Abstract
Background and objectivesThe aim of the study was to investigate the influence of musical practice on brain plasticity. BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) is a neurotrophin involved in neuroplasticity and synaptic function.Materials and methodsWe recruited 48 healthy subjects of equal age and sex (21 musicians and 27 non-musicians). All subjects were administered the AQ (Autism-Spectrum Questionnaire) and plasma levels (PLs) of BDNF, oxytocin (OT), and vasopressin (VP) were measured in the blood sample of every participant.Results.The difference between BDNF PLs in the two groups was found to be statistically significant (t = − 2.214, p = 0.03). Furthermore, oxytocin (OT) PLs and musical practice were found to be independent positive predictors of BDNF PLs (p < 0.04). We also found a negative correlation between BDNF PLs and AD (attention to detail) sub-scale score of AQ throughout the whole sample. Assuming BDNF PLs to be a marker of synaptic plasticity, higher PLs could be associated with the activation of alternative neural pathways: a lower score in the “attention to detail” sub-scale could imply greater flexibility of higher cerebral functions among musicians.Further researches should be conducted to assess the rehabilitative usefulness of these findings among patients affected by psychiatric disorders.
Highlights
In this study, we deal with the relationship between music and the brain
These neurobiological aspects can be important to explain the increased brain plasticity found in musicians by many neuroimaging studies [50]. These evidences might be considered the biological basis of clinical and rehabilitative implications investigated by numerous studies on music intervention (MI) programs which showed the effectiveness of MI in cognitive, mood, and behavior disorders [17, 36, 57]. We investigated if these adaptations can reflect functional differences between musicians and non-musicians [50] focusing on an important neurotrophic factor involved in synaptic plasticity, the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
Our study showed higher BDNF plasma levels (PLs) in musicians compared with control of the same age and gender
Summary
Music developed throughout human activities (becoming a crucial cultural aspect in every historical age), bearing interesting neurophysiological mechanisms These ones underlie both listening and musical practice, and account for the evolutionary “success” of music, especially looking at its effects on the neural circuits of gratification [62]. The transition from perception to pleasure probably depends on a series of phenomena that connect the two [62] The basis for these processes consists essentially of the following: temporal expectations, their associated forecasts, and the intensity of the reward generated by the satisfaction of these forecasts. Assuming BDNF PLs to be a marker of synaptic plasticity, higher PLs could be associated with the activation of alternative neural pathways: a lower score in the “attention to detail” sub-scale could imply greater flexibility of higher cerebral functions among musicians
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