Expertise-Dependent Brain Network Organization During Music Perception

Hum Brain Mapp. 2025 Dec 1;46(17):e70420. doi: 10.1002/hbm.70420.

ABSTRACT

Listening to music is a ubiquitous human activity, but little is known about its functional cerebral correlates. We investigated the dynamics of fMRI-based brain activation patterns associated with two musical compositions and examined whether these patterns are modulated by the degree of musical expertise. Specifically, 24 aspiring professionals and 17 amateur musicians listened to a baroque composition by J. S. Bach and an early modern piece by A. Webern. Using measures of dynamic and static functional connectivity and graph theory, we identified two distinct brain states: one characterized by higher modularity (greater segregation), and the other by higher global efficiency (greater integration). Participants spent more time in the segregated state while listening to Bach, and more frequently shifted to the integrated state during Webern’s piece. An anticorrelation was observed between segregation and music complexity as measured by permutation entropy, indicating that music with higher complexity elicited more integrated brain states. Individuals with greater musical expertise demonstrated higher global efficiency during the Webern piece and engaged more frontal, temporal, and parietal regions as functional hubs. These findings suggest that musical form and expertise jointly shape the brain’s functional organization during naturalistic music listening.

PMID:41316851 | DOI:10.1002/hbm.70420