Music as a driver for brain plasticity

Abstract

Sensory-motor skills of musicians have some specific qualities: learning begins at an early age in a playful atmosphere. Routines for stereotyped movements are rehearsed for extended periods of time with gradually increasing degrees of complexity. Via auditory feedback, the motor performance is extremely controllable by both, performer and audience. All movements are strongly linked to emotions, – pleasure or anxiety –, processed by the limbic system. These specific circumstances seem to play an important role for plastic adaptation at several levels of the central nervous system. There is a dark side to the increasing specialization and prolonged training of modern musicians, namely loss of control and degradation of skilled hand movements, a disorder referred to as musicians’ cramp or focal dystonia. Neuroimaging studies point to dysfunctional (or maladaptive) neuroplasticity as its cause. I will present new data on functional plasticity in musicians. It seems that early training leads to clearly more efficient networks as compared to late start of training. With respect to Musician’s dystonia, there are different categories of motor disturbances either linked to psychological traits, or to basal ganglia dysfunction. I will present a model accounting for our findings concerning the triggering factors of musician’s dystonia.