Insula‐based networks in professional musicians: Evidence for increased functional connectivity during resting state fMRI

Abstract

Despite considerable research on experience-dependent neuroplasticity in professional musicians, detailed understanding of an involvement of the insula is only now beginning to emerge. We investigated the effects of musical training on intrinsic insula-based connectivity in professional classical musicians relative to nonmusicians using resting-state functional MRI. Following a tripartite scheme of insula subdivisions, coactivation profiles were analyzed for the posterior, ventral anterior, and dorsal anterior insula in both hemispheres. While whole-brain connectivity across all participants confirmed previously reported patterns, between-group comparisons revealed increased insular connectivity in musicians relative to nonmusicians. Coactivated regions encompassed constituents of large-scale networks involved in salience detection (e.g., anterior and middle cingulate cortex), affective processing (e.g., orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole), and higher order cognition (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the temporoparietal junction), whereas no differences were found for the reversed group contrast. Importantly, these connectivity patterns were stronger in musicians who experienced more years of musical practice, including also sensorimotor regions involved in music performance (M1 hand area, S1, A1, and SMA). We conclude that musical training triggers significant reorganization in insula-based networks, potentially facilitating high-level cognitive and affective functions associated with the fast integration of multisensory information in the context of music performance. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4834-4849, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Singing training predicts increased insula connectivity with speech and respiratory sensorimotor areas at rest

“…These profiles encompass the posterior insula (PI), the dorsal anterior insula (dAI), and the ventral anterior insula (vAI) and have been supported by the insula's structural organization (Nomi et al, 2018). In the current study, we replicated previous results (Deen et al, 2011;Uddin et al, 2014;Zamorano et al, 2017;Zamorano et al, 2019), demonstrating a predominantly "cognitive" frontoparietal connectivity pattern of the dAI, a stronger co-activation pattern of the vAI with regions involved in affective processing, and a sensorimotor co-activation pattern for the PI. We furthermore confirmed an overlap between co-activated areas across insula subdivisions (Nomi et al, 2018).…”

“…Specifically, between (i) the bilateral PI with the thalamus, (ii) the dAI (bilaterally) with the sensorimotor representation (S1/M1) of the diaphragm, and (iii) the left dAI furthermore with the bilateral sensorimotor representation (S1/M1) representation of the larynx, bilateral thalamus, and the left putamen. We propose that the observed enhanced functional connectivity among these regions in the current study reflects a role of the insula as a major integration site for task-relevant bodily information based on experience (Critchley et al, 2004;Kleber et al, 2017;Schirmer-Mokwa et al, 2015;Zamorano et al, 2017;Zamorano et al, 2019).…”

“…This model is based on structural and functional co-activation patterns across task domains, which suggest both unique and overlapping functional profiles encompassing the posterior insula (PI), the dorsal anterior insula (dAI), and the ventral anterior insula (vAI) (Deen et al, 2011;Nomi et al, 2018;Uddin et al, 2014). We expected to find enhanced insula connectivity in singers compared to non-singers Kleber et al, 2013), specifically between the AI with regions of the dorsal sensorimotor speech stream involved in vocal tract coordination, analogous to task-related findings with musicians trained in playing an instrument (Zamorano et al, 2017). A high level of task-related structure function specificity would provide converging evidence for a central involvement of the insula in vocal motor control and may furthermore help delineating experience-dependent changes within sensory integration networks.…”

“…Following our previous approach (Zamorano et al, 2017;Zamorano et al, 2019) The first 10 volumes from each data set were discarded prior to preprocessing. Following slicetime correction and co-registration, gray and white matter were segmented from co-registered T1 images using the unified segmentation model (Ashburner and Friston, 2005).…”

“…Crus 2 has been linked to executive control, whereas lobule VI has also been associated with salience processing (Baumann et al, 2015;Habas et al, 2009), a task that requires top-down attention and cognitive control in the context of planned actions (Uddin, 2015). Enhanced connectivity within the salience network during resting state has moreover been found in professional musicians (Luo et al, 2014;Zamorano et al, 2017;Zamorano et al, 2019).…”