Donald A. Hodges

Creativity and the default network: A functional connectivity analysis of the creative brain at rest

The present research used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether the ability to generate creative ideas corresponds to differences in the intrinsic organization of functional networks in the brain. We examined the functional connectivity between regions commonly implicated in neuroimaging studies of divergent thinking, including the inferior prefrontal cortex and the core hubs of the default network. Participants were prescreened on a battery of divergent thinking tests and assigned to high- and low-creative groups based on task performance. Seed-based functional connectivity analysis revealed greater connectivity between the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the entire default mode network in the high-creative group. The right IFG also showed greater functional connectivity with bilateral inferior parietal cortex and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the high-creative group. The results suggest that the ability to generate creative ideas is characterized by increased functional connectivity between the inferior prefrontal cortex and the default network, pointing to a greater cooperation between brain regions associated with cognitive control and low-level imaginative processes.

The brain basis of piano performance

Performances of memorized piano compositions unfold via dynamic integrations of motor, perceptual, cognitive, and emotive operations. The functional neuroanatomy of such elaborately skilled achievements was characterized in the present study by using (15)0-water positron emission tomography to image blindfolded pianists performing a concerto by J.S. Bach. The resulting brain activity was referenced to that for bimanual performance of memorized major scales. Scales and concerto performances both activated primary motor cortex, corresponding somatosensory areas, inferior parietal cortex, supplementary motor area, motor cingulate, bilateral superior and middle temporal cortex, right thalamus, anterior and posterior cerebellum. Regions specifically supporting the concerto performance included superior and middle temporal cortex, planum polare, thalamus, basal ganglia, posterior cerebellum, dorsolateral premotor cortex, right insula, right supplementary motor area, lingual gyrus, and posterior cingulate. Areas specifically implicated in generating and playing scales were posterior cingulate, middle temporal, right middle frontal, and right precuneus cortices, with lesser increases in right hemispheric superior temporal, temporoparietal, fusiform, precuneus, and prefrontal cortices, along with left inferior frontal gyrus. Finally, much greater deactivations were present for playing the concerto than scales. This seems to reflect a deeper attentional focus in which tonically active orienting and evaluative processes, among others, are suspended. This inference is supported by observed deactivations in posterior cingulate, parahippocampus, precuneus, prefrontal, middle temporal, and posterior cerebellar cortices. For each of the foregoing analyses, a distributed set of interacting localized functions is outlined for future test.

Implications of music and brain research.

In recent years, we have witnessed an explosion of information about the brain. New imaging techniques have given neuroscientists the tools to peer into the brain in ways unimaginable just a few years ago. What they are learning is revolutionizing our understanding of this incredible neural machinery, and now they are able to ask--and answer--questions that will eventually unravel many mysteries of the mind. Among these mysteries is music. Why are human beings musical? How does music processing take place in the brain? Are there strategies we could uncover that would allow people to learn music more efficiently? Is there an optimal time for learning music? How is it that some cognitively impaired individuals can be so musically proficient? On and on go the questions we would like to have answered. For many music educators, obtaining information about recent discoveries involving music and the brain may be difficult. This is so because the reporting of neuromusical research is often polarized: either it appears in scientific journals in language that is too difficult for nonscientists to easily read and understand, or it appears in the popular press in such a watered-down fashion that actual facts may be distorted or obscured. The intent of this special focus issue of the Music Educators Journal is to provide current neuromusical information in a way that is at once accurate and accessible to music educators.

Closing the mind’s eye: Deactivation of visual cortex related to auditory task difficulty

Blood oxygen-level-dependent signal decreases relative to baseline (deactivations) can occur with stimulation of an opposing sensory modality. Here, we show the importance of the difficulty of an auditory task on the deactivation of visual cortical areas. Participants performed an auditory temporal-order judgment task in conjunction with sparse-sampling functional MRI at both moderate and high levels of difficulty (adjusted for each individuals own threshold). With moderate difficulty, small deactivations were observed not only in parietal and cingulate cortex, but occipital cortex as well. When the same task was more difficult, deactivations increased significantly to include a greater extent of functionally defined visual cortex. Together, these results suggest that cross-modal deactivations occur in compensation for task difficulty, perhaps acting as an intrinsic filter for nonrelevant information.

Music to the Inner Ears: Exploring Individual Differences in Musical Imagery

In two studies, we explored the frequency and phenomenology of musical imagery. Study 1 used retrospective reports of musical imagery to assess the contribution of individual differences to imagery characteristics. Study 2 used an experience sampling design to assess the phenomenology of musical imagery over the course of one week in a sample of musicians and non-musicians. Both studies found episodes of musical imagery to be common and positive: people rarely wanted such experiences to end and often heard music that was personally meaningful. Several variables predicted musical imagery, including personality, musical preferences, and positive mood. Musicians tended to hear musical imagery more often, but they reported less frequent episodes of deliberately-generated imagery. Taken together, the present research provides new insights into individual differences in musical imagery, and it supports the emerging view that such experiences are common, positive, and more voluntary than previously recognized.

Why Study Music

Cognitive neuroscience is identifying neural networks in the brain that support multiple ways of knowing. This notion is also supported by evidence from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other related disciplines. These human knowledge systems provide a means for sharing, expressing, understanding, knowing, and gaining insights into one’s inner and outer worlds. Considered alongside other knowledge systems such as language and mathematics, what unique contributions can music make? Music provides unique and invaluable insights into the human condition. Music allows us to know, discover, understand, experience, share, or express such aspects of the human condition as feelings, aesthetic experiences, the ineffable, thoughts, structure, time and space, self-knowledge, self-identity, group identity, and healing and wholeness. If the purpose of an education is to systematically develop the mind and capabilities of every child, it is clear that music has a unique and necessary role to play.

Genre identification of very brief musical excerpts

The purpose of this study was to examine how well individuals were able to identify different music genres from very brief excerpts and whether musical training, gender and preference played a role in genre identification. Listeners were asked to identify genre from classical, jazz, country, metal, and rap/hip hop excerpts that were 125, 250, 500, or 1000 ms in length. Participants (N = 347), students recruited from three college campuses in the southeast region of the USA, were found to be quite successful in identifying the genre of brief excerpts, even at 125 ms. Length of excerpt significantly affected participants’ ability to identify genre with longer time lengths leading to greater accuracy. Classical, metal, and rap/hip hop excerpts were correctly identified more often than were country or jazz excerpts. Further, there were many distinct interactions across lengths among genres. Musical training did not affect participants’ ability to identify excerpts overall or by length, but training was found to affect genre identification: those with training were better able to identify classical and jazz excerpts while those without training were better able to identify rap/hip hop excerpts. Gender did not affect participants’ ability to identify excerpts overall or by length, but gender was found to affect genre identification: males were better able to identify metal excerpts. Preference did affect participants’ ability to identify excerpts; most favorite genres were identified more accurately than all other genres and least favorite genres were identified less accurately than all other genres. In general, these findings support a primary conclusion that people are adept at identifying particular genres when presented with excerpts that are one second or less.

A Virtual Panel of Expert Researchers

This article presents the observations of a virtual panel of research experts who have conducted significant research on music and the brain. Their answers to questions posed by the moderator (the author) give unique insights into their findings and conclusions. This panel comprises real people who have given permission for their observations (originally given in separate interviews with the author) to be presented in this format. They include Andrea Halpern, a cognitive psychologist at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania; Larry Parsons, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio; Ralph Spintge, a medical doctor and researcher at the Sportkrankenhaus in Ludenscheid, Germany; and Sandra Trehub, a developmental psychologist at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada.

Can Neuroscience Help Us Do a Better Job of Teaching Music

We are just at the beginning stages of applying neuroscientific findings to music teaching. A simple model of the learning cycle based on neuroscience is Sense → Integrate → Act (sometimes modified as Act → Sense → Integrate). Additional components can be added to the model, including such concepts as active rather than passive learning, learning activates reward centers, all learning is emotionally colored, plasticity, neural pruning, nature and nurture, critical and optimal periods, the pattern-detecting brain, imitation and the social learning brain, group learning, empathy and social emotions, learning is multisensory, and learning requires memory. When this model and the components are applied to music teaching, they confirm best practices. Innovation pedagogical strategies will be forthcoming when there is a better understanding of the brain and music learning.

Network Science: A New Method for Investigating the Complexity of Musical Experiences in The Brain

Network science is a rapidly emerging analysis method for investigating complex systems, such as the brain, in terms of their components and the interactions among them. Within the brain, music affects an intricate set of complex neural processing systems. These include structural components as well as functional elements such as memory, motor planning and execution, cognition and mood fluctuation. Because music affects such diverse brain systems, it is an ideal candidate for applying network science methods. Using as naturalistic an approach as possible, the authors investigated whether listening to different genres of music affected brain connectivity. Here the authors show that varying levels of musical complexity affect brain connectivity. These results suggest that network science offers a promising new method to study the dynamic impact of music on the brain.