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The DOI matches its Crossref record; 42 of the 42 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation

Open access
Limb, Charles J., Braun, Allen R.·2008·PLoS ONE

Abstract

To investigate the neural substrates that underlie spontaneous musical performance, we examined improvisation in professional jazz pianists using functional MRI. By employing two paradigms that differed widely in musical complexity, we found that improvisation (compared to production of over-learned musical sequences) was consistently characterized by a dissociated pattern of activity in the prefrontal cortex: extensive deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral orbital regions with focal activation of the medial prefrontal (frontal polar) cortex. Such a pattern may reflect a combination of psychological processes required for spontaneous improvisation, in which internally motivated, stimulus-independent behaviors unfold in the absence of central processes that typically mediate self-monitoring and conscious volitional control of ongoing performance. Changes in prefrontal activity during improvisation were accompanied by widespread activation of neocortical sensorimotor areas (that mediate the organization and execution of musical performance) as well as deactivation of limbic structures (that regulate motivation and emotional tone). This distributed neural pattern may provide a cognitive context that enables the emergence of spontaneous creative activity.

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Metadata

Authors
Limb, C. J., & Braun, A. R.
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2008-02-27
Volume
3
Issue
2
Pages
e1679
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2101241828
Cited by
773
References
42
FWCI
9.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
gold

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1371/journal.pone.0001679
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Limb, C. J., & Braun, A. R. (2008). Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001679

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