Abstract
It is unclear to what extent cerebellar networks show long-term plasticity and accompanied changes in cortical structures. Using drumming as a demanding multimodal motor training, we compared cerebellar lobular volume and white matter microstructure, as well as cortical thickness of 15 healthy non-musicians before and after learning to drum, and 16 age matched novice control participants. After 8 weeks of group drumming instruction, 3 ×30 minutes per week, we observed the cerebellum significantly changing its grey (volume increase of left VIIIa, relative decrease of VIIIb and vermis Crus I volume) and white matter microstructure in the inferior cerebellar peduncle. These plastic cerebellar changes were complemented by changes in cortical thickness (increase in left paracentral, right precuneus and right but not left superior frontal thickness), suggesting an interplay of cerebellar learning with cortical structures enabled through cerebellar pathways.
Highlights
It is unclear to what extent cerebellar networks show long-term plasticity and accompanied changes in cortical structures
We expected that drum training would affect cerebellar volume and cortical thickness of both sensorimotor and cognitive control systems in order to meet the high rhythm perception and motor coordination demands to play in time with the music
As all of our participants were right-handed, we propose that the Mean Diffusivity (MD) decrease in the left but not the right ICP paired with the opposite increase-decrease pattern in cortical superior frontal gyrus (SFG) thickness indicates that left body motor functions have been preferentially strengthened in order to match the high demands of equal velocity needed in drumming
Summary
It is unclear to what extent cerebellar networks show long-term plasticity and accompanied changes in cortical structures. In order for the cerebellum to use plastic processes for skill development, studies suggest that the cerebellum integrates multisensory information in the somatosensory posterior cerebellar lobe to calculate a ‘state estimate’ in order to accurately plan and optimise actions[5,7], which can be divided into its involvement in sensorimotor and cognitive control functions This is reached through its broadly distributed system of cortical connections enabled by its three white matter pathways, the cerebellar peduncles[8]. We chose to use a variety of multimodal MRI measures and analyses: from structural cerebellar segmentation, DTI to cortical thickness Using this holistic approach, we expected that drum training would affect cerebellar volume and cortical thickness of both sensorimotor and cognitive control systems in order to meet the high rhythm perception and motor coordination demands to play in time with the music. We expected that these longer-term plastic changes alter white matter peduncle microstructure as well, as they are the only connection between cerebellar and neocortical structures
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