音乐表演是人类最复杂和精细的技能之一。通过激活似然性评估元分析,对音乐表演训练所诱发的神经可塑性进行探究。结果发现,音乐表演者与非音乐家在左侧小脑、双侧中央前回、双侧颞上回、左侧额下回、双侧顶下小叶以及右侧脑岛等脑区存在差异。这些脑区与听觉、运动以及多通道信息整合等加工有关。未来研究应从不同音乐表演训练诱发的神经适应性出发,进一步探究音乐表演训练与大脑可塑性之间的关联。

Abstract To investigate cortical auditory and motor coupling in professional musicians, we compared the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity of seven pianists to seven non-musicians utilizing a passive task paradigm established in a previous learning study. The tasks involved either passively listening to short piano melodies or pressing keys on a mute MRI-compliant piano keyboard. Both groups were matched with respect to age and gender, and did not exhibit any overt performance differences in the keypressing task. The professional pianists showed increased activity compared to the non-musicians in a distributed cortical network during both the acoustic and the mute motion-related task. A conjunction analysis revealed a distinct musicianship-specific network being co-activated during either task type, indicating areas involved in auditory-sensorimotor integration. This network is comprised of dorsolateral and inferior frontal cortex (including Broca's area), the superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke's area), the supramarginal gyrus, and supplementary motor and premotor areas.

Abstract Recent studies have shown brain differences between professional musicians and non-musicians with respect to size, asymmetry or gray matter density of specific cerebral regions. Here we demonstrate: (1) that anatomical differences in the motor cortex can already be detected by coarse visual inspection; and (2) that within musicians, even a discrimination of instruments with different manual dominance is possible on a gross anatomical scale. Multiple raters, blinded for subject identity and hemisphere, investigated within-musician differences in the Omega Sign (OS), an anatomical landmark of the precentral gyrus associated with hand movement representation. The sample of 64 brains comprised matched groups of 16 expert string-players, 16 expert pianists and 32 non-musicians. Ratings were analysed by means of kappa statistics. Intra- and interobserver reliabilities were high. Musicians had a more pronounced OS expression than non-musicians, with keyboard-players showing a left and string-players a right hemisphere advantage. This suggests a differential brain adaptation depending on instrument played.

Playing a musical instrument requires efficient auditory and motor processing. Fast feed forward and feedback connections that link the acoustic target to the corresponding motor programs need to be established during years of practice. The aim of our study is to provide a detailed description of cortical structures that participate in this audio otor coordination network in professional pianists and non-musicians. In order to map these interacting areas using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we considered cortical areas that are concurrently activated during silent piano performance and motionless listening to piano sound. Furthermore we investigated to what extent interactions between the auditory and the motor modality happen involuntarily. We observed a network of predominantly secondary and higher order areas belonging to the auditory and motor modality. The extent of activity was clearly increased by imagination of the absent modality. However, this network did neither comprise primary auditory nor primary motor areas in any condition. Activity in the lateral dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and the pre-supplementary motor cortex (preSMA) was significantly increased for pianists. Our data imply an intermodal transformation network of auditory and motor areas which is subject to a certain degree of plasticity by means of intensive training.

We used a multimethod approach to investigate the neuroanatomical correlates of musicianship and absolute pitch (AP). Cortical thickness measures, interregional correlations applied to these thicknesses, and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) were applied to the same magnetic resonance imaging data set of 71 musicians (27 with AP) and 64 nonmusicians. Cortical thickness was greater in musicians with peaks in superior temporal and dorsolateral frontal regions. Correlations between 2 seed points, centered on peaks of thickness difference within the right frontal cortex, and all other points across the cortex showed greater specificity of significant correlations among musicians, with fewer and more discrete areas correlating with the frontal seeds, including the superior temporal cortex. VBM of gray matter (GM)-classified voxels yielded a strongly right-lateralized focus of greater GM concentration in musicians centered on the posterolateral aspect of Heschl's gyrus. Together, these results are consistent with functional evidence emphasizing the importance of a frontotemporal network of areas heavily relied upon in the performance of musical tasks. Among musicians, contrasts of AP possessors and nonpossessors showed significantly thinner cortex among possessors in a number of areas, including the posterior dorsal frontal cortices that have been previously implicated in the performance of AP tasks.

Abstract Human dance was investigated with positron emission tomography to identify its systems-level organization. Three core aspects of dance were examined: entrainment, meter and patterned movement. Amateur dancers performed small-scale, cyclically repeated tango steps on an inclined surface to the beat of tango music, without visual guidance. Entrainment of dance steps to music, compared to self-pacing of movement, was supported by anterior cerebellar vermis. Movement to a regular, metric rhythm, compared to movement to an irregular rhythm, implicated the right putamen in the voluntary control of metric motion. Spatial navigation of leg movement during dance, when controlling for muscle contraction, activated the medial superior parietal lobule, reflecting proprioceptive and somatosensory contributions to spatial cognition in dance. Finally, additional cortical, subcortical and cerebellar regions were active at the systems level. Consistent with recent work on simpler, rhythmic, motor-sensory behaviors, these data reveal the interacting network of brain areas active during spatially patterned, bipedal, rhythmic movements that are integrated in dance.

Dance – as a ritual, therapy, and leisure activity – has been known for thousands of years. Today, dance is increasingly used as therapy for cognitive and neurological disorders such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Surprisingly, the effects of dance training on the healthy young brain are not well understood despite the necessity of such information for planning successful clinical interventions. Therefore, this study examined actively performing, expert-level trained college students as a model of long-term exposure to dance training. To study the long-term effects of dance training on the human brain, we compared 20 young expert female Dancers with normal body mass index with 20 age- and education-matched Non-Dancers with respect to brain structure and function. We used diffusion tensor, morphometric, resting state and task-related functional MRI, a broad cognitive assessment, and objective measures of selected dance skill (Dance Central video game and a balance task). Dancers showed superior performance in the Dance Central video game and balance task, but showed no differences in cognitive abilities. We found little evidence for training-related differences in brain volume in Dancers. Dancers had lower anisotropy in the corticospinal tract. They also activated theaction observation network(AON) to greater extent than Non-Dancers when viewing dance sequences. Dancers showed altered functional connectivity of the AON, and of the general motor learning network. These functional connectivity differences were related to dance skill and balance and training-induced structural characteristics. Our findings have the potential to inform future study designs aiming to monitor dance training-induced plasticity in clinical populations.

Abstract When we observe someone performing an action, do our brains simulate making that action? Acquired motor skills offer a unique way to test this question, since people differ widely in the actions they have learned to perform. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study differences in brain activity between watching an action that one has learned to do and an action that one has not, in order to assess whether the brain processes of action observation are modulated by the expertise and motor repertoire of the observer. Experts in classical ballet, experts in capoeira and inexpert control subjects viewed videos of ballet or capoeira actions. Comparing the brain activity when dancers watched their own dance style versus the other style therefore reveals the influence of motor expertise on action observation. We found greater bilateral activations in premotor cortex and intraparietal sulcus, right superior parietal lobe and left posterior superior temporal sulcus when expert dancers viewed movements that they had been trained to perform compared to movements they had not. Our results show that this 'mirror system' integrates observed actions of others with an individual's personal motor repertoire, and suggest that the human brain understands actions by motor simulation.

Our findings show that dancers have increased diffusivity and reduced fibre coherence in WM regions, including the corticospinal tract, superior longitudinal fasciculus and the corpus callosum. In contrast, musicians showed reduced diffusivity and greater coherence of fibres in similar regions. Crucially, diffusivity measures were related to performance on dance and music tasks that differentiated the groups. This suggests that dance and music training produce opposite effects on WM structure. We hypothesize that intensive whole-body dance training may result in greater fanning of fibres connecting different brain regions, an increase in crossing fibres, or larger axon diameter. In contrast, musical training may result in more focussed enhancements of effector-specific pathways. These findings expand our understanding of brain plasticity by emphasizing that different types of training can have different long-term effects on brain structure (Takeuchi et al., 2011; Baer et al., 2015).

Abstract Recognizing a musical excerpt without necessarily retrieving its title typically reflects the existence of a memory system dedicated to the retrieval of musical knowledge. The functional distinction between musical and verbal semantic memory has seldom been investigated. In this fMRI study, we directly compared the musical and verbal memory of 20 nonmusicians, using a congruence task involving automatic semantic retrieval and a familiarity task requiring more thorough semantic retrieval. In the former, participants had to access their semantic store to retrieve musical or verbal representations of melodies or expressions they heard, in order to decide whether these were then given the right ending or not. In the latter, they had to judge the level of familiarity of musical excerpts and expressions. Both tasks revealed activation of the left inferior frontal and posterior middle temporal cortices, suggesting that executive and selection processes are common to both verbal and musical retrievals. Distinct patterns of activation were observed within the left temporal cortex, with musical material mainly activating the superior temporal gyrus and verbal material the middle and inferior gyri. This cortical organization of musical and verbal semantic representations could explain clinical dissociations featuring selective disturbances for musical or verbal material. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Intensive training and the acquisition of expertise are known to bring about structural changes in the brain. Musical training is a particularly interesting model. Previous studies have reported structural brain modifications in the auditory, motor and visuospatial areas of musicians compared with nonmusicians. The main goal of the present study was to go one step further, by exploring the dynamic of those structural brain changes related to musical experience. To this end, we conducted a regression study on 44 nonmusicians and amateur musicians with 0 26 years of musical practice of a variety instruments. We sought first to highlight brain areas that increased with the duration of practice and secondly distinguish (thanks to an ANOVA analysis) brain areas that undergo grey matter changes after only limited years of musical practice from those that require longer practice before they exhibit changes. Results revealed that musical training results a greater grey matter volumes in different brain areas for musicians. Changes appear gradually in the left hippocampus and right middle and superior frontal regions, but later also include the right insula and supplementary motor area and left superior temporal, and posterior cingulate areas. Given that all participants had the same age and that we controlled for age and education level, these results cannot be ascribed to normal brain maturation. Instead, they support the notion that musical training could induce dynamic structural changes.

The current study combined structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI) to investigate both gray matter density (GMD) and white matter integrity (WMI) in 18 pianists and 21 age-matched non-musicians. The pianists began their piano training at a mean age of 12. Voxel-based morphometry of the sMRI data showed that the pianists had higher GMD in the left primary sensorimotor cortex and right cerebellum. Voxel-based analysis of the DT-MRI data showed that pianists had higher fractional anisotropy (FA) (indicating higher WMI) in the right posterior limb of the internal capsule. The sMRI and DT-MRI results indicate that both the GMD and WMI of pianists may exhibit movement-related increases during adolescence or even early adulthood compared with non-musicians.

Evidence suggests that motor, sensory, and cognitive training modulates brain structures involved in a specific practice. Functional neuroimaging revealed key brain structures involved in dancing such as the putamen and the premotor cortex. Intensive ballet dance training was expected to modulate the structures of the sensorimotor network, for example, the putamen, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area (SMA), and the corticospinal tracts. We investigated gray (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes, fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean diffusivity (MD) using magnetic resonance-based morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging in 10 professional female ballet dancers compared with 10 nondancers. In dancers compared with nondancers, decreased GM volumes were observed in the left premotor cortex, SMA, putamen, and superior frontal gyrus, and decreased WM volumes in both corticospinal tracts, both internal capsules, corpus callosum, and left anterior cingulum. FA was lower in the WM underlying the dancers' left and right premotor cortex. There were no significant differences in MD between the groups. Age of dance commencement was negatively correlated with GM and WM volume in the right premotor cortex and internal capsule, respectively, and positively correlated with WM volume in the left precentral gyrus and corpus callosum. Results were not influenced by the significantly lower body mass index of the dancers. The present findings complement the results of functional imaging studies in experts that revealed reduced neural activity in skilled compared with nonskilled subjects. Reductions in brain activity are accompanied by local decreases in GM and WM volumes and decreased FA. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. 漏 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Abstract Long-term intensive gymnastic training can induce brain structural and functional reorganization. Previous studies have identified structural and functional network differences between world class gymnasts (WCGs) and non-athletes at the whole-brain level. However, it is still unclear how interactions within and between functional networks are affected by long-term intensive gymnastic training. We examined both intra- and inter-network functional connectivity of gymnasts relative to non-athletes using resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI). R-fMRI data were acquired from 13 WCGs and 14 non-athlete controls. Group-independent component analysis (ICA) was adopted to decompose the R-fMRI data into spatial independent components and associated time courses. An automatic component identification method was used to identify components of interest associated with resting-state networks (RSNs). We identified nine RSNs, the basal ganglia network (BG), sensorimotor network (SMN), cerebellum (CB), anterior and posterior default mode networks (aDMN/pDMN), left and right fronto-parietal networks (lFPN/rFPN), primary visual network (PVN), and extrastriate visual network (EVN). Statistical analyses revealed that the intra-network functional connectivity was significantly decreased within the BG, aDMN, lFPN, and rFPN, but increased within the EVN in the WCGs compared to the controls. In addition, the WCGs showed uniformly decreased inter-network functional connectivity between SMN and BG, CB, and PVN, BG and PVN, and pDMN and rFPN compared to the controls. We interpret this generally weaker intra- and inter-network functional connectivity in WCGs during the resting state as a result of greater efficiency in the WCGs' brain associated with long-term motor skill training.

Many previous studies suggested that both short-term and long-term motor training can modulate brain structures. However, little evidence exists for such brain anatomical changes in top-level gymnasts. Using diffusion-weighted and structural magnetic resonance images of the human brain, we applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) as well as FA-VBA (voxel-based analysis of fractional anisotropy, a VBM-style analysis) methods to quantitatively compare the brain structural differences between the world class gymnasts (WCG) and the non-athlete groups. In order to reduce the rate of false positive findings, we first determined that the clusters defined at a threshold of t 02>022.3 and a cluster significance of p 02<020.05 (FWE-corrected) across all subjects were the brain regions that showed significant differences in a between-group comparison. We then constructed several between-group comparisons based on the repeated diffusion or structural MRI data and created the intersecting regions from multiple between-group comparisons. Thus, we found significantly decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) not only in the white matter of the WCG in areas that included the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and inferior occipito-frontal fascicle, but also in the gray matter of the WCG in areas that included the bilateral middle cingulum, bilateral postcentral gyri, and bilateral motor regions. We also identified significantly increased gray matter density in the WCG, especially in the left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral inferior and superior parietal lobule, bilateral superior lateral occipital cortex, left cuneus, left angular gyrus, and right postcentral gyrus. We speculate that the brain changes of the WCG may reflect the gymnasts’ extraordinary ability to estimate the direction of their movements, their speed of execution, and their identification of their own and surrounding objects’ locations. Our findings suggest that our method of constructing intersecting regions from multiple between-group comparison can considerably reduce the false positives, and our results provide new insights into the brain structure changes induced by long-term intensive gymnastic training.

The neural basis of human pitch perception is not fully understood. It has been argued that the auditory cortices in the two hemispheres are specialized, such that certain right auditory cortical regions have a relatively finer resolution in the frequency domain than homologous regions in the left auditory cortex, but this concept has not been tested directly. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test this specific prediction. Healthy volunteers were scanned while passively listening to pure-tone melodic-like sequences in which the pitch distance between consecutive tones was varied in a parametric fashion. As predicted, brain activation in a region of right lateral auditory cortex, corresponding to the planum temporale, was linearly responsive to increasing pitch distance, even across the fine changes in pitch. In contrast, the BOLD signal at the homologous left cortical region was relatively constant as a function of pitch distance, except at the largest pitch change. The results support the model of relative hemispheric specialization and indicate that the right secondary auditory cortex has a finer pitch resolution than the left.

Abstract The superior temporal sulcus (STS) and gyrus (STG) are commonly identified to be functionally relevant for multisensory integration of audiovisual (AV) stimuli. However, most neuroimaging studies on AV integration used stimuli of short duration in explicit evaluative tasks. Importantly though, many of our AV experiences are of a long duration and ambiguous. It is unclear if the enhanced activity in audio, visual, and AV brain areas would also be synchronised over time across subjects when they are exposed to such multisensory stimuli. We used intersubject correlation to investigate which brain areas are synchronised across novices for uni- and multisensory versions of a 6-min 26-s recording of an unfamiliar, unedited Indian dance recording (Bharatanatyam). In Bharatanatyam, music and dance are choreographed together in a highly intermodal-dependent manner. Activity in the middle and posterior STG was significantly correlated between subjects and showed also significant enhancement for AV integration when the functional magnetic resonance signals were contrasted against each other using a general linear model conjunction analysis. These results extend previous studies by showing an intermediate step of synchronisation for novices: while there was a consensus across subjects' brain activity in areas relevant for unisensory processing and AV integration of related audio and visual stimuli, we found no evidence for synchronisation of higher level cognitive processes, suggesting these were idiosyncratic.

Abstract Intensive practise of sensorimotor skills, such as music and dance, is associated with brain structural plasticity. While the neural correlates of music have been well-investigated, less is known about the neural correlates of dance. Additionally, the gray matter structural correlates of dance versus music training have not yet been directly compared. The objectives of the present study were to compare gray matter structure as measured by surface- and voxel-based morphometry between expert dancers, expert musicians and untrained controls, as well as to correlate gray matter structure with performance on dance- and music-related tasks. Dancers and musicians were found to have increased cortical thickness compared to controls in superior temporal regions. Gray matter structure in the superior temporal gyrus was also correlated with performance on dance imitation, rhythm synchronization and melody discrimination tasks. These results suggest that superior temporal regions are important in both dance- and music-related skills and may be affected similarly by both types of long-term intensive training. This work advances knowledge of the neural correlates of dance and music, as well as training-associated brain plasticity in general.

Abstract An intact cerebellum is a prerequisite for optimal ocular motor performance. The cerebellum fine-tunes each of the subtypes of eye movements so they work together to bring and maintain images of objects of interest on the fovea. Here we review the major aspects of the contribution of the cerebellum to ocular motor control. The approach will be based on structural-functional correlation, combining the effects of lesions and the results from physiologic studies, with the emphasis on the cerebellar regions known to be most closely related to ocular motor function: (1) the flocculus/paraflocculus for high-frequency (brief) vestibular responses, sustained pursuit eye movements, and gaze holding, (2) the nodulus/ventral uvula for low-frequency (sustained) vestibular responses, and (3) the dorsal oculomotor vermis and its target in the posterior portion of the fastigial nucleus (the fastigial oculomotor region) for saccades and pursuit initiation.

Music is capable of evoking exceptionally strong emotions and of reliably affecting the mood of individuals. Functional neuroimaging and lesion studies show that music-evoked emotions can modulate activity in virtually all limbic and paralimbic brain structures. These structures are crucially involved in the initiation, generation, detection, maintenance, regulation and termination of emotions that have survival value for the individual and the species. Therefore, at least some music-evoked emotions involve the very core of evolutionarily adaptive neuroaffective mechanisms. Because dysfunctions in these structures are related to emotional disorders, a better understanding of music-evoked emotions and their neural correlates can lead to a more systematic and effective use of music in therapy.

The aim of this event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to test whether the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG) would show differential sensitivity to the effect of prime-target association strength on repetition priming. In the experimental condition (RP), the target occurred after repetitive presentation of the prime within an oddball design. In the control condition (CTR), the target followed a single presentation of the prime with equal probability of the target as in RP. To manipulate semantic overlap between the prime and the target both conditions (RP and CTR) employed either the onomatopoeia "oink" as the prime and the referent "pig" as the target (OP) or vice-versa (PO) since semantic overlap was previously shown to be greater in OP. The results showed that the left MTG was sensitive to release of adaptation while both the right MTG and MFG were sensitive to sequence regularity extraction and its verification. However, dissociated activity between OP and PO was revealed in RP only in the right MFG. Specifically, target "pig" (OP) and the physically equivalent target in CTR elicited comparable deactivations whereas target "oink" (PO) elicited less inhibited response in RP than in CTR. This interaction in the right MFG was explained by integrating these effects into a competition model between perceptual and conceptual effects in priming processing.

Abstract Studies have revealed that prolonged, specialized training combined with higher cognitive conditioning induces enhanced brain alternation. In particular, dancers with long-term dance experience exhibit superior motor control and integration with their sensorimotor networks. However, little is known about the functional connectivity patterns of spontaneous intrinsic activities in the sensorimotor network of dancers. Our study examined the functional connectivity density (FCD) of dancers with a mean period of over 10 years of dance training in contrast with a matched non-dancer group without formal dance training using resting-state fMRI scans. FCD was mapped and analyzed, and the functional connectivity (FC) analyses were then performed based on the difference of FCD. Compared to the non-dancers, the dancers exhibited significantly increased FCD in the precentral gyri, postcentral gyri and bilateral putamen. Furthermore, the results of the FC analysis revealed enhanced connections between the middle cingulate cortex and the bilateral putamen and between the precentral and the postcentral gyri. All findings indicated an enhanced functional integration in the cortico-basal ganglia loops that govern motor control and integration in dancers. These findings might reflect improved sensorimotor function for the dancers consequent to long-term dance training.

We employed a sulcal geometry-based approach to investigate the morphology of the central sulcus (CS) in musicians (pianists). The anterior and posterior walls of the CS were first manually outlined from high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) images of 41 right-handed subjects (20 musicians and 21 controls), followed by a surface reconstruction and parameterization procedure to ensure the anatomical correspondence of surface locations across subjects. The intrasulcal length, surface area, and local variability of the CS were measured. There were no significant differences in either the intrasulcal length or surface area of the anterior or posterior walls between the 2 groups. However, we observed that the controls had a pronounced left-larger-than-right asymmetry that was reduced in the musicians. Importantly, we found that the musicians showed greater local variability in the middle section (i.e., somatotopic hand area) of the right CS and the lower section of the left CS as compared with the controls. Further analysis revealed significantly negative correlations between the variability of the middle section of the right CS and the age of commencement of musical training. Our findings suggest that the musicians might be associated with plastic changes in the 3D morphology of the CS in response to long-term motor skill training.

Structural MRIs of the brains of humans with extensive navigation experience, licensed London taxi drivers, were analyzed and compared with those of control subjects who did not drive taxis. The posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of control subjects. A more anterior hippocampal region was larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers. Hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver (positively in the posterior and negatively in the anterior hippocampus). These data are in accordance with the idea that the posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the environment and can expand regionally to accommodate elaboration of this representation in people with a high dependence on navigational skills. It seems that there is a capacity for local plastic change in the structure of the healthy adult human brain in response to environmental demands.

BackgroundLearning to play a musical piece is a prime example of complex sensorimotor learning in humans. Recent studies using electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) indicate that passive listening to melodies previously rehearsed by subjects on a musical instrument evokes differential brain activation as compared with unrehearsed melodies. These changes were already evident after 20–30 minutes of training. The exact brain regions involved in these differential brain responses have not yet been delineated.Methodology/Principal FindingUsing functional MRI (fMRI), we investigated subjects who passively listened to simple piano melodies from two conditions: In the ‘actively learned melodies’ condition subjects learned to play a piece on the piano during a short training session of a maximum of 30 minutes before the fMRI experiment, and in the ‘passively learned melodies’ condition subjects listened passively to and were thus familiarized with the piece. We found increased fMRI responses to actively compared with passively learned melodies in the left anterior insula, extending to the left fronto-opercular cortex. The area of significant activation overlapped the insular sensorimotor hand area as determined by our meta-analysis of previous functional imaging studies.Conclusions/SignificanceOur results provide evidence for differential brain responses to action-related sounds after short periods of learning in the human insular cortex. As the hand sensorimotor area of the insular cortex appears to be involved in these responses, re-activation of movement representations stored in the insular sensorimotor cortex may have contributed to the observed effect. The insular cortex may therefore play a role in the initial learning phase of action-perception associations.

I provide a selective review of the literature on the multiple testing problem in fMRI. By drawing connections with the older modalities, PET in particular, and how software implementations have tracked (or lagged behind) theoretical developments, my narrative aims to give the methodological researcher a historical perspective on this important aspect of fMRI data analysis.

Aus den Untersuchungen lieβ sich folgern, daβ 10 der ursprünglich 20 Teiltests und deren Ergebnisse allein geeignet sind, H01ufigkeitsbeurteilung der H01ndigkeit, überwiegende Zahl von Einzelfunktionen und eine revidierte Item-Analyse zu liefern. Es wird der Geschlechtsunterschied der H01ndigkeit diskutiert.

We utilized the high temporal resolution of functional near-infrared spectroscopy to explore how sensory input (visual and rhythmic auditory cues) are processed in the cortical areas of multimodal integration to achieve coordinated motor output during unrestricted dance simulation gameplay. Using an open source clone of the dance simulation video game, Dance Dance Revolution, two cortical regions of interest were selected for study, the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and the frontopolar cortex (FPC). We hypothesized that activity in the FPC would indicate top-down regulatory mechanisms of motor behavior; while that in the MTG would be sustained due to bottom-up integration of visual and auditory cues throughout the task. We also hypothesized that a correlation would exist between behavioral performance and the temporal patterns of the hemodynamic responses in these regions of interest. Results indicated that greater temporal accuracy of dance steps positively correlated with persistent activation of the MTG and with cumulative suppression of the FPC. When auditory cues were eliminated from the simulation, modifications in cortical responses were found depending on the gameplay performance. In the MTG, high-performance players showed an increase but low-performance players displayed a decrease in cumulative amount of the oxygenated hemoglobin response in the no music condition compared to that in the music condition. In the FPC, high-performance players showed relatively small variance in the activity regardless of the presence of auditory cues, while low-performance players showed larger differences in the activity between the no music and music conditions. These results suggest that the MTG plays an important role in the successful integration of visual and rhythmic cues and the FPC may work as top-down control to compensate for insufficient integrative ability of visual and rhythmic cues in the MTG. The relative relationships between these cortical areas indicated high- to low-performance levels when performing cued motor tasks. We propose that changes in these relationships can be monitored to gauge performance increases in motor learning and rehabilitation programs.

The purpose of this study was to determine the possible morphometrical differences of the corpus callosum between professional musicians and non-musicians. Certain callosal dimensions and areas were measured in 20 professional musicians and compared with 20 age-, sex- and handedness-matched control group by using in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Sagittal T1-weighted midsagittal sections were traced with the digitizer and the metric scale of the system was used for the measurements. Results were statistically analysed by independent t test. There were significant differences between the two groups both for the anterior and posterior areas of the corpus callosum. Furthermore, significant differences between the two groups were found in the thicknesses of certain parts of the corpus callosum.

Between-group comparisons of musicians and nonmusicians have revealed structural brain differences and also functional differences in motor performance. In this study, we aimed to examine the relation between white matter microstructure and high-level motor skills by contrasting 2 groups of musicians with different instrument-specific motor requirements. We used diffusion tensor imaging to compare diffusivity measures of different corticospinal motor tracts of 10 keyboard players, 10 string players, and 10 nonmusicians. Additionally, the maximal tapping rates of their left and right index fingers were determined. When compared with nonmusicians, fractional anisotropy (FA) values of right-hemispheric motor tracts were significantly higher in both musician groups, whereas left-hemispheric motor tracts showed significantly higher FA values only in the keyboard players. Voxel-wise FA analysis found a group effect in white matter underlying the right motor cortex. Diffusivity measures of fibers originating in the primary motor cortex correlated with the maximal tapping rate of the contralateral index finger across all groups. The observed between-group diffusivity differences might represent an adaptation to the specific motor demands of the respective musical instrument. This is supported further by finding correlations between diffusivity measures and maximal tapping rates.

Abstract Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we compared the processing of sinusoidal tones in the auditory cortex of 12 non-musicians, 12 professional musicians and 13 amateur musicians. We found neurophysiological and anatomical differences between groups. In professional musicians as compared to non-musicians, the activity evoked in primary auditory cortex 19-30 ms after stimulus onset was 102% larger, and the gray matter volume of the anteromedial portion of Heschl's gyrus was 130% larger. Both quantities were highly correlated with musical aptitude, as measured by psychometric evaluation. These results indicate that both the morphology and neurophysiology of Heschl's gyrus have an essential impact on musical aptitude.

Abstract In order to clarify the roles played by the primary motor cortex and the supplementary motor area in the execution of complex sequential and simple repetitive finger movements, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured with PET using 15O-labelled water in five normal subjects. The PET data of each individual subject co-registered to his own MRI, was analysed. Compared with the resting condition, the mean rCBF was markedly increased in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex (M1-S1) and moderately increased in the contralateral cingulate gyrus and putamen in both the simple and complex motor tasks. During the complex motor task, in addition to the above, the mean rCBF was markedly increased in the supplementary motor area and the contralateral premotor area, and moderately increased in the ipsilateral M1-S1 and cerebellum. In the supplementary motor area, there was a moderate rCBF increase also during the simple task. However, comparison of the mean rCBF increase against the resting condition between the two tasks revealed a greater increase during the complex task than in the other only in the supplementary motor area and the ipsilateral M1-S1. Thus, in agreement with our previous electrophysiological findings, not only the supplementary motor area but also the M1-S1 seems to play an important role in the execution of complex sequential finger movements.

Broca's area is a major neuroanatomical substrate for spoken language and various musically relevant abilities, including visuospatial and audiospatial localization. Sight reading is a musician-specific visuospatial analysis task, and spatial ability is known to be amenable to training effects. Musicians have been reported to perform significantly better than nonmusicians on spatial ability tests, which is supported by our findings with the Benton judgement of line orientation (JOL) test ( P < 0.001). We hypothesised that use-dependent adaptation would lead to increased gray matter density in Broca's area in musicians. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and stereological analyses were applied to high-resolution 3D MR images in male orchestral musicians ( n = 26) and sex, handedness, and IQ-matched nonmusicians ( n = 26). The wide age range (26 to 66 years) of volunteers permitted a secondary analysis of age-related effects. VBM with small volume correction (SVC) revealed a significant ( P = 0.002) region of increased gray matter in Broca's area in the left inferior frontal gyrus in musicians. We observed significant age-related volume reductions in cerebral hemispheres, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex subfields bilaterally and gray matter density in the left inferior frontal gyrus in controls but not musicians; a positive correlation between JOL test score and age in musicians but not controls; a positive correlation between years of playing and the volume of gray matter in a significant region identified by VBM in under-50-year-old musicians. We suggest that orchestral musical performance promotes use-dependent retention, and possibly expansion, of gray matter involving Broca's area and that this provides further support for shared neural substrates underpinning expressive output in music and language.

Recent findings in neuroscience suggest that adult brain structure changes in response to environmental alterations and skill learning. Whereas much is known about structural changes after intensive practice for several months, little is known about the effects of single practice sessions on macroscopic brain structure and about progressive (dynamic) morphological alterations relative to improved task proficiency during learning for several weeks. Using T1-weighted and diffusion tensor imaging in humans, we demonstrate significant gray matter volume increases in frontal and parietal brain areas following only two sessions of practice in a complex whole-body balancing task. Gray matter volume increase in the prefrontal cortex correlated positively with subject's performance improvements during a 6 week learning period. Furthermore, we found that microstructural changes of fractional anisotropy in corresponding white matter regions followed the same temporal dynamic in relation to task performance. The results make clear how marginal alterations in our ever changing environment affect adult brain structure and elucidate the interrelated reorganization in cortical areas and associated fiber connections in correlation with improvements in task performance.

Abstract The influence of changes in the mean velocity of movement on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was studied using positron emission tomography (PET) in nine healthy right-handed adults while they performed a smooth pursuit visuomanual tracking task. Images of relative rCBF were obtained while subjects moved a hand-held joystick to track the movement of a target at three different rates of a sinusoidal displacement (0.1, 0.4, and 0.7 Hz). Significant changes in rCBF between task conditions were detected using analysis of variance and weighted linear contrasts. The kinematics of arm and eye movements indicated that subjects performed tasks in a similar manner, particularly during the faster two tracking conditions. Significant increases in rCBF during arm movement (relative to an eye tracking only control condition) were detected in a widespread network of areas known for their involvement in motor control. The activated areas included primary sensorimotor (M1S1), dorsal and mesial premotor, and dorsal parietal cortices in the left hemisphere and to a lesser extent the sensorimotor and superior parietal cortices in the right hemisphere. Subcortically, activations were found in the left putamen, globus pallidus (GP), and thalamus, in the right basal ganglia, and in the right anterior cerebellum. Within the cerebral volume activated with movement, three areas had changes in rCBF that correlated positively with the rate of movement: left M1S1, left GP, and right anterior cerebellum. No movement-related sites had rCBF that correlated negatively with the rate of movement. Regressions of mean percent change (MPC) in rCBF onto mean hand velocity yielded two nonoverlapping subpopulations of movement-related loci, the three sites with significant rate effects and regression slopes steeper than 0.17 MPC.cm-1.s-1 and all other sites with nonsignificant rate effects and regression slopes below 0.1 MPC.cm-1. s-1. Moreover, the effects of movement per se and of movement velocity varied in magnitude independently. These results confirm previous reports that movement-related activations of M1S1 and cerebellum are sensitive to movement frequency or some covarying parameter of movement. The activation of GP with increasing movement velocity, not described in previous functional-imaging studies, supports the hypothesis that the basal ganglia motor circuit may be involved preferentially in controlling or monitoring the scale and/or dynamics of arm movements. The remaining areas that were activated equally for all movement rates may be involved in controlling higher level aspects of motor control that are independent of movement dynamics.