The research group used the chance provided during an awake craniotomy on a young musician with a growth in the brain regions included in language and music. The client heard music and played a mini-keyboard piano to map his musical skills, heard and repeated sentences and heard descriptions of things that he then named to map his language. Musical sequences were not melodic or melodic and varied in complexity, while auditory recordings of sentences varied in syntactic complexity.
Specifically, cortical stimulation mapping of the posterior remarkable temporal gyrus (pSTG) disrupted music understanding and production, along with speech production. The pSTG and posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) activated for language and music.
The research study group used the chance supplied during an awake craniotomy on a young artist with a tumor in the brain regions associated with language and music. The client heard music and played a mini-keyboard piano to map his musical abilities, heard and repeated sentences and heard descriptions of items that he then named to map his language. Musical sequences were melodic or not melodic and varied in intricacy, while auditory recordings of sentences differed in syntactic intricacy.
UTHealth Houston scientists observed as a brain tumor patient, who is likewise an artist, underwent an awake craniotomy while playing a mini-keyboard piano. Credit: Photo offered by Elliot Murphy, PhD
Direct brain recordings with electrodes put on the brain surface area mapped out the location and characteristics of brain activity during music and language. Little currents were entered the brain to localize areas important for language and music understanding and production.
” This allowed us not simply to get novel insights into the neurobiology of music in the brain, but to enable us to safeguard these functions while performing a safe, optimum resection of the growth,” said Tandon, the Nancy, Clive and Pierce Runnels Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience of the Vivian L. Smith Center for Neurologic Research and the BCMS Distinguished Professor in Neurological Disorders and Neurosurgery with McGovern Medical School and a member of the Texas Institute for Restorative Neurotechnologies (TIRN) at UTHealth Houston.
” If we look simply at standard brain activation profiles for music and language, they often look pretty comparable, but thats not the full story,” stated McCarty, who is also a graduate research study assistant at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and a member of TIRN. “Once we look closer at how they put together small parts into larger structures, some striking neural distinctions can be discovered.”
Language and music include the efficient combination of basic systems into structures. Researchers wanted to study whether brain areas sensitive to linguistic and musical structure are co-localized, or exist in the exact same physical area.
” The unrivaled, high resolution of intracranial electrodes enables us to ask the sort of concerns about music and language processing that cognitive scientists have actually long awaited answers for, but were unable to attend to with conventional neuroimaging approaches,” said Murphy, a member of TIRN. “This work likewise truly highlights the kindness of clients who work carefully with researchers during their remain at the healthcare facility.”
Overall, they found shared temporal lobe activity for music and language, however when taking a look at features of melodic complexity and grammatical complexity, they discovered different temporal lobe websites to be engaged. Music and language activation at the standard level is shared, however when the scientists examined comparing intricate melodies vs. basic tunes, or simple sentences versus intricate sentences, various locations show unique sensitivities.
Specifically, cortical stimulation mapping of the posterior exceptional temporal gyrus (pSTG) interrupted music perception and production, along with speech production. The pSTG and posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) activated for language and music. While pMTG activity was modulated by musical intricacy, pSTG activity was regulated by syntactic complexity.
Tandon resected the patients mid-temporal lobe tumor at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. At his four-month follow-up, the patient was verified to have actually totally preserved musical and language function, without proof of deterioration.
Reference: “Intraoperative cortical localization of music and language exposes signatures of structural intricacy in posterior temporal cortex” by Meredith J. McCarty, Elliot Murphy, Xavier Scherschligt, Oscar Woolnough, Cale W. Morse, Kathryn Snyder, Bradford Z. Mahon and Nitin Tandon, 28 June 2023, iScience.DOI: 10.1016/ j.isci.2023.107223.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS098981), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Co-authors on the study consisted of Xavier Scherschligt; Oscar Woolnough, PhD; Cale Morse; and Kathryn Snyder, all with the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School and TIRN. Tandon is also a professors member at the MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School, and Snyder is a trainee at the school. Bradford Mahon, PhD, with the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, likewise contributed.
A research study exposed unique brain areas are triggered when processing music and language, with particular areas engaged for basic versus complicated sentences and tunes. The group conducted the research study throughout an awake craniotomy on a musician with a tumor in brain regions involved in language and music processing.
Researchers have discovered that unique brain regions are associated with music and language processing, with specific locations engaged for intricacy in sentences and melodies. The research study was conducted throughout an awake craniotomy on an artist, with his musical and language function totally preserved post-surgery.
Unique, though neighboring, areas of the brain are triggered when processing music and language, with specific sub-regions engaged for easy melodies versus complex melodies, and for easy versus complex sentences, according to research study from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
The research study, led by co-first authors Meredith McCarty, PhD prospect in the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, and Elliot Murphy, PhD, postdoctoral research study fellow in the department, was released just recently in iScience. Nitin Tandon, MD, professor and chair ad interim of the department in the medical school, was senior author.