Action in Perception: Prominent Visuo-Motor Functional Symmetry in Musicians during Music Listening

Abstract

Musical training leads to sensory and motor neuroplastic changes in the human brain. Motivated by findings on enlarged corpus callosum in musicians and asymmetric somatomotor representation in string players, we investigated the relationship between musical training, callosal anatomy, and interhemispheric functional symmetry during music listening. Functional symmetry was increased in musicians compared to nonmusicians, and in keyboardists compared to string players. This increased functional symmetry was prominent in visual and motor brain networks. Callosal size did not significantly differ between groups except for the posterior callosum in musicians compared to nonmusicians. We conclude that the distinctive postural and kinematic symmetry in instrument playing cross-modally shapes information processing in sensory-motor cortical areas during music listening. This cross-modal plasticity suggests that motor training affects music perception.

Connectivity patterns during music listening: Evidence for action‐based processing in musicians

“…The study protocol proceeded on acceptance by the ethics committee of the Coordinating Board of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District. The data collection was part of a broader project (Tunteet) involving additional tests and neuroimaging and neurophysiological measures [Alluri et al, ; Bogert et al, ; Burunat et al, ; Carlson et al, ; Haumann et al, ; Kliuchko et al, ].…”

“…Functional connectivity allows us to investigate brain states, or even categorize subjects, for example, distinguishing between patients and controls, and is a data‐driven approach [Friston, ]. This study is the first to investigate the effect of musical expertise on whole‐brain networks and identify key hubs in an fMRI naturalistic music listening paradigm [Abrams et al, ; Alluri et al, ; Burunat et al, ; Toiviainen et al, ], wherein the fMRI acquisition takes place while the participant is continuously listening to music thereby emulating real‐life listening experiences.…”

“…The authors of the study that focused on limbic‐region seeds connectivity [Alluri et al, ], reported that during music listening musicians' deep perceptual and motoric knowledge of music increases the coupling between areas that process musical emotions with areas that process motor commands and pleasure. In a second study [Burunat et al, ], the authors observed several foci of increased functional voxel‐mirrored connectivity between the two cerebral hemispheres in keyboardists compared to string players during continuous music listening. They also observed a more general increased functional symmetry in the musician than in the control group, primarily in somatomotor and cerebellar regions.…”

Music and Brain Plasticity: How Sounds Trigger Neurogenerative Adaptations

“…It is further hypothesised that functional reorganisation may cause structural adaptation. For instance, bimanual instrument training, such as for the piano, may cause an increase in cortical functionality for symmetric areas involved in motor, auditory and visuospatial processing, as well as in the white matter tracts of the corpus callosum [20] as compared with less bimanual training (such that for the violin) and especially as opposed to laypersons.…”

“…Moreover, practising and performing music is a complex, multimodal behaviour that requires extensive motor and cognitive abilities. It relies on immediate and accurate associations between motor sequences and auditory events leading to multimodal predictions [10,20,21], which engage broad networks of the brain [16,22,23]. Music training has thus been associated with changes in the brain, and some of these changes have been causally linked to the duration of the training, which makes the musician's brain a most interesting model for the study of neuroplasticity [9,24].…”