Creation Moment 9/3/2024 - Hierarchical Organization for Music

I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

marvellous are Thy works;

Psalm 139:14

The Brain---Made for Music.....
"Ever heard a snippet of a song and instantly known what comes

next? Or picked up the rhythm of a chorus after just a few notes? New research from the Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University has found that our brains process music through a specific hierarchical activation of several regions.

Bonetti and his colleagues found that when participants recognized the original memorized sequences, their brain activity followed a specific hierarchical pattern. 

This pattern began 

---in the auditory cortex, the region responsible for processing basic sound information, 

---and progressed to the hippocampus and cingulate gyrus, areas associated with memory and cognitive evaluation.

When variations were introduced into the sequences, the brain generated prediction errors. 

These errors started in the auditory cortex and then spread to the hippocampus, anterior cingulate gyrus, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. 

Notably, the anterior cingulate gyrus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex exhibited their strongest responses when the variations were introduced.

The study also uncovered a consistent brain hierarchy characterized

by feedforward and feedback connections. Feedforward connections from the auditory cortices to the hippocampus and cingulate gyrus, along with simultaneous feedback connections in the opposite direction, were observed.

This hierarchical organization was consistent for both previously memorized and varied sequences, although the strength and timing of the brain responses varied. This suggests that while the overall structure of brain processing remains stable, the dynamics change depending on whether the sequence is familiar or novel.

“Our study shows that the brain processes music by activating several brain regions in a specific, hierarchical order,” 

Bonetti told PsyPost. “Initially, sensory regions like the auditory cortex handle basic sound features. Then, this information is passed to a larger network of regions that arguably analyze the sounds more deeply, including the relationships between them (such as musical intervals). This process helps the brain determine if the sequence of sounds is familiar or new.”
PsyPost