Neural Correlates of Processing Syntax in Music and ... - PubMan

Musical Training 27
them to transfer these plans more easily to other movements (Palmer & Meyer, 2000):
At advanced skill levels mental plans for actions become independent of the required
movements and can be more easily transferred to other motor acts.
3.3 Brain-anatomical correlates of musical training
Due to the specific challenges that musicians experience, it was expected to find differences
specifically for the brain correlates of auditory and motor functions.
Auditory regions: The auditory cortex has a crucial role in the perception of music,
speech, and auditory space. A larger grey matter volume of the primary auditory cortex
(Heschl’s gyrus) in musicians, accompanied by larger potentials of their auditory
evoked brain activity was demonstrated by Schneider et al. (2002). Both quantities were
correlated with musical aptitude.
In secondary auditory regions, differences were found for the planum temporale
(Schlaug, Jäncke, Huang, Staiger, & Steinmetz, 1995), but mainly for a particular
group, namely absolute pitch musicians. Musicians differed from non-musicians in their
brain activity when remembering pitch heights (even when they were parallel with regard
to their memory performance; Gaab & Schlaug, 2003) and in their processing of
complex harmonic sounds and harmony (Rauschecker, 1999; Schmithorst & Holland,
2003). Decreased activation of the auditory cortex (i.e., the planum temporale, the
planum polare, and the superior temporal sulcus) was demonstrated by Jäncke et al.
(2001) after training in a frequency discrimination task, taken to reflect the facilitated
processing of these tones.
Motor regions: Musicians and non-musicians differ greatly in their demands for motor
processing. This is associated with a larger extent of motor and somatosensory information
to be processed, due to the highly complex movement patterns that are necessary
for playing an instrument. These behavioural changes may also manifest themselves in
structural changes within the brain. Firstly, this led to changes in brain morphology,
e.g., a less pronounced left-right-asymmetry in the motor cortex (Amunts et al., 1997;
Bangert & Schlaug, 2006; Jäncke, Schlaug, & Steinmetz, 1997), an enlarged cerebellum
(Hutchinson, Lee, Gaab, & Schlaug, 2003), or an enlarged corpus callosum (Lee, Chen,
& Schlaug, 2003; Schlaug, 2001; Schlaug et al., 1995; Schmithorst & Wilke, 2002). The
amount of enlargement for both, cerebellum and corpus callosum, was correlated with
the intensity of practice in the musicians. Secondly, these anatomical differences were
also reflected in different patterns of brain activity (Hund-Georgiadis & von Cramon,
1999; Jäncke, Shah, & Peters, 2000; Krings et al., 2000; Meister et al., 2005). It is assumed
that practising leads to highly efficient movements and to a strong automation
that, in turn, leads to a reduction of brain activation.