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Disorders of consciousness (DOC), i.e., unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) or vegetative state (VS) and minimally conscious state (MCS), are conditions that can arise from severe brain injury, inducing widespread functional changes. Given the damaging implications resulting from these conditions, there is an increasing need for rehabilitation treatments aimed at enhancing the level of consciousness, the quality of life, and creating new recovery perspectives for the patients. Music may represent an additional rehabilitative tool in contexts where cognition and language are severely compromised, such as among DOC patients. A further type of rehabilitation strategies for DOC patients consists of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation techniques (NIBS), including transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), affecting neural excitability and promoting brain plasticity. We here propose a novel rehabilitation protocol for DOC patients that combines music-based intervention and NIBS in neurological patients. The main objectives are (i) to assess the residual neuroplastic processes in DOC patients exposed to music, (ii) to determine the putative neural modulation and the clinical outcome in DOC patients of non-pharmacological strategies, i.e., tES(control condition), and music stimulation, and (iii) to evaluate the putative positive impact of this intervention on caregiver's burden and psychological distress. This is a randomised cross-over trial in which a total of 30 participants will be randomly allocated to one of three different combinations of conditions: (i) Music only, (ii) tES only (control condition), (iii) Music + tES. The music intervention will consist of listening to an individually tailored playlist including familiar and self-relevant music together with fixed songs; concerning NIBS, tES will be applied for 20 minutes every day, 5 times a week, for two weeks. After these stimulations two weeks of placebo treatments will follow, with sham stimulation combined with noise for other two weeks. The primary outcomes will be clinical, i.e., based on the differences in the scores obtained on the neuropsychological tests, such as Coma Recovery Scale-Revised, and neurophysiological measures as EEG, collected pre-intervention, post-intervention and post-placebo. This study proposes a novel rehabilitation protocol for patients with DOC including a combined intervention of music and NIBS. Considering the need for rigorous longitudinal randomised controlled trials for people with severe brain injury disease, the results of this study will be highly informative for highlighting and implementing the putative beneficial role of music and NIBS in rehabilitation treatments. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05706831, registered on January 30, 2023.

Music is a primary source of pleasure for humans. Nevertheless, there is large interindividual variability in how individuals experience and derive pleasure from music and music-related activities. With this study we propose and validate the Italian version of the extended Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (eBMRQ), the most in-depth and comprehensive tool for investigating the diverse characterization of individual sensitivity to pleasure in music. In addition, we aim to investigate eBMRQ scores as a function of age, gender, and musicianship across Italian population. For the validation process of the Italian eBMRQ, we first conducted forward and backward translation from the original English eBMRQ version. The new Italian version was then administered to 1,012 participants who were fluent in Italian from the north and the south of Italy through online surveys (age range 18-86 years old; M = 34.9, SD = 16.9, females 74%). Unrestricted confirmatory analysis was computed for both six-factor and single-factor models. The effect of gender, age, and musicianship on eBMRQ scores was analyzed through analysis of variance (ANOVA). The quality assessment of the factor solution indicated that the Italian eBMRQ demonstrated acceptable quality and reliability, making it a valid tool for assessing sensitivity to music reward. All factors were significantly correlated with each other, in line with previous adaptations of the BMRQ. Our findings indicate that females reported higher music reward sensitivity compared to males, except for Social Reward subscale. Moreover, individual reward sensitivity was significantly higher among musicians and amateurs compared to non-musicians, although this trend did not emerge for Sensory-motor and Mood Regulation subscales. Also, overall musical reward sensitivity was negatively associated with age. The results obtained suggest the feasibility of applying the Italian version of eBMRQ as a reliable tool in the field of affective and clinical music-related research. Furthermore, the significant associations we have highlighted between eBMRQ scores, gender, age, and musicianship contribute to emphasizing the significant impact of individual factors on music reward sensitivity.

Growing literature has identified the social dimension as one of the crucial mechanisms behind musical pleasure. However, the effect of the social context on the emotional experience associated with music remains unclear. Indeed, some previous studies observed no significant differences between listening to music in a group and alone in terms of emotional responses. In contrast, listening to music with a close friend or a partner has been associated with higher responses of pleasure and enjoyment compared to listening alone. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the effect of music listening in a group versus solo context focusing specifically on pleasure-related responses. In addition, we conducted an exploration of the individual factors which may impact on the experience of reward. Forty-one healthy participants were asked to provide pleasure-related ratings whilst undergoing music listening sessions both individually and in a group. We found higher self-reported pleasure and other related emotional responses when participants were listening to music alone rather than in a group. Also, the exploration of the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between listening pleasure and the social context revealed that concentration was not a determinant of musical pleasure, and that a higher feeling of connection with the co-listeners was associated with higher pleasure ratings in the group condition, even though knowing someone in the group did not increase pleasure. In light of our findings, we discuss strengths and limitations of our and previous solo versus group music-based studies, and suggest how to potentially foster pleasure-related responses in social music contexts.

Disorders of consciousness (DOC), i.e., unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) or vegetative state (VS) and minimally conscious state (MCS), are conditions that can arise from severe brain injury, inducing widespread functional changes. Given the damaging implications resulting from these conditions, there is an increasing need for rehabilitation treatments aimed at enhancing the level of consciousness, the quality of life, and creating new recovery perspectives for the patients. Music may represent an additional rehabilitative tool in contexts where cognition and language are severely compromised, such as among DOC patients. A further type of rehabilitation strategies for DOC patients consists of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation techniques (NIBS), including transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), affecting neural excitability and promoting brain plasticity. We here propose a novel rehabilitation protocol for DOC patients that combines music-based intervention and NIBS in neurological patients. The main objectives are (i) to assess the residual neuroplastic processes in DOC patients exposed to music, (ii) to determine the putative neural modulation and the clinical outcome in DOC patients of non-pharmacological strategies, i.e., tES(control condition), and music stimulation, and (iii) to evaluate the putative positive impact of this intervention on caregiver's burden and psychological distress. This is a randomised cross-over trial in which a total of 30 participants will be randomly allocated to one of three different combinations of conditions: (i) Music only, (ii) tES only (control condition), (iii) Music + tES. The music intervention will consist of listening to an individually tailored playlist including familiar and self-relevant music together with fixed songs; concerning NIBS, tES will be applied for 20 minutes every day, 5 times a week, for two weeks. After these stimulations two weeks of placebo treatments will follow, with sham stimulation combined with noise for other two weeks. The primary outcomes will be clinical, i.e., based on the differences in the scores obtained on the neuropsychological tests, such as Coma Recovery Scale-Revised, and neurophysiological measures as EEG, collected pre-intervention, post-intervention and post-placebo. This study proposes a novel rehabilitation protocol for patients with DOC including a combined intervention of music and NIBS. Considering the need for rigorous longitudinal randomised controlled trials for people with severe brain injury disease, the results of this study will be highly informative for highlighting and implementing the putative beneficial role of music and NIBS in rehabilitation treatments.

During the last decades, a growing body of research on musical pleasure has shed light on individual differences and mechanisms underlying music reward sensitivity. Music training has been identified as a factor able to affect the rewarding experience associated with music, although in the existing literature, evidence on children is scarce. The current study focused on the effects of music training and individual musical engagement on sensitivity to music reward in preadolescence. One hundred and forty-two students (aged 10-14 years) at three different Italian music middle schools were tested three times over a period of one year and a half. Eighty two children belonged to a music curriculum within the school and 60 belonged to a standard curriculum. The Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ), a multi-dimensional assessment tool to measure music reward sensitivity, was used, and pre-existing differences in music sophistication were controlled for. Moreover, in addition to the between-group comparison, highlighting the formal music training variable, the actual amount of musical activities and engagement both in and out of school was also taken into account. Several positive effects in terms of music social reward were found for students with a high level of musical engagement. Also, results showed a main effect of gender, with girls showing higher scores than boys in total BMRQ score and in several subdomains. Taken together, these data provide new evidence for the special role played by collective musical activities and suggest that music training may be able to promote social connection in preadolescence.

Growing literature has identified the social dimension as one of the crucial mechanisms behind musical pleasure. However, the effect of the social context on the emotional experience associated with music remains unclear. Indeed, some previous studies observed no significant differences between listening to music in a group and alone in terms of emotional responses. In contrast, listening to music with a close friend or a partner has been associated with higher responses of pleasure and enjoyment compared to listening alone. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the effect of music listening in a group versus solo context focusing specifically on pleasure-related responses. In addition, we conducted an exploration of the individual factors which may impact on the experience of reward. Forty-one healthy participants were asked to provide pleasure-related ratings whilst undergoing music listening sessions both individually and in a group. We found higher self-reported pleasure and other related emotional responses when participants were listening to music alone rather than in a group. Also, the exploration of the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between listening pleasure and the social context revealed that concentration was not a determinant of musical pleasure, and that a higher feeling of connection with the co-listeners was associated with higher pleasure ratings in the group condition, even though knowing someone in the group did not increase pleasure. In light of our findings, we discuss strengths and limitations of our and previous solo versus group music-based studies, and suggest how to potentially foster pleasure-related responses in social music contexts. KEYWORDS musical reward emotion individual differences social context pleasure

While sounds are essential for human development, existing research primarily emphasizes visual and spatial memory and speech in relation to auditory processes, with a lack of a cohesive understanding of memory mechanisms for non-verbal sounds. This systematic review and coordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging findings aims to comprehensively organize the literature for identifying the key brain mechanisms involved in short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory for non-verbal auditory information. Additionally, we aimed to identify whether and how individual differences in neural memory processes related to auditory expertise (musicianship), aging or auditory impairments such as amusia are explored in the literature. Our review included ninety studies meeting the selection criteria, with only thirteen studies containing brain coordinates could be included in the meta-analysis. The coordinate-based meta-analysis identified a frontal hub for non-verbal auditory memory encompassing the medial frontal gyrus, cingulate gyrus and superior frontal gyrus.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

Since ancient Greece, major and minor modes in Western tonal music have been identified as the primary responsible musical feature for eliciting emotional states. As such, the underlying correlates of the major-minor mode dichotomy in music perception have been extensively investigated through decades of psychological and neuroscientific research, providing plentiful yet often discordant results. Specifically, crucial questions remain about the several factors contributing to the affective perception of major and minor modes, at times very different among individuals. Moreover, major and minor mode perception has never been quantitatively compared in literature. This comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to provide a qualitative and quantitative synthesis of musical mode perception and its behavioural and neural correlates. The qualitative synthesis resulted in 69 studies, showing great diversity in how the major-minor dichotomy has been empirically approached. Most studies reviewed were conducted on adults, considered participants’ expertise, employed real-life musical stimuli, performed behavioural evaluations, and were carried out among Western listeners. Behavioural, electroencephalography, and neuroimaging meta-analyses (36 studies) consistently showed that major and minor mode elicit distinct neural and emotional responses. Based on our findings, a framework to describe a Major-Minor Mode(l) of music perception and its behavioural and physiological correlates is proposed, incorporating individual factors such as age, expertise, cultural background, and emotional disorders. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed, including putative clinical applications of major-minor dichotomy and best practices regarding stimulation paradigms for musical mode investigation. This study provides qualitative and quantitative evidence of the distinct behavioral and neural responses elicited by major and minor mode, while also highlighting the influence of factors such as age, culture, personality, and health. Results offers a detailed overview of the major-minor dichotomy in music, putting forward an integrated and critical discussion of methodologies, paradigms, and clinical implications of this pivotal musical feature.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects approximately 1 child in 54, with a 35-fold increase since 1960. Selected studies suggest that part of the recent increase in prevalence is likely attributable to an improved awareness and recognition, and changes in clinical practice or service availability. However, this is not sufficient to explain this epidemiological phenomenon. Research points to a possible link between ASD and intestinal microbiota because many children with ASD display gastro-intestinal problems. Current large-scale datasets of ASD are limited in their ability to provide mechanistic insight into ASD because they are predominantly cross-sectional studies that do not allow evaluation of perspective associations between early life microbiota composition/function and later ASD diagnoses. Here we describe GEMMA (Genome, Environment, Microbiome and Metabolome in Autism), a prospective study supported by the European Commission, that follows at-risk infants from birth to identify potential biomarker predictors of ASD development followed by validation on large multi-omics datasets. The project includes clinical (observational and interventional trials) and pre-clinical studies in humanized murine models (fecal transfer from ASD probands) and in vitro colon models. This will support the progress of a microbiome-wide association study (of human participants) to identify prognostic microbiome signatures and metabolic pathways underlying mechanisms for ASD progression and severity and potential treatment response.