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Psyche Loui

Bio: Psyche Loui is an academic researcher from Northeastern University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Music psychology & Psychology. The author has an hindex of 25, co-authored 81 publications receiving 2387 citations. Previous affiliations of Psyche Loui include Harvard University & University of California, Berkeley.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that tone-deaf people, with impaired sound perception and production, have reduced AF connectivity, which suggests that tone deafness leads to a reduction in connectivity resulting in pitch-related impairments.
Abstract: Communicating with one's environment requires efficient neural interaction between action and perception. Neural substrates of sound perception and production are connected by the arcuate fasciculus (AF). Although AF is known to be involved in language, its roles in non-linguistic functions are unexplored. Here, we show that tone-deaf people, with impaired sound perception and production, have reduced AF connectivity. Diffusion tensor tractography and psychophysics were assessed in tone-deaf individuals and matched controls. Abnormally reduced AF connectivity was observed in the tone deaf. Furthermore, we observed relationships between AF and auditory-motor behavior: superior and inferior AF branches predict psychophysically assessed pitch discrimination and sound production perception abilities, respectively. This neural abnormality suggests that tone deafness leads to a reduction in connectivity resulting in pitch-related impairments. Results support a dual-stream anatomy of sound production and perception implicated in vocal communications. By identifying white matter differences and their psychophysical correlates, results contribute to our understanding of how neural connectivity subserves behavior.

269 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that long-term vocal–motor training might lead to an increase in volume and microstructural complexity of specific white-matter tracts connecting regions that are fundamental to sound perception, production, and its feedforward and feedback control which can be differentiated from a more general musician effect.
Abstract: Structure and function of the human brain are affected by training in both linguistic and musical domains. Individuals with intensive vocal musical training provide a useful model for investigating neural adaptations of learning in the vocal-motor domain and can be compared with learning in a more general musical domain. Here we confirm general differences in macrostructure (tract volume) and microstructure (fractional anisotropy (FA)) of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), a prominent white-matter tract connecting temporal and frontal brain regions, between singers, instrumentalists, and non-musicians. Both groups of musicians differed from non-musicians in having larger tract volume and higher FA values of the right and left AF. The AF was then subdivided in a dorsal (superior) branch connecting the superior temporal gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus (STG IFG), and ventral (inferior) branch connecting the middle temporal gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus (MTG IFG). Relative to instrumental musicians, singers had a larger tract volume but lower FA values in the left dorsal AF (STG IFG), and a similar trend in the left ventral AF (MTG IFG). This between-group comparison controls for the general effects of musical training, although FA was still higher in singers compared to non-musicians. Both musician groups had higher tract volumes in the right dorsal and ventral tracts compared to non-musicians, but did not show a significant difference between each other. Furthermore, in the singers’ group, FA in the left dorsal branch of the AF was inversely correlated with the number of years of participants’ vocal training. Our findings suggest that long-term vocal-motor training might lead to an increase in volume and microstructural complexity of specific white matter tracts connecting regions that are fundamental to sound perception, production, and its feedforward and feedback control which can be differentiated from a more general musician effect.

243 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Tone-deaf individuals, who cannot consciously perceive pitch differences, can paradoxically reproduce pitch intervals in correct directions, suggesting that multiple neural pathways have evolved for sound perception and production, so that pitch information sufficient for intact speech can be obtained separately from pathways necessary for conscious perception.

168 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The music and social bonding (MSB) hypothesis provides the most comprehensive theory to date of the biological and cultural evolution of music.
Abstract: Why do humans make music? Theories of the evolution of musicality have focused mainly on the value of music for specific adaptive contexts such as mate selection, parental care, coalition signaling, and group cohesion. Synthesizing and extending previous proposals, we argue that social bonding is an overarching function that unifies all of these theories, and that musicality enabled social bonding at larger scales than grooming and other bonding mechanisms available in ancestral primate societies. We combine cross-disciplinary evidence from archeology, anthropology, biology, musicology, psychology, and neuroscience into a unified framework that accounts for the biological and cultural evolution of music. We argue that the evolution of musicality involves gene-culture coevolution, through which proto-musical behaviors that initially arose and spread as cultural inventions had feedback effects on biological evolution because of their impact on social bonding. We emphasize the deep links between production, perception, prediction, and social reward arising from repetition, synchronization, and harmonization of rhythms and pitches, and summarize empirical evidence for these links at the levels of brain networks, physiological mechanisms, and behaviors across cultures and across species. Finally, we address potential criticisms and make testable predictions for future research, including neurobiological bases of musicality and relationships between human music, language, animal song, and other domains. The music and social bonding hypothesis provides the most comprehensive theory to date of the biological and cultural evolution of music.

143 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: These findings extend previous reports of exaggerated temporal lobe asymmetry, may explain the higher incidence of AP in special populations, and may provide a model for understanding the heightened connectivity that is thought to underlie savant skills and cases of exceptional creativity.
Abstract: Connectivity in the human brain has received increased scientific interest in recent years. Although connection disorders can affect perception, production, learning, and memory, few studies have associated brain connectivity with graded variations in human behavior, especially among normal individuals. One group of normal individuals who possess unique characteristics in both behavior and brain structure is absolute pitch (AP) musicians, who can name the appropriate pitch class of any given tone without a reference. Using diffusion tensor imaging and tractography, we observed hyperconnectivity in bilateral superior temporal lobe structures linked to AP possession. Furthermore, volume of tracts connecting left superior temporal gyrus to left middle temporal gyrus predicted AP performance. These findings extend previous reports of exaggerated temporal lobe asymmetry, may explain the higher incidence of AP in special populations, and may provide a model for understanding the heightened connectivity that is thought to underlie savant skills and cases of exceptional creativity.

141 citations


Cited by
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28 Jul 2005
TL;DR: PfPMP1)与感染红细胞、树突状组胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用,在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作�ly.
Abstract: 抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1(PfPMP1)与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用,在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员,通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

18,940 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This target article critically examines this "hierarchical prediction machine" approach, concluding that it offers the best clue yet to the shape of a unified science of mind and action.
Abstract: Brains, it has recently been argued, are essentially prediction machines. They are bundles of cells that support perception and action by constantly attempting to match incoming sensory inputs with top-down expectations or predictions. This is achieved using a hierarchical generative model that aims to minimize prediction error within a bidirectional cascade of cortical processing. Such accounts offer a unifying model of perception and action, illuminate the functional role of attention, and may neatly capture the special contribution of cortical processing to adaptive success. This target article critically examines this "hierarchical prediction machine" approach, concluding that it offers the best clue yet to the shape of a unified science of mind and action. Sections 1 and 2 lay out the key elements and implications of the approach. Section 3 explores a variety of pitfalls and challenges, spanning the evidential, the methodological, and the more properly conceptual. The paper ends (sections 4 and 5) by asking how such approaches might impact our more general vision of mind, experience, and agency.

3,640 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The mismatch negativity (MMN) enables one to establish the brain processes underlying the initiation of attention switch to, conscious perception of, sound change in an unattended stimulus stream.

2,104 citations

01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In this article, the basic research using the mismatch negativity (MMN) and analogous results obtained by using the magnetoencephalography (MEG) and other brain-imaging technologies is reviewed.
Abstract: In the present article, the basic research using the mismatch negativity (MMN) and analogous results obtained by using the magnetoencephalography (MEG) and other brain-imaging technologies is reviewed. This response is elicited by any discriminable change in auditory stimulation but recent studies extended the notion of the MMN even to higher-order cognitive processes such as those involving grammar and semantic meaning. Moreover, MMN data also show the presence of automatic intelligent processes such as stimulus anticipation at the level of auditory cortex. In addition, the MMN enables one to establish the brain processes underlying the initiation of attention switch to, conscious perception of, sound change in an unattended stimulus stream. 2007 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

1,994 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: It is hypothesized that beta oscillations and/or coupling in the beta-band are expressed more strongly if the maintenance of the status quo is intended or predicted, than if a change is expected.
Abstract: In this review, we consider the potential functional role of beta-band oscillations, which at present is not yet well understood. We discuss evidence from recent studies on top-down mechanisms involved in cognitive processing, on the motor system and on the pathophysiology of movement disorders that suggest a unifying hypothesis: beta-band activity seems related to the maintenance of the current sensorimotor or cognitive state. We hypothesize that beta oscillations and/or coupling in the beta-band are expressed more strongly if the maintenance of the status quo is intended or predicted, than if a change is expected. Moreover, we suggest that pathological enhancement of beta-band activity is likely to result in an abnormal persistence of the status quo and a deterioration of flexible behavioural and cognitive control.

1,837 citations