities labeled N5E (early) and N5L (late) suggesting a dissociation between an earlier psychoacoustic process based on pitch commonality and proximity and a later cognitive process based on a common parent-key.