Structural Covariance Changes of Anterior and Posterior Hippocampus During Musical Training in Young Adults

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroanatomy Vol. 14; p. 20
• Main Authors: Guo, Panfei, Li, Qiongling, Wang, Xuetong, Li, Xinwei, Wang, Shaoyi, Xie, Yongqi, Xie, Yachao, Fu, Zhenrong, Zhang, Xiaohui, Li, Shuyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Frontiers Research Foundation 19.05.2020; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: anterior hippocampus; Brain architecture; Cognitive ability; Hippocampus; Musical performances; musical training; Musicians & conductors; Neuroanatomy; partial least squares; posterior hippocampus; structural covariance; Structure-function relationships; Studies; Young adults
• ISSN: 1662-5129; 1662-5129
• DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2020.00020

Musical training can induce the functional and structural changes of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is not a homogeneous structure which can be divided into anterior and posterior parts along its longitudinal axis, and the whole-brain structural covariances of anterior (aHC) and posterior hippocampus (pHC) show distinct patterns in young adults. However, little is known whether the anterior and posterior hippocampal structural covariances change after a long-term musical training. Here, we investigated the musical training-induced changes of the whole-brain structural covariances of bilateral aHC and pHC in a longitudinal designed experiment with two groups (training group and control group) across three time points (the beginning (TP1) and the end (TP2) of 24 weeks of training, and 12 weeks after training (TP3)). Using seed partial least square, we identified two significant patterns of structural covariance of the aHC and pHC. The first showed common structural covariance of the aHC and pHC. The second pattern revealed distinct structural covariance of the two regions and reflected the changes of structural covariance of the left pHC in the training group across three time points: the left pHC showed significant structural covariance with bilateral hippocampus and parahipppocampal gyrus, left calcarine sulcus only at TP1 and TP3. Meanwhile, the integrity of distinct structural networks of aHC and pHC in the second pattern significantly increased in the training group. Our findings suggested that musical training could change the organization of structural whole-brain covariance for left pHC, and enhance the degree of the structural covariance network differentiation of the aHC and pHC in young adults.