Structural and functional plasticity specific to musical training with wind instruments.

Uk-Su Choi,Sujin Hong,Jun-Young Chung,Yul-Wan Sung,Seiji Ogawa

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00597

Abstract

Numerous neuroimaging studies have shown structural and functional changes resulting from musical training. Among these studies, changes in primary sensory areas are mostly related to motor functions. In this study, we looked for some similar functional and structural changes in other functional modalities, such as somatosensory function, by examining the effects of musical training with wind instruments. We found significant changes in two aspects of neuroplasticity, cortical thickness, and resting-state neuronal networks. A group of subjects with several years of continuous musical training and who are currently playing in university wind ensembles showed differences in cortical thickness in lip- and tongue-related brain areas vs. non-music playing subjects. Cortical thickness in lip-related brain areas was significantly thicker and that in tongue-related areas was significantly thinner in the music playing group compared with that in the non-music playing group. Association analysis of lip-related areas in the music playing group showed that the increase in cortical thickness was caused by musical training. In addition, seed-based correlation analysis showed differential activation in the precentral gyrus and supplementary motor areas (SMA) between the music and non-music playing groups. These results suggest that high-intensity training with specific musical instruments could induce structural changes in related anatomical areas and could also generate a new functional neuronal network in the brain.

Highlights

Structural and functional changes in the human brain resulting from musical training have been noninvasively studied using various imaging modalities, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; Schlaug, 2001; Münte et al, 2002; Schmithorst and Wilke, 2002; Schlaug et al, 2005, 2009; Hyde et al, 2009; Penhune, 2011; Steele et al, 2013)
The music playing group showed a thicker cortex in an area of the anterior part of the postcentral gyrus corresponding to the lips (Breshears et al, 2015) [t-value = 3.41; p-value = 0.003; cluster size = 9.71 mm2; Brodmann’s area (BA) 3; Talairach coordinates: x = 58, y = −14, z =44] but a thinner cortex in an area of the posterior part of the postcentral gyrus corresponding to the tongue (Breshears et al, 2015) [t-value = − 3.51; p-value = 0.002; cluster size = 10.93 mm2; BA2; Talairach coordinates: x = 64, y = −14, z = 35] compared with the non-music playing group
Areas with significantly different cortical thickness were subjected to Region of interest (ROI)-based correlation analysis of thickness and years of musical training

Summary

Introduction

Structural and functional changes in the human brain resulting from musical training have been noninvasively studied using various imaging modalities, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; Schlaug, 2001; Münte et al, 2002; Schmithorst and Wilke, 2002; Schlaug et al, 2005, 2009; Hyde et al, 2009; Penhune, 2011; Steele et al, 2013). Two main approaches have been used in MRI studies: structural and functional. Musicians often show different fractional anisotropy (FA) maps in several brain areas compared with non-musicians (Schmithorst and Wilke, 2002; Bengtsson et al, 2005; Halwani et al, 2011; Engel et al, 2014; Moore et al, 2014) They showed lower FA maps compared with non-musicians in the corticospinal tract, corona radiate, and internal

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