Name:Karli, Nave

School/Affiliation:Western University

Co-Authors:Jessica Grahn

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Abstract:

Despite the remarkable level of shared neural machinery between humans and nonhuman primates, humans appear to have unique responses to musical rhythm. This project aims to characterize non-human primate neural responses to different types of auditory sequences, comparing activity patterns to those observed in humans. Specifically, we were interested in auditory and motor region activity in response to rhythms that do and do not induce beat perception, aiming to characterize neural responses related to general auditory sequence processing (non-beat sequences) and to beat perception (beat sequences). Marmoset monkeys (n=6) underwent functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) at 9.4T while hearing auditory rhythms with a strong beat, weak beat, or no beat. We will analyze primary auditory areas as well as cortical and subcortical motor areas to assess activation differences between beat and non-beat rhythms. If marmosets produce motor activation while simply listening to rhythms, this supports the role of motor areas in perceptual auditory sequence timing across species. Further, if responses differ between beat and non-beat rhythms, this suggests that marmosets may be sensitive to beat structure. To date, no fMRI reports of cross-species brain comparisons to musical rhythms exist. Data collection is ongoing and preliminary results will be presented and discussed at the conference.