The musician's brain as a model of neuroplasticity

Münte, Thomas F.; Altenmüller, Eckart; Jäncke, Lutz

doi:10.1038/nrn843

Cited by 735 publications

(535 citation statements)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

488

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It is known that musical expertise encompasses both anatomical and functional changes in the brain (Münte et al, 2002), and contributes to improved WM performance (Gaab, Gaser, & Schlaug, 2006). Recent neuroimaging evidence provided by Schulze, Mueller, and Koelsch (2011) has supported this view.…”

Section: Neuroimaging Studies Of Music-related Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 96%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Dynamics of brain activity underlying working memory for music in a naturalistic condition

Burunat

Alluri

Toiviainen

et al. 2014

Cortex

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sivumäärä -Number of pages 70Tiivistelmä -Abstract Working memory (WM) is at the core of any cognitive function as it is necessary for the integration of information over time. Despite WM's critical role in high-level cognitive functions, its implementation in the neural tissue is poorly understood. Preliminary studies on auditory WM show differences between linguistic and musical memory, leading to the speculation of specific neural networks encoding memory for music. Moreover, in neuroscience WM has not been studied in naturalistic listening conditions but rather in artificial settings (e.g., n-back and Sternberg tasks). Western tonal music provides naturally occurring motivic repetition and variation, recognizable units serving as WM trigger, thus allowing us to study the phenomenon of motif-tracking in the context of real music. Adopting a modern tango as stimulus, behavioural methods were used to identify the stimulus motifs and build a time-course predictor of WM neural responses. This predictor was then correlated with the participants' functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal obtained during a continuous listening condition. Neural correlates related to the sensory processing of a set of musical features were filtered out from the brain responses to music to aid in the exclusive recruitment of executive processes of music-related WM. Correlational analysis revealed a widely distributed network of cortical and subcortical areas, predominantly right-lateralized, responding to the WM condition, including ventral and dorsal areas in the prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, and limbic areas. Significant subcortical processing areas, active in response to the WM condition, were pruned with the removal of the acoustic content, suggesting these music-related perceptual processing areas might aid in the encoding and retrieval of WM. The pattern of dispersed neural activity indicates WM to emerge coherently from the integration of distributed neural activity spread out over different brain subsystems (motoric-, cognitive-and sensory-related areas of the brain).Asiasanat -Keywords working memory; cognitive neuroscience; music; musical motifs; functional magnetic resonance imaging ( Lashley was attempting to identify the locus of memory within the cortex, and, to do so, first trained rats to run mazes, and then removed various cortical regions. He allowed the animals to recover and tested the retention of the maze-running skills. To his surprise it was not possible to find a particular region corresponding to the ability to remember the way through a maze. Instead all the rats which had had cortex regions removed suffered some kind of impairment, and the extent of the impairment was roughly proportional to the amount of cortex taken off. Removing cortex damaged the motor and sensory capacities of the animals, and they would limp, hop, roll, or stagger, but somehow they always managed to traverse the maze. So far as memory 'as concerned, the cortex appeared to be equipotential, that is, with all regions of eq...

show abstract

Section: Neuroimaging Studies Of Music-related Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Moreover, musicians -experts in the musical domain-exhibit functional and structural changes in the brain, what also has driven music into a device for studying brain plasticity (Hyde, Lerch, Norton, Forgeard, Winner, & Evans, 2009;Schlaug, 2006;Münte, Altenmüller, & Jäncke, 2002).…”

Section: Cognitive Neuroscience Of Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of brain activity underlying working memory for music in a naturalistic condition

Burunat

Alluri

Toiviainen

et al. 2014

Cortex

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A later scan, three months later, after a period during which they had not practiced and no longer possessed those skills, showed that the enlargement had regressed. In career musicians, however, who continue to practice assiduously for years, such changes, as in string players, persist (Munte et al, 2002).…”

Section: Does Neurogenesis Occur In Human Adults?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can endocrine disruptors influence neuroplasticity in the aging brain?

Weiss

2007

NeuroToxicology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Only within the last two decades has the adult mammalian brain been recognized for its ability to generate new nerve cells and other neural structures and in essence to rewire itself. Although hippocampal structures have received the greatest scrutiny, other sites, including the cerebral cortex, also display this potential. Such processes remain active in the aging brain, although to a lesser degree. Two of the factors known to induce neurogenesis are environmental enrichment and physical activity. Gonadal hormones, however, also play crucial roles. Androgens and estrogens are both required for the preservation of cognitive function during aging and apparently help counteract the risk of Alzheimer's disease. One overlooked threat to hormonal adequacy that requires close examination is the abundance of environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals that interfere with gonadal function. They come in the form of estrogenic mimics, androgen mimics, anti-estrogens, antiandrogens, and in a variety of other guises. Because our brains are in continuous transition throughout the lifespan, responding both to environmental circumstances and to changing levels of gonadal steroids, endocrine-disrupting chemicals possess the potential to impair neurogenesis, and represent a hazard for the preservation of cognitive function during the later stages of the life cycle.

show abstract

“…Accomplished and famous musicians usually began with musical training in early childhood, practicing several hours a day. Professional musicians represent therefore an ideal model for the study of training-induced plastic changes in the human brain (Münte et al, 2002;Schlaug, 2001). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

White matter plasticity in the corticospinal tract of musicians: A diffusion tensor imaging study

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the advent of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), the study of plastic changes in white matter architecture due to long-term practice has attracted increasing interest. Professional musicians provide an ideal model for investigating white matter plasticity because of their early onset of extensive auditory and sensorimotor training. We performed fiber tractography and subsequent voxelwise analysis, region of interest (ROI) analysis, and detailed slicewise analysis of diffusion parameters in the corticospinal tract (CST) on 26 professional musicians and a control group of 13 participants. All analyses resulted in significantly lower fractional anisotropy (FA) values in both the left and the right CST in the musician group. Furthermore, a right-greater-than-left asymmetry of FA was observed regardless of group. In the musician group, diffusivity was negatively correlated with the onset of musical training in childhood. A subsequent median split into an early and a late onset musician group (median=7 years) revealed increased diffusivity in the CST of the early onset group as compared to both the late onset group and the controls. In conclusion, these DTI-based findings might indicate plastic changes in white matter architecture of the CST in professional musicians. Our results imply that training-induced changes in diffusion characteristics of the axonal membrane may lead to increased radial diffusivity as reflected in decreased FA values. AbstractWith the advent of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), the study of plastic changes in white matter architecture due to long-term practice has attracted increasing interest. Professional musicians provide an ideal model for investigating white matter plasticity because of their early onset of extensive auditory and sensorimotor training. We performed fiber tractography and subsequent voxelwise analysis, region of interest (ROI) analysis, and detailed slicewise analysis of diffusion parameters in the CST on 26 professional musicians and a control group of 13 participants. All analyses resulted in significantly lower FA values in both the left and the right CST in the musician group. Furthermore, a right-greater-than-left asymmetry of FA was observed regardless of group.In the musician group, diffusivity was negatively correlated with the onset of musical training in childhood. A subsequent median split into an early and a late onset musician group (median = 7 years) revealed increased diffusivity in the CST of the early onset group as compared with both the late onset group and the controls. In conclusion, these DTI-based findings might indicate plastic changes in white matter architecture of the CST in professional musicians. Our results imply that training-induced changes in diffusion characteristics of the axonal membrane may lead to increased radial diffusivity as reflected in decreased FA values.2

show abstract

The musician's brain as a model of neuroplasticity

Cited by 735 publications

References 66 publications

Dynamics of brain activity underlying working memory for music in a naturalistic condition

Dynamics of brain activity underlying working memory for music in a naturalistic condition

Can endocrine disruptors influence neuroplasticity in the aging brain?

White matter plasticity in the corticospinal tract of musicians: A diffusion tensor imaging study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About