Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

Music performance is both a natural human activity, present in all societies, and one of the most complex and demanding cognitive challenges that the human mind can undertake. Unlike most other sensory-motor activities, music performance requires precise timing of several hierarchically organized actions, as well as precise control over pitch interval production, implemented through diverse effectors according to the instrument involved. We review the cognitive neuroscience literature of both motor and auditory domains, highlighting the value of studying interactions between these systems in a musical context, and propose some ideas concerning the role of the premotor cortex in integration of higher order features of music with appropriately timed and organized actions.

When the brain plays music: auditory–motor interactions in music perception and production

Purpose of reviewThis review considers recent advances in the application of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to the study of neuropsychiatric disorders.Recent findingsResting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging is a relatively novel technique that has several potential ad

Resting-state functional connectivity in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Neuroanatomical and neurochemical substrates of timing.

The image of time: a voxel-wise meta-analysis.

We examined developmental differences, in location and extent of fMRI language activation maps, between adults and children while performing a semantic fluency task. We studied 29 adults and 16 children with echo planar imaging BOLD fMRI at 1.5 T using covert semantic verbal fluency (generation of words to categories compared to rest) using a block design. Post task testing was administered to assess performance. Individual data were analyzed with an a priori region of interest approach from t maps (t = 4) and asymmetry indices (AI). Group studies were analyzed using SPM 99 (Wellcome, UK; fixed effect, corrected P < 0.0001). We found no significant differences in location or laterality of activation between adults and children for a semantic verbal fluency task. Adults activated more pixels than children in left inferior frontal gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus, but AIs were the similar across ages (r(2) < 0.09). Extent or laterality of activation was not affected by performance (r(2) < 0.15). The brain areas that process semantic verbal fluency are similar in children and adults. The laterality of activation does not change appreciably with age and appears to be strongly lateralized by age 7 years.

Developmental aspects of language processing: fMRI of verbal fluency in children and adults

Background: fMRI language tasks reliably identify language areas in presurgical epilepsy patients, but activation using single paradigms may disagree with the intracarotid amobarbital test (IAT). Objective: To determine whether a panel of fMRI tasks targeting different aspects of language processing increases accuracy in determining hemisphere language dominance. Methods: Twenty-six patients age 12 to 56 years, predominantly with temporal lobe epilepsy, were studied using whole-brain 1.5 T fMRI (echo planar imaging, blood oxygenation level–dependent) with three task categories using a block design: verbal fluency, reading comprehension, and auditory comprehension. fMRI t maps were visually rated at three thresholds. All patients had assessment of language lateralization by IAT. Results: fMRI showed left dominance in 21 patients, right dominance in 2, and bilateral activation in 2; raters disagreed over a left vs right bilateral rating in 1 patient. There was full agreement between IAT and fMRI in 21 of 25 patients (IAT failed in 1). In three instances of partial disparity with IAT, the fMRI panel showed consistent findings across raters. Agreement between raters was excellent (partial disagreement in only one patient); the panel of tasks was superior to any single task for interrater agreement (Cramer V 0.93 [range 0.91 to 1.0] vs 0.72 [range 0.60 to 0.86]). Conclusions: A panel of fMRI language paradigms may be more accurate for evaluating partial epilepsy patients than a single task. A panel of tasks reduces the likelihood of nondiagnostic findings, improves interrater reliability, and helps confirm language laterality.

fMRI language task panel improves determination of language dominance

Virtually every aspect of the enormous repertoire of human behaviors is embedded in a sequential context, but brain mechanisms underlying the adjustment of two fundamental dimensions defining a motor sequence (order of a series of movements and intervals separating them) as a function of a given goal are poorly understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that, at the neuronal level, these tasks can only be distinguished by differences in functional interactions between associative areas of common activation, which included bilateral subcortico-parieto-frontal regions, and two subcortical structures. Activity in these shared associative areas was preferentially coupled with that in right putamen during manipulation of timing and with that in right posterior cerebellum during manipulation of serial order. This finding is important because it provides evidence for an efficient organization of the brain during cognitive control of motor sequences and supports a recently proposed principle according to which the role of brain regions involved in different behavioral tasks without differential alterations in their measured activity depends on changes in their interactions with other connected areas as a function of the tasks.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/25/22/5290.full.pdf

Shared Brain Areas But Not Functional Connections Controlling Movement Timing and Order

Using functional connectivity analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we investigated the role of the inferior frontal gyrus in categorization of simple sounds. We found stronger functional connectivity between left inferior frontal gyrus and auditory processing areas in the temporal cortex during categorization of speech (vowels, syllables) and nonspeech (tones, combinations of tones and sweeps) sounds relative to an auditory discrimination task; the hemispheric lateralization varied depending on the speech-like properties of the sounds. Our results attest to the importance of interactions between temporal cortex and left inferior frontal gyrus in sound categorization. Further, we found different functional connectivity patterns between left inferior frontal gyrus and other brain regions implicated in categorization of syllables compared with other stimuli, reflecting the greater facility for categorization of syllables.

Christopher M. Mckinney

Papers

Developmental aspects of language processing: fMRI of verbal fluency in children and adults

fMRI language task panel improves determination of language dominance

Shared Brain Areas But Not Functional Connections Controlling Movement Timing and Order

Frontal cortex functional connectivity changes during sound categorization.