fMRI Activation and Graph Theoretical Analysis of Unfamiliar versus Self-Selected Music towards developing an optimal Paradigm for Music Therapy
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1
Houston Methodist Research Institute, Translational Imaging, United States
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2
Rice University, Shepard School of Music, United States
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3
Houston Methodist, Radiology, United States
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4
Houston Methodist, Center for Performing Arts Medicine, United States
Purpose: To determine differences in regions and extent of brain activation when listening to unfamiliar music (without voice or words, without previous emotional connections, and with a medium degree of rhythmic and melodic variation) compared to self-selected music (with strong positive emotional connection or experiential association) for designing a more effective and targeted music therapy paradigm. Methods: Healthy subjects (n=5) listened to two music pieces (one self-elected, one chosen by the study team: J. S. Bach invention #1) during an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study (TR=2400 ms, 6 blocks of on-off stimulus with 10 brain volumes acquired in each block preceded by 10 volumes of rest, Philips Ingenia 3T). Employing the generalized linear model, fMRI BOLD activation maps were created and paired. Student t-test was performed to compare both paradigms. Graph-theoretical analysis was performed to visualize extent of individual brain activation networks for both paradigms by 2D and 3D network graphs, the latter transformed back into the anatomical space of the individual subject.
Results: Averaged fMRI BOLD activation maps showed larger extent of activation with statistically significant higher activation for the self-selected music in the midbrain, the bilateral substantia nigra, the left parahippocampal gyrus, the bilateral insula, thalamus and cingulate gyrus. Higher activation during resting periods was found for the unfamiliar music in regions of the default mode network such as the precuneus and the cingulate gyrus but also in areas of the parietal lobe.
Conclusion: Listening to self-selected music with emotional attachment results in larger activation in the brain including limbic regions. Graph networks for unfamiliar music predominantly connect regions in the parietal and frontal regions, graph networks for self-selected music included in addition emotional brain centers in the limbic system indicating a larger involvement of the brain in task performance potentially favorable for a certain therapeutic approaches, whereas unfamiliar music, though less total overall activation, may prove favorable for certain therapeutic approaches involving the unique specific activation regions.
Keywords:
Music Therapy,
computational modeling,
functional MRI,
Graph-theoretical analysis,
paradigm development
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Emotional and Social Processes
Citation:
Karmonik
C,
Brandt
A,
Anderson
J,
Fung
S,
Brooks
F and
Frazier
T
(2015). fMRI Activation and Graph Theoretical Analysis of Unfamiliar versus Self-Selected Music towards developing an optimal Paradigm for Music Therapy.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00210
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Christof Karmonik, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Translational Imaging, Houston, United States, ckarmonik@houstonmethodist.org