Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior
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Although the substrates that mediate singing abilities in the human brain are not well understood, invasive brain mapping techniques used for clinical decision making such as intracranial electro-cortical testing and Wada testing offer a rare opportunity to examine music-related function in a select group of subjects, affording exceptional spatial and temporal specificity. ⋯ Despite inherent limitations with respect to strictly research objectives, invasive clinical techniques offer a rare opportunity to probe musical and language cognitive processes of the brain in a select group of patients.
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In the present study, we used learning-testing paradigm to examine brain activation of "Aha" effects with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during solving Chinese logogriphs. Blood oxygenation level-dependent fMRI contrasts between Aha and No-aha conditions were measured. Increased activities in the precuneus (BA 19/7), the left inferior/middle frontal gyrus (BA 9/6), the inferior occipital gyrus (BA 18), and the cerebellum were specifically associated with the "Aha" effects. The results indicate that (1) the precuneus might be involved in successful prototype events retrieval, (2) the left inferior frontal/middle frontal gyrus might be involved in forming novel association and breaking mental sets, (3) the inferior occipital gyrus and the cerebellum might be involved in re-arrangement of visual stimulus and deployment of attentional resources.