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Rostromedial Prefontal Cortex

Rostromedial Prefontal Cortex (RM-PFC or RMPFC), situated near the front-middle area of the brain, Brodmann Area 10. Derived from the latin rostrum (bill, snout, stage/platform) and medius (middle).

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  Location front middle of Brodmann Area 10

The rostromedial prefrontal cortex is described in Primary auditory cortex as a subsection of the medial prefrontal cortex, which projects to the amygdala, and is thought to aid in the inhibition of negative emotion. This area is thought to be tonality sensitive, meaning it is activated by the tones and frequencies of resonant sounds and music.

Function

P. Janata et al., Science 298, 2167 (2002) contributes that Western tonal music relies on a formal geometric structure that determines distance relationships within a harmonic or tonal space. In functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments, they identified that an area in the rostromedial prefrontal cortex tracks activation in tonal space. Different voxels in this area exhibited selectivity for different keys. Within the same set of consistently activated voxels, the topography of tonality selectivity rearranged itself across scanning sessions. The tonality structure was thus maintained as a dynamic topography in cortical areas known to be at a nexus of cognitive, affective, and mnemonic processing.