Listening for Memories: Attentional Focus Dissociates Functional Brain Networks Engaged by Memory-Evoking Music

How we experience music depends largely on how we orient our attention. For example, we can orient attention toward aspects of the music or toward thoughts that are evoked while listening. Often, those thoughts are memories that are associated with the music. To better understand how task set and the associated attentional focus recruit brain networks during attentive music listening, we performed two experiments: (a) a single-factor behavioral experiment manipulating Attentional Focus and (b) a balanced 2 × 2 factorial design functional MRI experiment crossing Attentional Focus with Memory Status. Before listening to 30-s song excerpts, half of which were known to be memory evoking in the functional MRI experiment, participants were instructed to either focus on the retrieval of memories evoked by the music, or to determine how many instruments were playing. Attentional Focus accounted for the majority of variability in brain activity and modulated both functional connectivity and community structure of brain regions during music listening. Consistent with previous research on music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs), we found that the medial temporal lobe may not be necessary for MEAMs to be experienced. However, focusing attention toward MEAMs increased medial temporal lobe activity and behavioral ratings of memory reliving. Focusing on MEAMs also increased connectivity between the left hippocampus and default-mode network regions supporting autobiographical recall, in addition to sensorimotor regions that music familiarity is known to modulate. The results substantiate the notion that how we experience music and associated memories depends on how we attend to the music. We provide initial evidence suggesting that music-evoked remembering integrates a sensorimotor representation of the music with episodic representations for the related autobiographical content.