Playing music relies on several sensory systems and the motor system, and poses strong demands on control processes, hence, offering an excellent model to study how experience can mold brain structure and function. Although most studies on neural correlates of music expertise rely on cross-sectional comparisons, here we compared within-person changes over time in aspiring professionals intensely preparing for an entrance exam at a University of the Arts to skilled amateur musicians not preparing for a music exam. In the group of aspiring professionals, we observed gray-matter volume decrements in left planum polare, posterior insula, and left inferior frontal orbital gyrus over a period of about 6 months that were absent among the amateur musicians. At the same time, the left planum polare, the largest cluster of structural change, showed increasing functional connectivity with left and right auditory cortex, left precentral gyrus, left supplementary motor cortex, left and right postcentral gyrus, and left cingulate cortex, all regions previously identified to relate to music expertise. In line with the expansion–renormalization pattern of brain plasticity (Wenger et al., 2017a. Expansion and renormalization of human brain structure during skill acquisition. Trends Cogn Sci. 21:930–939.), the aspiring professionals might have been in the selection and refinement period of plastic change.
You may also like
New Research Shows How Cultural Transmission Shapes...
March 27, 2023Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics
Artificial Intelligence from a Psychologist’s Point...
March 15, 2023Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Mapping unknown territory
February 27, 2023Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence
Uridine makes you hungry
January 23, 2023Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research
Amygdala Intercalated Cells: Gatekeepers and Conveyors...
January 19, 2023Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience
Aversive bimodal associations differently impact...
January 19, 2023Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology