Increased auditory cortical representation in musicians

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 392; no. 6678; pp. 811 - 814
• Main Authors: Ross, Bernhard, Roberts, Larry E, Hoke, Manfried, Oostenveld, Robert, Engelien, Almut, Pantev, Christo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 23.04.1998; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Acoustics; Adult; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Auditory Cortex - physiology; Auditory Perception - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Magnetoencephalography; Music; Musicians & conductors; Occupations; Pitch Discrimination; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Sensory perception; Human; Evoked magnetic field; Magnetoencephalography; Central nervous system; Auditory cortex; Hearing; Acquisition process; Acoustic stimulus; Musician; Perception; Auditory pathway; Acquired experience; Pitch(acoustics); Tonotopy; Brain (vertebrata)
• DOI: 10.1038/33918
• ISSN: 0028-0836

Acoustic stimuli are processed throughout the auditory projection pathway, including the neocortex, by neurons that are aggregated into 'tonotopic' maps according to their specific frequency tunings. Research on animals has shown that tonotopic representations are not statically fixed in the adult organism but can reorganize after damage to the cochlea or after training the intact subject to discriminate between auditory stimuli. Here we used functional magnetic source imaging (single dipole model) to measure cortical representations in highly skilled musicians. Dipole moments for piano tones, but not for pure tones of similar fundamental frequency (matched in loudness), were found to be enlarged by about 25% in musicians compared with control subjects who had never played an instrument. Enlargement was correlated with the age at which musicians began to practise and did not differ between musicians with absolute or relative pitch. These results, when interpreted with evidence for modified somatosensory representations of the fingering digits in skilled violinists, suggest that use-dependent functional reorganization extends across the sensory cortices to reflect the pattern of sensory input processed by the subject during development of musical skill.