27. Modulation of motor cortex excitability and brain activation in professional pianists during music listening: A combined EEG and TMS study

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have reported mirroring motor activation to music listening in musicians. Actual corticospinal modulation remains to be clarified. We tested the motor cortex modulation in pianists while listening to well-known, predictable melodic sequences, using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography (EEG). Two groups of subjects were studied: pianists (n = 10) and controls (n = 10). Participants listened to a melodic sequence containing the alternating repetition of a scale in two different octaves. Using a circular coil on the vertex, Motor Evoked Potentials (MEP) were recorded bilaterally on both hands at different time points, with 32 channels EEG monitoring. EEG event-related desynchronization (ERD) of the mu rhythm was assessed by comparing its spectral power during listening vs rest. Pianists, not controls, showed modulation of MEPs amplitude of right hand muscles according to the timing of their activation during actual performance. Left sensori-motor frontal mu ERD to the melodic sequence played with the right hand was present in 9 pianists vs 4 control. The dynamic auditory induced motor resonance to music listening observed in pianists suggests the presence of an audio-motor mirror system that can be related to the ability of musician to confer a gestural meaning to well-known melodies.