MEG inter-subject phase-locking of stimulus-driven activity during naturalistic speech listening correlates with musical training

Musical training is associated with increased structural and functional connectivity between auditory sensory areas and higher-order brain networks involved in speech and motor processing. Whether such changed connectivity patterns facilitate the cortical propagation of speech information in musicians remains poorly understood. We here used magnetoencephalography (MEG) source imaging and a novel seed-based inter-subject phase-locking approach to investigate effects of musical training on the interregional synchronization of stimulus-driven neural responses during listening to naturalistic continuous speech presented in silence. MEG data were obtained from twenty young human subjects (both sexes) with different degrees of musical training. Our data show robust bilateral patterns of stimulus-driven interregional phase synchronization between auditory cortex and frontotemporal brain regions previously associated with speech processing. Stimulus-driven phase-locking was maximal in the delta band, but was also observed in the theta and alpha band. The individual duration of musical training was positively associated with the magnitude of stimulus-driven alpha-band phase-locking between auditory cortex and parts of the dorsal and ventral auditory processing streams. These findings provide evidence for a positive relationship between musical training and the propagation of speech-related information between auditory sensory areas and higher-order processing networks, even when speech is presented in silence. We suggest that the increased synchronization of higher-order cortical regions to auditory cortex may contribute to the previously described musician advantage in processing speech in background noise.Significance statementMusical training has been associated with widespread structural and functional brain plasticity. It has been suggested that these changes benefit the production and perception of music, but can also translate to other domains of auditory processing, such as speech. We developed a new magnetoencephalography inter-subject analysis approach to study the cortical synchronization of stimulus-driven neural responses during the perception of continuous natural speech and its relationship to individual musical training. Our results provide evidence that musical training is associated with higher synchronization of stimulus-driven activity between brain regions involved in early auditory sensory and higher-order processing. We suggest that the increased synchronized propagation of speech information may contribute to the previously described musician advantage in processing speech in background noise.