We used a freely available algorithm to perform spectral rotation on the musical stimuli (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~jcrinion/rotation/blesser3.m). This method has been described in previous works (Blesser, 1972; Scott et al., 2000; Warren et al., 2006; Abrams et al., 2012). The center frequency for spectral rotation was 5512 Hz. This center frequency was chosen so that the rotated frequencies would be within the frequency response range of the fMRI-compatible headphones (20–10 000 Hz). Phase-scrambling was performed by applying

a Fourier transform to each of the four symphonies that constitute the Natural Music stimulus and then randomizing its MK-2206 order phase response by adding a random phase shift at every frequency

(Prichard & Theiler, 1994). The phase shifts were obtained by randomly sampling in the interval (0, 2π). This process preserves the power spectrum of each of the four symphonies. Note that, by design, the Phase-Scrambled control stimulus preserves spectral density but not time-dependent fluctuations. We preferred this design as it facilitates a simple and interpretable result: brain structures that show greater ISS for Natural Music compared with the Phase-Scrambled condition are sensitive to the temporal structure of music. Our design therefore forms a necessary starting point for future investigations of more complex time-dependent attributes of musical structure that lead to synchronized responses among subjects, perhaps using a wavelet transform that preserves

both the Selleck PD0332991 spectral density and the time-dependent fluctuations in that density. Brain images were acquired on a 3T GE Signa scanner using a standard GE whole head coil (software Lx 8.3). For the Natural Music, Spectrally-Rotated and Phase-Scrambled conditions, images were acquired every 2 s in two runs that lasted 9 min 42 s. The sequence of these stimulus conditions was consistent across listeners: the Natural Music condition was presented first, the Phase-Scrambled condition Edoxaban was presented second and the Spectrally-Rotated condition was presented third. While it would have been preferable to have randomized the stimulus presentation order across subjects to control for attention and fatigue, we do not believe that this had a significant effect on the results given that there was vastly greater ISS for the final stimulus condition (Spectral-Rotation) relative to the penultimate stimulus condition (Phase-Scrambled), which would not have occurred had fatigue and attention negatively affected ISS results. Subjects were instructed to attend to all the music and music-like stimuli. To allow for a natural listening experience, we did not provide any additional instructions to the subjects. A custom-built head holder was used to prevent head movement. Twenty-eight axial slices (4.0 mm thick, 0.