Our paper on individual differences in musicality is now published in @NatureComms! 🧠🎶 We found that variations in musical perceptual abilities in the general population are linked to diffs in brain network systems largely dedicated to working memory and other exec functions /1.

We also extend our gratitude to EU COST Action CA18106 (@COSTprogramme @con_arch) and @GrundforskFond for supporting this work.🎵.

Thanks to all our co-authors for their invaluable contributions: @perikeller, @giosuebaggio, @pandonaude, @miearnaumartinez, @hilleb, @AndreaRavignani, @nikitajoe, @PVuust, and @k_vulic. /11.

A special thanks to @KrSandberg for sharing this magnificent dataset and to @ClaudeBajada for the great work on structural connectomes. /10.

WM is only the general infrastructure upon which other components play their critical role in perception (from metrical encoding to predictive processes). If we want to understand what constitutes musicality, we need a divide-and-conquer approach! /9.

We also argue it has implications for understanding some of the origins of music diversity (diversity in perception > potential for new mus variants > within-group variation feeds processes of between-group diversification) /8 @CulturalEvolSoc.

This research enhances our understanding of individual neural predispositions in musical ability and gives insights into the neural roots (domain gen) of musicality in humans. It may also support theories of 'exaptation' in the evolution of music. /7.

What did we find? Individuals with higher MET scores showed more efficient integration capabilities in regions of the FPN, which are known to be crucial in WM and other executive functions. Results are controlled for age, biological sex, and mus training /6

Here, the network selected: FPN and an occipital control network /5

Using network neuroscience and graph theory, we quantified how efficiently frontoparietal areas communicate and integrate information *at rest*, and related them to musical perceptual abilities (assessed with the Musical Ear Test). /4

Why are some people more musical than others? Are domain-general neurocognitive factors essential in differentiating music listeners? We analyzed MRI scans, cognitive tests (WAIS), and musical data (Gold-MSI, MET) from over 200 participants (@con_arch thanks to @KrSandberg) /3.

Read more: @musicbrainAU @CFIN_AU @AarhusUni thx to several fantastic collaborators (see below)👇/2.

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