Despite the important role that music listening plays in children’s and adolescents’ lives, none of the previous neuroimaging studies has so far investigated the neural functional connectivity (FC) associated to music listening in this young population. Since music unfolds over time, it is crucial to look at the dynamic networks that re-occur and dissolve over the music. Using a recently developed method to examine dynamic FC, 17 young adolescents 10-11 years of age were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while listening to music or resting. We examined differences in occurrence and switching profiles of patterns of BOLD phase coherence between music and silence. Our results showed a significantly increased tendency to access a reward network including the medial orbitofrontal cortex during music listening compared to silence (p=0.0000044). Moreover, we observed a higher probability to switch to this state while listening to music. A positive correlation between the individual musical reward sensitivity of the participants and the tendency to switch to the orbitofrontal reward network during music was also found. For the first time, we show that music is able to attract recurrently in early-adolescence a brain network involved in hedonic processing. These results offer fresh insight into the neural underpinnings of musical reward in early adolescence and provide neurological grounds for musical interventions in this delicate age.
Original language
English
Publication year
13 May 2019
Publication status
Published - 13 May 2019
Event
Neuroscience Day 2019 - AU, Aarhus, Denmark Duration: 13 May 2019 → 13 May 2019