Musical Context Facilitates Event Segmentation and Sequential Learning Through Interconnected Neural Networks and Strengthened Hippocampal Encoding
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Ren, Yiren
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Abstract
This dissertation investigated how musical context influences temporal order memory and statistical learning using behavioral and fMRI methods. Participants engaged in a visual sequence learning task while undergoing fMRI scanning, with some sequences paired with familiar music and others learned in silence. Results demonstrated that musical context enhanced both sequence learning and event boundary detection. Neural imaging revealed that music modulated activity in key memory regions, with the medial temporal lobe showing enhanced boundary-related processing and more efficient within-sequence encoding. Functional connectivity analyses demonstrated that music facilitated a more consistent and integrated network among the medial temporal lobe, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and striatum that supported learning. Furthermore, representational similarity analysis of hippocampal activity revealed that music enhanced both the binding of items within sequences and the separation between different sequences, while also providing more consistent positional coding for sequential learning. These findings suggest that music provides an effective temporal scaffolding for learning, with implications for educational and clinical applications. This research advances our understanding of how cross-modal context influences memory formation and provides insights into the neural mechanisms underlying music's facilitatory effects on learning.
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2024-12-08
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Dissertation