The effects of musical practice on structural plasticity: The dynamics of grey matter changes |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53719, USA;2. Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa 56126, Italy;3. Clinical Psychology Branch, University of Pisa, AOUP Santa Chiara, Pisa 56126, Italy;4. Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53705, USA;5. Dept. of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53705, USA;6. Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology, City University of New York Medical School, New York, NY 10031, USA;7. IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca 55100, Italy;1. International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont Royal, FAS, Département de psychologie, CP 6128 Succ. Centre Ville, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada;2. Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H4B 1R6, Canada;3. Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, 3655 Sir William Osler, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada;4. Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, 90 avenue Vincent d''Indy, Montreal, Quebec H2V 2S9, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Intensive training and the acquisition of expertise are known to bring about structural changes in the brain. Musical training is a particularly interesting model. Previous studies have reported structural brain modifications in the auditory, motor and visuospatial areas of musicians compared with nonmusicians. The main goal of the present study was to go one step further, by exploring the dynamic of those structural brain changes related to musical experience. To this end, we conducted a regression study on 44 nonmusicians and amateur musicians with 0–26 years of musical practice of a variety instruments. We sought first to highlight brain areas that increased with the duration of practice and secondly distinguish (thanks to an ANOVA analysis) brain areas that undergo grey matter changes after only limited years of musical practice from those that require longer practice before they exhibit changes. Results revealed that musical training results a greater grey matter volumes in different brain areas for musicians. Changes appear gradually in the left hippocampus and right middle and superior frontal regions, but later also include the right insula and supplementary motor area and left superior temporal, and posterior cingulate areas. Given that all participants had the same age and that we controlled for age and education level, these results cannot be ascribed to normal brain maturation. Instead, they support the notion that musical training could induce dynamic structural changes. |
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| Keywords: | Music Training Plasticity MRI VBM |
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