March 2018 MIMM Journal Club

Dr. Laurel Trainor’s graduate student, Sarah Lade, will lead a discussion on the article by Bianco et al., 2018 entitled “Musical genre-dependent behavioural and EEG signatures of action planning. A comparison between classical and jazz pianists”. Abstract listed below.

The McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind hosts a monthly Seminar/Journal Club. The purpose of the club is for MIMM members and other interested people from different areas to meet to discuss recent papers of broad interest in the field of music cognition. Everyone is welcome! Our current journal club members include psychologists, musicians, mathematicians, engineers, music teachers, graduate and undergraduate students, and interested community members.

 

Bianco, R., Novembre, G., Keller, P. E., Villringer, A., & Sammler, D. (2017). Musical genre-dependent behavioural and EEG signatures of action planning. A comparison between classical and jazz pianists. NeuroImage, 169, 383-394.

Abstract:

It is well established that musical training induces sensorimotor plasticity. However, there are remarkable differences in how musicians train for proficient stage performance. The present EEG study outlines for the first time clear-cut neurobiological differences between classical and jazz musicians at high and low levels of action planning, revealing genre-specific cognitive strategies adopted in production. Pianists imitated chord progressions without sound that were manipulated in terms of harmony and context length to assess high-level planning of sequence-structure, and in terms of the manner of playing to assess low-level parameter specification of single acts. Jazz pianists revised incongruent harmonies faster as revealed by an earlier reprogramming negativity and beta power decrease, hence neutralising response costs, albeit at the expense of a higher number of manner errors. Classical pianists in turn experienced more conflict during incongruent harmony, as shown by theta power increase, but were more ready to implement the required manner of playing, as indicated by higher accuracy and beta power decrease. These findings demonstrate that specific demands and action focus of training lead to differential weighting of hierarchical action planning. This suggests different enduring markers impressed in the brain when a musician practices one or the other style.

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