Abstract:  Musical performance is one of the most complex and sophisticated skills in humans. The present study used the activation likelihood estimation, a coordinate-based quantitative meta-analysis approach, to investigate the neural plasticity induced by the training of musical performance. The results showed that brain differences between musical performers and nonmusicians existed in the regions of left cerebellar, bilateral precentral gyri, bilateral superior temporal gyri, left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral inferior parietal lobule, and right insula. These brain regions are related to auditory processing, motor processing, and multimodal integration. Future study would distinguish the neural adaptation induced by different kinds of musical performance training to explore completely relationship between musical performance and brain plasticity.

Key words: musical performance, training, neural plasticity, meta-analysis, activation likelihood estimation