Unlocking the musical brain: A proof-of-concept study on playing the piano in MRI scanner with naturalistic stimuli
Alicja M. Olszewska,
Dawid Droździel,
Maciej Gaca,
Agnieszka Kulesza,
Wojciech Obrębski,
Jakub Kowalewski,
Agnieszka Widlarz,
Artur Marchewka,
Aleksandra M. Herman
Affiliations
Alicja M. Olszewska
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
Dawid Droździel
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
Maciej Gaca
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
Agnieszka Kulesza
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
Wojciech Obrębski
Department of Nuclear and Medical Electronics, Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, 1 Politechniki Square, 00-661 Warsaw, Poland; 10 Murarska Street, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland
Jakub Kowalewski
10 Murarska Street, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland
Agnieszka Widlarz
Chair of Rhythmics and Piano Improvisation, Department of Choir Conducting and Singing, Music Education and Rhythmics, The Chopin University of Music, Okolnik 2 Street, 00–368 Warsaw, Poland
Artur Marchewka
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland; Corresponding authors.
Aleksandra M. Herman
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland; Corresponding authors.
Music is a universal human phenomenon, and can be studied for itself or as a window into the understanding of the brain. Few neuroimaging studies investigate actual playing in the MRI scanner, likely because of the lack of available experimental hardware and analysis tools. Here, we offer an innovative paradigm that addresses this issue in neuromusicology using naturalistic, polyphonic musical stimuli, presents a commercially available MRI-compatible piano, and a flexible approach to quantify participant's performance. We show how making errors while playing can be investigated using an altered auditory feedback paradigm. In the spirit of open science, we make our experimental paradigms and analysis tools available to other researchers studying pianists in MRI. Altogether, we present a proof-of-concept study which shows the feasibility of playing the novel piano in MRI, and a step towards using more naturalistic stimuli.
