Trained Pianists Research Articles

Passive somatosensory training enhances piano skill in adolescent and adult pianists: A preliminary study.

Sensory afferent information, such as auditory and somatosensory feedback while moving, plays a crucial role in both control and learning of motor performance across the lifespan. Music performance requires skillful integration of multimodal sensory information for the production of dexterous movements. However, it has not been understood what roles somatosensory afferent information plays in the acquisition and sophistication of specialized motor skills of musicians across different stages of development. In the present preliminary study, we addressed this issue by using a novel technique with a hand exoskeleton robot that can externally move the fingers of pianists. Short-term exposure to fast and complex finger movements generated by the exoskeleton (i.e., passive movements) increased the maximum rate of repetitive piano keystrokes by the pianists. This indicates that somatosensory inputs derived from the externally generated motions enhanced the quickness of the sequential finger movements in piano performance, even though the pianists did not voluntarily move the fingers. The enhancement of motor skill through passive somatosensory training using the exoskeleton was more pronounced in adolescent pianists than adult pianists. These preliminary results implicate a sensitive period of neuroplasticity of the somatosensory-motor system of trained pianists, which emphasizes the importance of somatosensory-motor training in professional music education during adolescence.

The sound of silence: an EEG study of how musicians time pauses in individual and joint music performance.

Pauses are an integral feature of social interaction. Conversation partners often pause between conversational turns, and musical co-performers often pause between musical phrases. How do humans coordinate the duration of pauses to ensure seamless interaction? A total of 40 trained pianists performed a simple melody containing fermatas (notated expressive pauses of unspecified duration) first alone (Solo) and then with a partner (Duet) while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. As predicted, Duet partners’ tone onset synchrony was reduced for tones following pauses. Pauses were shorter in Duet relative to Solo performance, and synchrony of partners’ Duet tone onsets was enhanced for tones following shorter pauses. EEG analysis revealed classic signatures of action preparation during pauses, namely decreases in the power of cortical beta oscillations (13–30 Hz, event-related desynchronization ERD). Beta ERD did not differ between pauses in Solo and Duet performance, but was enhanced for shorter relative to longer pauses, suggesting that reduced pause durations in Duet performance facilitated a neural state of enhanced action readiness. Together these findings provide novel insight into behavioural strategies by which musical partners resolve coordination challenges posed by expressive silence, and capture a clear neural signature of action planning during time-varying silences in natural music performance.

Neuromuscular and biomechanical functions subserving finger dexterity in musicians

Exceptional finger dexterity enables skillful motor actions such as those required for musical performance. However, it has been not known whether and in what manner neuromuscular or biomechanical features of the fingers subserve the dexterity. We aimed to identify the features firstly differentiating the finger dexterity between trained and untrained individuals and secondly accounting for the individual differences in the dexterity across trained individuals. To this aim, two studies were conducted. The first study compared the finger dexterity and several neuromuscular and biomechanical characteristics of the fingers between pianists and non-musicians. As a measure of the dexterity, we used the maximum rate of repetitive finger movements. The results showed no differences in any biomechanical constraints of the fingers between the two groups (i.e. anatomical connectivity between the fingers and range of motion). However, the pianists exhibited faster finger movements and more independent control of movements between the fingers. These observations indicate expertise-dependent enhancement of the finger dexterity and reduction of neuromuscular constraints on movement independence between the fingers. The second study assessed individual differences in the finger dexterity between trained pianists. A penalized regression determined an association of the maximum movement speed of the fingers with both muscular strength and biomechanical characteristics of the fingers, but not with neuromuscular constraints of the fingers. None of these features covaried with measures of early and deliberate piano practice. These findings indicate that distinct biological factors of finger motor dexterity differentiate between the effects of piano practicing and individual differences across skilled pianists.

Electrical Neuroimaging of Music Processing in Pianists With and Without True Absolute Pitch.

True absolute pitch (AP), labeling of pitches with semitone precision without a reference, is classically studied using isolated tones. However, AP is acquired and has its function within complex dynamic musical contexts. Here we examined event-related brain responses and underlying cerebral sources to endings of short expressive string quartets, investigating a homogeneous population of young highly trained pianists with half of them possessing true-AP. The pieces ended regularly or contained harmonic transgressions at closure that participants appraised. Given the millisecond precision of ERP analyses, this experimental plan allowed examining whether AP alters music processing at an early perceptual, or later cognitive level, or both, and which cerebral sources underlie differences with non-AP musicians. We also investigated the impact of AP on general auditory cognition. Remarkably, harmonic transgression sensitivity did not differ between AP and non-AP participants, and differences for auditory cognition were only marginal. The key finding of this study is the involvement of a microstate peaking around 60 ms after musical closure, characterizing AP participants. Concurring sources were estimated in secondary auditory areas, comprising the planum temporale, all transgression conditions collapsed. These results suggest that AP is not a panacea to become a proficient musician, but a rare perceptual feature.

Expertise-dependent motor somatotopy of music perception

Precise mapping between sound and motion underlies successful communication and information transmission in speech and musical performance. Formation of the map typically undergoes plastic changes in the neuronal network between auditory and motor regions through training. However, to what extent the map is somatotopically-tuned so that auditory information can specifically modulate the corticospinal system responsible for the relevant motor action has not been elucidated. Here we addressed this issue by assessing the excitability of corticospinal system including the primary motor cortex (M1) innervating the hand intrinsic muscles by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation while trained pianists and musically-untrained individuals (non-musicians) were listening to either piano tones or noise. M1 excitability was evaluated at two anatomically-independent muscles of the hand. The results demonstrated elevation of M1 excitability at not all but one specific muscle while listening to piano tones in the pianists, but no excitability change in both of the muscles in the non-musicians. However, listening to noise did not elicit any changes of M1 excitability at both muscles in both the pianists and the non-musicians. These findings indicate that auditory information representing the trained motor action tunes M1 excitability in a non-uniform, somatotopically-specific manner, which is likely associated with multimodal experiences in musical training.

Психофизиологические механизмы формирования координационного компонента психомоторных способностей музыкантов

Psychomotor abilities of the musician are implemented in performing technique and include muscle strength, endurance, speed of movements, coordination, motor memory. The article presents the materials of a theoretical study aimed to identify the level character of the coordination component of psychomotor abilities of musicians formation, to define the psychophysiological mechanisms that contribute to the effective development of musical-performing technique. The process of coordination component of psychomotor abilities of musicians formation reviewed in the light of N.. Bernstein theory on construction of movements, which most fully represents the interrelation of physiological and psychological mechanisms of a man motor activity. On the example of musical- performing activity of trained pianists the processes of intermuscular, spatial, sensory-motor (visual-motor, auditory-motor, tactile-motor) coordination formation are reviewed and in general – psychomotor coordination processes involved in musicians performing technique development.

The role of real-time acquisition of visual and auditory information in the performance of scale and arpeggio tasks in pianists

We previously found that the spatial memory of piano keyboard was not accurate enough to play without external spatial cues even in trained pianists. Therefore, the real-time acquisition of spatial information should be essential for piano performance. The aim of the present study was to test how and when the online acquisition of the visual and auditory information contribute to the performance of pianists. Seven undergraduate and graduate students majoring piano performance at a university participated in our experiment. They were asked to play the task sequences, which consisted of scale, arpeggio of triads, alternating fourth and fifth, and alternating fourth, fifth and one octave leap, on an electric piano. Each pianist played in four conditions: “Ordinary,” “No-sound,” “No-vision,” and “No-sound & No-vision.” The locations of the pressed keys were assigned to the locations of the keys to be pressed with dynamic programming after the midi note numbers were converted to the “location numbers.” We analysed the error size and the alignment costs. The results indicated that the visual information clearly contributed for touching accurate place in arpeggio tasks, while the contribution of the auditory information was limited in any task type.

Ceiling effects prevent further improvement of transcranial stimulation in skilled musicians.

The roles of the motor cortex in the acquisition and performance of skilled finger movements have been extensively investigated over decades. Yet it is still not known whether these roles of motor cortex are expertise-dependent. The present study addresses this issue by comparing the effects of noninvasive transcranial direction current stimulation (tDCS) on the fine control of sequential finger movements in highly trained pianists and musically untrained individuals. Thirteen pianists and 13 untrained controls performed timed-sequence finger movements with each of the right and left hands before and after receiving bilateral tDCS over the primary motor cortices. The results demonstrate an improvement of fine motor control in both hands in musically untrained controls, but deterioration in pianists following anodal tDCS over the contralateral cortex and cathodal tDCS over the ipsilateral cortex compared with the sham stimulation. However, this change in motor performance was not evident after stimulating with the opposite montage. These findings support the notion that changes in dexterous finger movements induced by bihemispheric tDCS are expertise-dependent.

The auditory scene: An fMRI study on melody and accompaniment in professional pianists

The auditory scene is a mental representation of individual sounds extracted from the summed sound waveform reaching the ears of the listeners. Musical contexts represent particularly complex cases of auditory scenes. In such a scenario, melody may be seen as the main object moving on a background represented by the accompaniment. Both melody and accompaniment vary in time according to harmonic rules, forming a typical texture with melody in the most prominent, salient voice. In the present sparse acquisition functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the interplay between melody and accompaniment in trained pianists, by observing the activation responses elicited by processing: (1) melody placed in the upper and lower texture voices, leading to, respectively, a higher and lower auditory salience; (2) harmonic violations occurring in either the melody, the accompaniment, or both. The results indicated that the neural activation elicited by the processing of polyphonic compositions in expert musicians depends upon the upper versus lower position of the melodic line in the texture, and showed an overall greater activation for the harmonic processing of melody over accompaniment. Both these two predominant effects were characterized by the involvement of the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, among other associative brain regions. We discuss the prominent role of the posterior medial cortex in the processing of melodic and harmonic information in the auditory stream, and propose to frame this processing in relation to the cognitive construction of complex multimodal sensory imagery scenes.

Sensorimotor skills and focal dystonia are linked to putaminal grey-matter volume in pianists

BackgroundFocal hand dystonia has been associated with morphometric changes and distorted somatotopic representations in the putamen.ObjectiveThe authors used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify regions in the putamen where grey-matter volume...

Memory for Verbal and Visual Material in Highly Trained Musicians

INTEREST IN STUDYING THE EFFECTS of extensive music training on nonmusical perceptual and cognitive abilities has grown in recent years. Here, we present evidence that formal music instruction is associated with superior verbal and visual memory. Participants included 15 highly trained pianists and 21 individuals with little or no formal music training. The groups were comparable in terms of age, gender distribution, and socioeconomic status. Musicians showed superior immediate and delayed recall of word lists and greater use of a semantic clustering strategy during initial list-learning than nonmusicians. They also exhibited superior learning, delayed recall, and delayed recognition for visual designs. Group differences in delayed free recall of both words and designs persisted after controlling statistically for estimated Full Scale IQ. These results suggest that extensive music training is associated with a generalized enhancement of auditory and visual memory functions.

Early neuronal responses in right limbic structures mediate harmony incongruity processing in musical experts

In western tonal music, musical phrases end with an explicit harmonic consequent which is highly expected. As such expectation is a consequence of musical background, cerebral processing of incongruities of musical grammar might be a function of expertise. We hypothesized that a subtle incongruity of standard closure should evoke a profound and rapid reaction in an expert's brain. If such a reaction is due to neuroplasticity as a consequence of musical training, it should be correlated with distinctive activations in sensory, motor and/or cognitive function related brain areas in response to the incongruent closure. Using event related potential (ERP) source imaging, we determined the temporal dynamics of neuronal activity in highly trained pianists and musical laymen in response to syntactic harmonic incongruities in expressive music, which were easily detected by the experts but not by the laymen. Our results revealed that closure incongruity evokes a selective early response in musical experts, characterized by a strong, right lateralized negative ERP component. Statistical source analysis could demonstrate putative contribution to the generation of this component in right temporal–limbic areas, encompassing hippocampal complex and amygdala, and in right insula. Its early onset (~200 ms) preceded responses in frontal areas that may reflect more conscious processing. These results go beyond previous work demonstrating that musical training can change activity of sensory and motor areas during musical or audio-motor tasks, and suggest that functional plasticity in right medial–temporal structures and insula also modulates processing of subtle harmonic incongruities.

Generation of novel motor sequences: The neural correlates of musical improvisation

While some motor behavior is instinctive and stereotyped or learned and re-executed, much action is a spontaneous response to a novel set of environmental conditions. The neural correlates of both pre-learned and cued motor sequences have been previously studied, but novel motor behavior has thus far not been examined through brain imaging. In this paper, we report a study of musical improvisation in trained pianists with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), using improvisation as a case study of novel action generation. We demonstrate that both rhythmic (temporal) and melodic (ordinal) motor sequence creation modulate activity in a network of brain regions comprised of the dorsal premotor cortex, the rostral cingulate zone of the anterior cingulate cortex, and the inferior frontal gyrus. These findings are consistent with a role for the dorsal premotor cortex in movement coordination, the rostral cingulate zone in voluntary selection, and the inferior frontal gyrus in sequence generation. Thus, the invention of novel motor sequences in musical improvisation recruits a network of brain regions coordinated to generate possible sequences, select among them, and execute the decided-upon sequence.

Reading music modifies spatial mapping in pianists.

We used a novel musical Stroop task to demonstrate that musical notation is automatically processed in trained pianists. Numbers were superimposed onto musical notes, and participants played five-note sequences by mapping from numbers to fingers instead of from notes to fingers. Pianists' reaction times were significantly affected by the congruence of the note/number pairing. Nonmusicians were unaffected. In a nonmusical analogue of the task, pianists and nonmusicians showed a qualitative difference on performance of a vertical-to-horizontal stimulus-response mapping task. Pianists were faster when stimuli specifying a leftward response were presented in vertically lower locations and stimuli specifying a rightward response were presented in vertically higher locations. Nonmusicians showed the reverse pattern. No group differences were found on a task that required horizontal-to-horizontal mappings. We suggest that, as a result of learning to read and play keyboard music, pianists acquire vertical-to-horizontal visuomotor mappings that generalize outside the musical context.

個々の指の動的運動機能差およびその長期的訓練の効果

The purposes of this study were to assess differences among the index, middle, ring, and little fingers in dynamic motor function, using single-finger-tapping and double-finger-tapping tasks, and to investigate the effect of long-term training on dynamic motor function, using trained pianists. Four miniature strain gauge force transducers were used to measure the external force generated by each finger during tapping. Twelve healthy male adults and three female adult pianists tapped force transducers for 9 seconds as fast as possible, using their dominant right hands, while the other fingers contacted with the force transducers. In the single-finger tapping, we asked subjects to tap using each finger: index, middle, ring, and little finger. In the double-finger tapping, subjects performed alternating movements of a pair of fingers. A comparison among the four fingers in single-finger tapping revealed that the index and middle fingers attained significantly faster tapping, indicating the superiority of these two fingers over the other two fingers in terms of dynamic motor function. Changes in isometric forces generated by the non-tapping fingers accompanied the tapping finger movements; the correlation between tapping and non-tapping fingers was greater for the ring finger than for the other fingers. This suggests that the ring finger is more dependent on the movements of other fingers, especially neighboring fingers. Differences among the fingers in dynamic motor function could result from anatomical and neurophysiological factors. During two-finger movement, the dynamic motor function of each finger was affected by the combination of fingers. Finger combinations that are less used in ordinary life had lower tapping speeds than the other combinations. For pianists, tapping rates of the little and ring fingers in single-finger tapping were similar to those of the index and middle fingers. There was less accompanying force by non-tapping fingers of the pianists than of non-pianists. In double-finger tapping, tapping rates for any combination of fingers was nearly the same for the pianists. These suggested that long-term training could alter dynamic motor function of the fingers.

Effect of diet and age on jejunal and circulating lymphocyte subsets in children with coeliac disease: persistence of CD4-8-intraepithelial T cells through treatment.

Monoclonal antibodies were used to determine the relative numbers of T lymphocyte subsets in 61 jejunal biopsies and in peripheral blood of 35 children with coeliac disease, and of 13 healthy controls. The T cell numbers in the lamina propria were unaffected by a change from gluten-free to gluten containing diet in the patients. The number of intraepithelial lymphocytes (where the CD8 cells predominated) were significantly raised in patients taking gluten. Ten to 20% of the patients' intraepithelial CD3 (mature T) cells expressed neither CD8 nor CD4 surface antigens. This CD4 8 T cell population persisted through gluten elimination and challenge. The circulating lymphocyte subsets showed little variation with the diet although there was a marked increase in the proportion (14.9%) of CD4 8 T cells in patients during gluten elimination. In the histologically normal jejunal mucosa from control subjects, the age of the subject showed a positive correlation with villus intraepithelial CD3+ and CD8+ cells, and crypt intraepithelial CD4+ cells. No clear cut effect of age was observed on lamina propria lymphocyte counts of the controls, or on the lymphocyte counts in jejunal mucosa of the coeliac patients. The observed CD3+4-8- lymphocytes may represent activated cells unable to present their surface antigens, or they may be gamma delta-receptor bearing T cells, which could have a significant role in the pathogenesis of coeliac disease.

The role of auralization in pitch or tonality recognition

Previous research [E. Terhardt and W. D. Ward, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 72, 26–33 (1982)] has shown that most trained pianists can tell when a particular selection from Bach's “;Well‐Tempered Clavichord” has been shifted upward or downward in key from the original signature, performing at a level significantly better than chance even when this transposition is only one semit. This result implies that these persons posses some form of absolute pitch, or absolute tonality, even though they claim little or no ability to name isolated pitches. The degree to which this recognition process depends on auralization (anticipation of how the excerpt should sound) arising either from the oral announcement of the correct key that precedes each excerpt or from the (untransposed) visible score on the answer sheet was examined by removing these cues. Performance declined slightly but remained above chance, indicating that auralization, while helpful, is not essential. So unless there isa “best” key for any given piano composition, and Bach unerringly chose it, these pianists' recognition of transposition was based at least partly on long‐term memory of the excerpts as heard in the original key. [Research supported by the Bryng Bryngelson Communication Disorders Research Fund.]Previous research [E. Terhardt and W. D. Ward, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 72, 26–33 (1982)] has shown that most trained pianists can tell when a particular selection from Bach's “;Well‐Tempered Clavichord” has been shifted upward or downward in key from the original signature, performing at a level significantly better than chance even when this transposition is only one semit. This result implies that these persons posses some form of absolute pitch, or absolute tonality, even though they claim little or no ability to name isolated pitches. The degree to which this recognition process depends on auralization (anticipation of how the excerpt should sound) arising either from the oral announcement of the correct key that precedes each excerpt or from the (untransposed) visible score on the answer sheet was examined by removing these cues. Performance declined slightly but remained above chance, indicating that auralization, while helpful, is not essential. So unless there isa “best” key for any given piano compos...