Verbal component suppression during internal representation of songs: fMRI-study

Abstract

This paper investigates one of the processes of internal representations—specifically, the mental representation of melodies with suppressed verbalization. The objective of this study is to explore the involvement of brain structures during the mental representation of melodies. An fMRI study was conducted with 33 healthy, right-handed participants. Participants were tasked with listening to musical passages accompanied by lyrics in their original form and then mentally reproducing these excerpts with and without the lyrics. The findings suggest that the encoding of musical patterns may exhibit individual variations; however, general trends were identified. The results demonstrate that both cortical and subcortical structures contribute to the internal representation of melodies. Specifically, Wernicke's area and its right hemisphere homologue are instrumental in internal representations, while the caudate nucleus, cingulate gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus play key roles in the inhibition of the verbal component.