Change in left inferior frontal connectivity with less unexpected harmonic cadence by musical expertise

In terms of harmonic expectancy, compared to an expected dominant-to-tonic and an unexpected dominant-to-supertonic, a dominant-to-submediant is a less unexpected cadence, the perception of which may depend on the subject’s musical expertise. The present study investigated how aforementioned 3 different cadences are processed in the networks of bilateral inferior frontal gyri (IFGs) and superior temporal gyri (STGs) with magnetoencephalography. We compared the correct rate and brain connectivity in 9 music-majors (mean age, 23.5 ± 3.4 years; musical training period, 18.7 ± 4.0 years) and 10 non-music-majors (mean age, 25.2 ± 2.6 years; musical training period, 4.2 ± 1.5 years). For the brain connectivity, we computed the summation of partial directed coherence (PDC) values for inflows/outflows to/from each area (sPDC(i)/sPDC(o)) in bilateral IFGs and STGs. In the behavioral responses, music-majors were better than non-music-majors for all 3 cadences (p < 0.05). However, sPDC(i)/sPDC(o) was prominent only for the dominant-to-submediant in the left IFG. The sPDC(i) was more strongly enhanced in music-majors than in non-music-majors (p = 0.002, Bonferroni corrected), while the sPDC(o) was vice versa (p = 0.005, Bonferroni corrected). Our data show that music-majors, with higher musical expertise, are better in identifying a less unexpected cadence than non-music-majors, with connectivity changes centered on the left IFG.