biorxiv.org
Music-evoked reactivation during continuous perception is associated with enhanced subsequent recall of naturalistic events
Music is a potent cue for recalling personal experiences, yet the neural basis of music-evoked memory remains elusive. We address this question by using the full-length film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to examine how repeated musical themes reactivate previously encoded events in cortex and shape next-day recall. Participants in an fMRI study viewed either the original film (with repeated musical themes) or a no-music version. By comparing neural activity patterns between these groups, we found that music-evoked reactivation of neural patterns linked to earlier scenes in the default mode network was associated with improved subsequent recall. This relationship was specific to the music condition and persisted when we controlled for a proxy measure of initial encoding strength (spatial intersubject correlation), suggesting that music-evoked reactivation may play a role in making event memories stick that is distinct from what happens at initial encoding. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institutes of Health, https://ror.org/01cwqze88, F99 NS118740, R01 MH112357
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![Fig. S1. Direct comparison of human and macaque data from [1] show that macaques do not synchronize to a beat. Human data are copied from Fig. S4 in [1], while macaque data are copied from Fig. 1F in [1]. Dashed arrows have been superimposed to show the predicted pattern for perfect synchronization to the original stimulus (O, in red) and to the phase-shifted stimulus (π, in grey). Human data closely match the synchronized pattern, while macaque data do not.
Figure S2. Reproductions of key experimental data demonstrating beat synchronization in non-human animals. Left: Fig. 2 from [6] showing Snowball the sulphur-crested cockatoo. Right: Fig. 4 from Cook et al. (2013) showing Ronan the sea lion (subset of experiments reported in [7]).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mm4ujzh5bqccjs7g2oerjemp/bafkreic7hcjptgbz4l6esmajgq3vp2heb5n27jh3jqvrx3bv6kj7ub5tdy)
