1. Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians
Christian Gaser and Gottfried Schlaug
Su Kyung (Irene) Kim

2. Introduction
Musicians -> Complex motor, auditory, somatosensory skills
Skill acquisition -> functional enlargement of the representative area that underlies that particular skill
Whole brain space for structural differences b/w musicians and non-musicians
Unclear: continued practice or repetition of skills over a long period of time -> structural changes/regional enlargement?
Strong association b/w structural differences, musician status, and practice intensity
Structural adaptations in response to long-term skill acquisition and the repetitive rehearsal of those skills

3. Terms/definitions
Voxel: a volume element, representing a value on a regular grid in 3D space
VBM: Voxel-Based Morphometry
-analysis of differences in local gray and white matter volume across the whole brain
Morphometrics: field concerned with studying variation and change in the form of organisms or objects; detecting changes in the shape of organisms

4. Materials & Methods 20 male professional musicians
Subjects:
20 male professional musicians
(performing artists, full-time music teachers, full-time conservatory students)
=high-practicing group
20 male amateur musicians
(play musical instrument regularly but profession outside the field of music)
=low-practicing group
40 male non-musicians
(never played a musical instrument)

5. Materials & Methods 18 - 40 years Right-handed males
ALL Keyboard players & formal training
Verbal Intelligence Quotient (IQ) – Shipley Hartford Vocabulary and Abstraction test

7. Materials & Methods
Data acquisition and analysis :
High-resolution anatomical images (voxel size, 1mm³) of the whole brain – 1.5T Siemens Vision whole-body scanner
Image analysis -> VBM, a fully automatic technique for computational analysis of differences in local gray matter volume
Voxel-by-voxel t tests / general linear model

8. Results Significant (+) correlation:
musician status ↔ increase in gray matter volume
Musician status
Gray matter volume
Professional
Highest
Amateur
Intermediate
None
Lowest

9. Relative differences in gray matter volume

10. Perirolandic regions:
-1⁰ motor, somatosensory areas
-premotor areas
-anterior superior parietal areas
-inferior temporal gyrus (bilaterally)
Additional (+) correlation in:
-left cerebellum
-left Heschl’s gyrus
-left inferior frontal gyrus
No significant effects in Planum Temporale (PT) =>Absolute Pitch (AP)
No significant correlations b/w white matter volume & musician status

12. Discussion Premotor & cerebellar cortex (motor)
-planning, preparation, execution, and control
-cerebellum: cognitive skill learning & music processing
Left Heschl’s gyrus (auditory)
-neurophysiological source activity differences
-listening to tones
Superior parietal region/lobe (visual-spatial)
-1) integrate multimodal sensory info
-2) provide guidance for motor operations
-sight-reading
Inferior temporal gyrus (visual)
-ventral visual stream

13. Discussion Lack of a finding in white matter
-1) plastic changes occur in the cerebral gray matter
-2) VBM method insensitive to white matter differences
-Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
One gender
-1) gender interaction
-2) huge gender effects; histological differences
-3) microstructural changes ↔ menstrual cycle

14. Discussion
Monotonic relationship b/w musician status and gray matter volume
Strong links b/w specialized skills & particular brain structures
Anatomical variability -> extraordinary abilities & self-selection for musicianship
VS.
Adaptations to long-term musical training -> volumetric structural differences

15. My opinion Comprehensive Intro&discussion section
Two different analyses
Causal relationships b/w long-term training and related structural changes in specific brain regions
Future experiments: relative contribution of predisposition and practice
Different instruments (eg. flute, violin, drum)
Female musicians