Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4324349 | Brain Research | 2014 | 10 Pages |
•Twenty trained pianists performed short melodies from memory while brain activity was measured using fMRI.•During performance, auditory feedback could be normal or altered.•Asynchronies between auditory feedback and key presses slowed timing and increased brain activations in the right IFG.•Alterations of feedback pitch increased errors and brain activations in the cerebellum, thalamus, and anterior cingulate.•The brain responds differently when perception/action relationships are altered at different timescales.
Alterations of auditory feedback during piano performance can be profoundly disruptive. Furthermore, different alterations can yield different types of disruptive effects. Whereas alterations of feedback synchrony disrupt performed timing, alterations of feedback pitch contents can disrupt accuracy. The current research tested whether these behavioral dissociations correlate with differences in brain activity. Twenty pianists performed simple piano keyboard melodies while being scanned in a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. In different conditions they experienced normal auditory feedback, altered auditory feedback (asynchronous delays or altered pitches), or control conditions that excluded movement or sound. Behavioral results replicated past findings. Neuroimaging data suggested that asynchronous delays led to increased activity in Broca׳s area and its right homologue, whereas disruptive alterations of pitch elevated activations in the cerebellum, area Spt, inferior parietal lobule, and the anterior cingulate cortex. Both disruptive conditions increased activations in the supplementary motor area. These results provide the first evidence of neural responses associated with perception/action mismatch during keyboard production.