Musical Training Induces Functional Plasticity in Human Hippocampus

Abstract

Training can change the functional and structural organization of the brain, and animal models demonstrate that the hippocampus formation is particularly susceptible to training-related neuroplasticity. In humans, however, direct evidence for functional plasticity of the adult hippocampus induced by training is still missing. Here, we used musicians' brains as a model to test for plastic capabilities of the adult human hippocampus. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging optimized for the investigation of auditory processing, we examined brain responses induced by temporal novelty in otherwise isochronous sound patterns in musicians and musical laypersons, since the hippocampus has been suggested previously to be crucially involved in various forms of novelty detection. In the first crosssectional experiment, we identified enhanced neural responses to temporal novelty in the anterior left hippocampus of professional musicians, pointing to expertise-related differences in hippocampal processing. In the second experiment, we evaluated neural responses to acoustic temporal novelty in a longitudinal approach to disentangle training-related changes from predispositional factors. For this purpose, we examined an independent sample of music academy students before and after two semesters of intensive aural skills training. After this training period, hippocampal responses to temporal novelty in sounds were enhanced in musical students, and statistical interaction analysis of brain activity changes over time suggests training rather than predisposition effects. Thus, our results provide direct evidence for functional changes of the adult hippocampus in humans related to musical training.

An investigation on the effects of music training on attention and working memory in adults

“…21,22 In a prospective fMRI study, it was suggested that temporary auditory novelties during music training increase processing in hippocampus and hippocampal effects result from music training. 23 A study didn't find significant differences in auditory number distance test as our study, but it linked abilities in cognitive processing of musicians to auditory skills. 6 It is still not obvious how education types effect improvement of working memory.…”

The neuropsychological profile of older adult musicians and non-musicians : implications for cognitive reserve in late life.

“…The current results suggest that the age at which individuals begins taking lessons (in the current study, age of acquisition was between 2 and 17) is less important than the length of time they are enrolled in lessons. Previous studies support that the number of years an individual is enrolled in lessons greatly affects cognitive functioning (Bailey & Penhume, 2012;Herdener et al, 2010). Inherently, the number of years an individual is in lessons is related to both the age of acquisition and overall education level.…”

“…More specific structures, including sub-regions of Broca's area (Abdul-Kareem, Stancak, Parkes, & Sluming, 2011;), the corpus callosum (Schlaug, Jäncke, Huang, Staiger, & Steinmetz, 1995), the arcuate fasiculus (AF; Halwani, Loui, Rüber, & Schlaug, 2011), and the hippocampus (Herdener et al, 2010) have been examined for differences between musicians and non-musicians. Abdul-Kareem and colleagues (2011) found increased grey matter volume in male musicians in Broca's area sub-regions responsible for syntactic processing and phonological working memory in language processing but found no differences between the musicians and non-musicians in regions of Broca's area responsible for semantic processing, rhyming, and lexical decision making.…”

“…This finding suggests that musicians have increased neuronal density in some structures, which may lead to differences in cognition associated with these structures, for example verbal working memory. The hippocampus has also been found to differ between musicians and non-musicians, with implications for aging and dementia due to its role in memory and learning (Herdener et al, 2010). Cross-sectionally, music students showed increased activation in the left anterior hippocampus, when presented with tones that deviated from an original pattern in comparison to non-music students.…”

“…new connections would influence levels of CR and perhaps serve as a protective factor against even normal cognitive decline in older age. For example, musicians may have more density in the hippocampus (Herdener et al, 2010), which is a brain structure that has been shown to be sensitive to decreases in density even in normal aging (Raz & Rodrigue, 2006). The current study attempted to expand part of this model by examining how early musical training contributes to CR (see Figure 2).…”