The effects of early music training on the music representation in Broca's area

Research Project

Project/Area Number	18K12011
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 90030:Cognitive science-related
Research Institution	Kyoto University
Principal Investigator	Wakita Masumi 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 助教 (40301270)
Project Period (FY)	2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2020)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000) Fiscal Year 2020: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000) Fiscal Year 2019: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000) Fiscal Year 2018: ¥2,990,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥690,000)
Keywords	ブローカ野 / 音楽 / 行為 / 言語 / 子ども / 発達 / 近赤外分光法 / NIRS
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The present study was aimed to examine whether the hierarchical/sequential processing in the inferior frontal region including Broca’s area is also found in child brain as reported in the adult brain. To this end, I conducted matching-to-sample task using familiar and unfamiliar melodies. Unfamiliar melodies may require larger cognitive load for the melody processing, inducing a larger activation of the inferior frontal region, particularly in the left hemisphere. Consequently, I found that nine children (8-12 yrs) did not show higher activation in the unfamiliar melody condition, regardless of their training length. Such results indicate that children’s perception of melodies does not relay on the inferior frontal system as found in adults. However, further studies are needed to rule out technical problems and to confirm the present results.
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究の結果は、児童の下前頭前野が音楽の系列・階層を表現しない、あるいは児童が音やフレーズの時間的構成に依存して音楽を知覚しないことを示している。つまり、（1）音楽を児童に訓練しても前頭前野における系列・階層の表現が早まることはなく、（２)ある程度難しい曲をピアノで弾ける児童であっても、成人と同じようにメロディを知覚しているわけではないと言える。すなわち、本研究結果は早期教育の効果に洞察を与えた点で社会的意義が高い。