{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T13:34:29Z","timestamp":1785418469063,"version":"3.56.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,17]]},"group-title":"Neuroscience","reference-count":66,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,17]],"date-time":"2026-07-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784246400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"award":["NIH R01AG078376"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NIH R01AG078376"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01cwqze88","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["NIH R43AG092067"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NIH R43AG092067"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01cwqze88","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["NSF-CAREER 1945436"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NSF-CAREER 1945436"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/021nxhr62","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["NSF-BCS 2240330"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NSF-BCS 2240330"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/021nxhr62","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04wzv3n59","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,17]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  Individuals\u2019 ability to obtain pleasure from music, referred to as musical reward sensitivity, declines with age, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this decline remain unclear. In this study, we investigated musical reward sensitivity measured in 58 older adults and 131 young adults. Consistent with prior findings, young adults reported higher musical reward sensitivity than older adults (\n                  <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                  &lt; 0.05). To identify neuroanatomical predictors of musical reward sensitivity, we employed the elastic-net model to predict musical reward sensitivity using white matter microstructural properties and gray matter morphometric properties from the whole brain. In older adults, fractional anisotropy (FA) in the bilateral hippocampal cingulum (CGH) and external capsule (EC) reliably predicted individual differences in musical reward sensitivity. Moreover, FA in the right CGH significantly mediated the relationship between age and musical reward sensitivity in older adults. Notably, these associations were specific to musical reward sensitivity in older adults\u2014that is, they did not replicate in young adults, and did not extend to general reward sensitivity. Together, these findings highlight the critical role of white matter integrity, particularly within the hippocampal-limbic pathways, in age-related changes in musical reward processing, and suggest a potential neurobiological target for interventions aimed at enhancing well-being in older adulthood.\n                <\/jats:p>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Key points<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:list list-type=\"bullet\">\n                    <jats:list-item>\n                      <jats:p>Whole-brain machine learning identified the FA in the hippocampal cingulum and external capsule as robust predictors of musical reward sensitivity in older adults.<\/jats:p>\n                    <\/jats:list-item>\n                    <jats:list-item>\n                      <jats:p>FA in the right hippocampal cingulum mediated the association between age and musical reward sensitivity.<\/jats:p>\n                    <\/jats:list-item>\n                    <jats:list-item>\n                      <jats:p>These findings extend previous association-based studies by identifying hippocampal-limbic white matter as a key neural substrate supporting musical reward sensitivity decline during aging.<\/jats:p>\n                    <\/jats:list-item>\n                  <\/jats:list>\n                <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.07.16.738989","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,17]],"date-time":"2026-07-17T16:35:14Z","timestamp":1784306114000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["When Music Loses Its Pleasure: Hippocampal Cingulum White Matter as a Structural Mediator of Musical Reward Decline in Aging"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6940-4703","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jinyu","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Interdisciplinary Studies - Arts\/Media, Northeastern University"},{"name":"Department of Music, 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