1

What musical training and musical

experience teach us about brain

plasticity

Michel Habib

University of MarseilleEquipe Langage, Musique et Motricité

Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Méditerranée

http://resodys.org

Overview

• I/The brain of adult musicians : how and how

much is it different?

• II/ Learning music : what does it change in the

brain?

• III/ Some applications to remediation in

learning-impaired children

I/ The brain of adult musicians :

how is it different?

Anterior part of the callosum islarger in early-trained musicians

NON- MUSICIANMUSICIAN

corpus callosum

(Schlaug et al., 1995)

Le cervelet de musiciens

(mâles) est plus

volumineux de 5%

(Schlaug et al., 2001)

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professional keyboard players, whoreported approximately twice as muchweekly practice time as the amateurmusicians, have significantly moregray matter in several brain regions,including the primary sensorimotorcortex, the adjacent superior premotorand anterior superior parietal cortexbilaterally, mesial Heschl’s gyrus(primary auditory cortex), thecerebellum, the inferior frontal gyrus,and part of the lateral inferior temporallobe, than either the amateurmusicians or the nonmusicians.

Planum asymmetry is largerin musicians with absolutepitch (AP)

GOTTFRIED SCHLAUG The Brain of Musicians: A Model for Functional and Structural Adaptation Ann NY Acad Sci 2001 930: 281-299.

Functional imaging : only musicians with absolute speech have leftsuperior temporal activation for music AND language.

LR

Both theneurophysiological and theanatomicaldata show alarge increasein professionalmusicians anda smallerincrease inamateurmusicians.

The tonal raw score of musical aptitude(AMMA test) was highly correlatedwith both the N19m-P30m dipolemoment (b) and the gray matter volumeof amHG

MEG (processing of sinusoidal tones) and MRI (morphology)

Diffusion tensor imaging (D.T.I.)

Anisotropie plusforte ( ) ou plusfaible ( ) chezles musiciens

La plus forte anisotropie dans legenou du corps calleux traduit leplus fort besoin de coordinationintermanuelleLa plus faible anisotropie dans lacorona radiata et la capsule internetraduit l'automatisation de l'actemoteur

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Summary (1) - how different is the

musician's brain?• As a whole, professional musicians represent a neurologically

specific population, with macroscopically detectabledifferences in brain morphology

• These differences concern both motor- (motor and premotorcortex, anterior CC, cerebellum) and auditory-related brainstructures (Heschl's Gyrus, Planum temporale)

• Some of these differences are clearly related to musicalexpertise, others not. Most are proportional to practice duration.

• Specific white matter bundles, mainly pertaining to motorcircuits, are better structured in musicians, including childrenas early as before 11 y.

II/ Learning music : what does it

change in the brain?

• Daily intensive training with sensory-motor task in monkey

modifies brain functional maps (Jenkins et al., 1990)

• A few minutes/day practice is enough to significantly modify

cortical surface (Xerri et al., 1999)

Left hand fifth finger in string instrument players (MEG study,

Elbert et al., 1998). Larger dipole in right somatosensory area.

Effect of learning age.

2.5 kHz frequencies

Tonotopic maps in the auditory

cortex can also be modified by

training specific frequencies

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Dipoles pour les notes de piano —et non pourles tons purs— augmentés de ~25% chez lesmusiciens

Applying functional magnetic resonanceimaging (fMRI) techniques, hemodynamicresponses elicited by sequences of puretones of 950 Hz (standard) and deviant tonesof 952, 954, and 958 Hz were measuredbefore and 1 week after subjects had beentrained at frequency discrimination for fivesessions (over 1 week) using an oddballprocedure. The task of the subject was todetect deviants differing from the standardstimulus. Frequency discrimination improvedduring the training session for three subjects(performance gain: T1) but not for three othersubjects (no performance gain: T2).Hemodynamic responses in the auditorycortex comprising the planum temporale,planum polare and sulcus temporalis superiorsignificantly decreased during training only forthe T1 group. These activation changes werestrongest for those s timuli accompanied bythe strongest performance gain (958 and 954Hz). There was no difference with respect tothe hemodynamic responses in the auditorycortex for the T2 group and the control group(CO) who did not receive any pitchdiscrimination training. The results suggest aplastic reorganization of the corticalrepresentation for the trained frequencieswhich can be best explained on the basis of‘fast learning’ theories.

Activated regions where the pre-sessionrevealed stronger activations than the post-session for the T1 group (PRE .POST T 1).There are extended activations in the leftsuperior temporal gyrus including theplanum temporale the dorsal bank of thesuperior temporal sulcus and the planumpolare Activations on the right hemispherecomprise Heschl ’s gyrus the dorsal bank ofthe sulcus temporalis superior extendinginto the planum temporale and theplanum polare

Guenther et al., 2004 : Representation of Sound Categories inAuditory Cortical Maps

Discrimination :augmentation l'activité.Catégorisation : diminution

Activation plus forte etmoins latéralisée pourvoyelle nonprototypique

Neural plasticity, denoted by exclusive enhancementin brain activity for the /r–l/ contrast, does not involve onlyreorganization in brain regions concerned with acoustic-phoneticprocessing (superior and medial temporal areas) but also therecruitment of additional bilateral cortical (supramarginal gyrus,planum temporale, Broca’s area, premotor cortex, s upplementarymotor area) and subcortical regions (cerebellum, basal ganglia,substantia nigra) involved with auditory–articulatory(perceptual–motor) mappings related to verbal speech processingand learning

we tested musicians who began training before and afterthe age of 7 on learning of a timed motor sequence task.The groupswere matched for years of musical experience,years of formal training and hours of current practice.Results showed that ET musicians performed better thanLT musicians, and that this performance advantagepersisted after 5 days of practice. Performancedifferences were greatest for a measure of responsesynchronization,suggesting that early training has its greatest effecton neural systems involved in sensorimotor integrationand timing. These findings support the idea that theremay be a sensitive period in childhood where enrichedmotor training through musical practice results in longlastingbenefits for performance later in life.

Summary (2)

• Intensive, repetitive training with both instrument learning andexercise of auditory discrimination probably shape correspondingcortical and subcortical structures, generally by increasing thecortical surface.

• However, functionally, there are several possible patterns :– Post-training enlargement of cortical areas suggests recruitment of more

neurons– Post-training reduction suggests automatisation of function, possibly relayed

by subcortical structures– Post-training shifting would reflect use of new neural processes or the setting

of new representations• Beyond its effect on plasticity on specific brain areas, music

training, especially if started early in life, may enhance generalplasticity of the brain and thus generalize to other learningdomains.

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III/ Some applications to remediationin learning-impaired children

Transfer effect between music and non-musical abilities in children

• Literacy (Anvari et al., 2002; Moreno &Besson, 2007)

• Verbal memory (Chan et al., 1998; Ho et al.,2003)

• Visuo-spatial processing (Costa-Giomi, 1999)• Mathematics (Cheek & Smith, 1999)• IQ (Schellenberg, 2004)

We studied 60 female college students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, of whom 30 had had at least six yearsof training with a Western musical instrument before the age of 12, and 30 had received no music training. The twogroups of participants were matched (P0.01) in terms of age (music training, 19.9; no music training, 19.6; t 0.99), gradepoint average (music training, 3.0; no music training, 3.0; t0.21) and years of education (music training, 14.7; no musictraining, 14.3; t2.07).

"music trainingimproves verbalmemory"

Chan et al., 1998

a series of musical games was developed for dyslexic children, focusing particularly on rhythm andtiming skills, while taking into account potential difficulties in these areas. The activities weredesigned to progress gradually from a very basic level to a more advanced level of skill, withopportunities for variation and creativity within each particular game. For the purposes of thisresearch program, the musical curriculum was designed to cover a period of 15 weeks.

Results showed that no significantimprovements were made inreading skills, but the strong riskand mild risk groups madesignificant improvements inspelling skills (P <0.05), and allthree groups made significantimprovements in phonologicsegmentation skills (P <0.01).

Timing task strongly correlated with spelling abilities

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Neural Correlates of Rapid Spectrotemporal Processing in Musicians and Nonmusicians

[The Neurosciences and Music II: From Perception to Performance: Part II. Music and Language: Poster Papers]

GAAB, Na,b; TALLAL, Pc; KIM, Ha; LAKSHMINARAYANAN, Kc; ARCHIE, J Ja; GLOVER, G Hb; GABRIELI, J D Ea

Twenty healthy right-handed nonmusicians (NM) and 20 musicians

(M) (20 women and 20 men, age range: 18-33)

Our results suggest that musical training alters the functional anatomy of

rapid spectrotemporal processing, resulting in improved behavioral

performance along with a more efficient functional network primarily

involving traditional language regions. This finding may have important

implications for improving language/reading skills, especially in

children struggling with dyslexia.

musical training has been shown to improve verbal memory in adults

and in children, as well as reading ability and phonological

segmentation. Nevertheless, it remains unclear why musical training

leads to improved language and reading skills.

Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1060: 82-88 (2005)

Rapid spectro-

temporal

effect

Conclusion (1)

• One amazing feature of language-learning impaired children is

their limited temporal processing abilities. Music training may

improve language deficits through its temporal characteristics :

brief stimuli and/or movements in rapid succession

• Musicians, compared to non-musicians, seem to process

significantly better rapid spectro-temporal stimuli

• They also seem to recruit fewer amounts of cortical volume,

especially in Broca's area, reflecting easier processing of

spectro-temporal processing.

• Thus, music training could be viewed as a good means for

treating language-impaired children

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Words correctly read Reading speed (sec/word)

Pre- post-

trainingPre- post-

trainingtrained

controlIntermodal training with « Play-on® » (Danon-Boileau & Barbier, 2000)

[ba] [da]

Danon-Boileau, L., & Barbier, D. (2000). Play-On: Un logiciel d’entraînement à la lecture.

Paris: Audivi-Media.

Reading tasks (regular and

irregular words) : only visual

group improves

Transcoding (spelling

words and sentences on

dictation): only crossmodal

group improves

**

**

forêt solitaireUn loup se faufile entre les troncs de la grande

+ 35%

+ 120%

120 sentences from a children’s book :

40 with F0 unchanged

40 with F0 increased by 135 %

40 with F0 increased by 220 %

Un loup solitaire se faufile entre

les troncs de la grande forêt

Je voudrais un animal à moi

pour lui dire tous mes secrets

Dans la mare, il y a des canards

qui jouent à cache-cache

Difference waves of "strong incongruity effect" (strong - congruous condition) in dyslexics and

controls before and after crossmodal training

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Conclusion (2)

• Training dyslexic children with audio-visual (cross-modal) exercises may improve some deficits inreading-related tasks

• This improvement is paralleled by significant changesin auditory evoked potentials obtained during languageprocessing (prosodic task)

• It thus appears that crossmodal training has had a nonspecific effect on larger domains of languageprocessing, suggesting a transfer of learning

• This effect could be attributable to stimulation of theMirror Neuron System (MNS)

In both musicians and the control group, the source waveformsobtained from the somatosensory finger area showed no significantdifferences between the combined condition and the sum of responsesto the tone and the finger stimuli. Additionally, source waveforms didnot show clear differences between the groups.

In contrast, source waveforms obtained fromthe somatosensory lip area showeddistinctive differences between the responsesto the combined lip and tone stimulationand the responses obtained by summatingresponses from the unimodal lip and tonestimulation.

Our findings thus support the view that Broca’s area is presumably a central region (“hub”) of the mirrorneuron network (Iacoboni et al., 1999; Nishitani and Hari, 2000; Hamzei et al., 2003; Rizzolatti andCraighero, 2004; Nelissen et al., 2005), demonstrating here its multifunctional role in action listening.

a network of neural regions in the brain areactivated in both an aural task (listening to pianomelodies) and a motion-oriented task (’playing’ apiano keyboard with no auditory output) inprofessional pianists, but this coactivation is notfound in non-musicians

The acoustic task (aT) required passively listening to 3-smonophonic piano sequences.In the motion-related task (mT), subjects were promptedto arbitrarily press keys on a soundless piano keyboardduring a time window of 3 s

Projet ANR : "Influence de l’apprentissage de la musique sur letraitement des aspects temporels du langage et sur la remédiation

de la dyslexie" (Besson, Habib et al.)

• Basé sur la constatation de meilleures performances enlecture d'enfants ayant eu un enseignement de lamusique et sur des résultats préliminaires montrant demeilleures performances phonologiques chez desenfants après un entraînement musical

• Entraînement d'enfants non musiciens à l'aide d'unprotocole d'entraînement musical comparé à unepratique régulière d'activité artistique d'autre nature

• Réalisation de potentiels évoqués avant et aprèsentraînements

• Comparaison d'enfants dyslexiques et non dyslexiques

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- confirms a leftward

asymmetry of planum

temporale in AP musicians

- But ascribes this

asymmetry to a smaller right

planum, thus suggesting

prenatal "pruning"

Evaluation d’un logiciel d’aide à la lecture auprès

d’enfants dyslexiquesA. Magnan, J. Ecalle, E. Veuillet, L. Danon-Boilleau et D. Barbier

• 14 enfants dyslexiques divisés en 2 groupes

• âge moyen : 10 ans 1 mois

• bilans pré et post entraînement : épreuves phonologiques et

épreuves de reconnaissance de mots (3 conditions : prononcé,

image, amorce sémantique)

• entraînement : 2 séances de 15 mn/jour, 4 jours/ semaine et

pendant 5 semaines

• «�jeu de Basket�»

Ecalle J. Développement des processus d’identification de mots

écrits : une étude transversale entre 6 et 8 ans, sous presse in

rééducation orthophonique.

Performance moyenne

en lecture (TIME2)

Performance moyenne

en conscience

phonologique

unimodal acoustic (UA) and audiovisual (AV) duration

discrimination tasks : more phase locking in musicians than

non musician for both speech and music. These findings

demonstrate practice-related changes in the early sensory

encoding of auditory and audiovisual information

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Sequencing effect (S+/S-)

20 nonmusician eight-year-old children (i.e., without anyspecific musical training) from the same elementary school,matched by age, years of education, and socioeconomicbackground, and who were all involved in extra-scholarlyactivities other than music. All children performed the same task(see below). Then, one group of 10 children took eight weeks ofmusic training and the other group of 10 children eight weeks ofpainting training

Influence of Musical Training on Pitch Processing: Event-Related Brain Potential Studies of Adultsand Children[The Neurosciences and Music II: From Perception to Performance: Part II. Music and Language:Poster Papers]

MORENO, SYLVAIN; BESSON, MIREILLE

The "musicalgarden"

Moreno et al., 2005

Although main effects ofpitch violation and trainingwere found on both reactiontimes (RTs) and error ratemeasures, these effects werenot significantly differentbetween the music andpainting training groups

Comparison of the ERPs to the strong incongruities in the painting and music groups before (gray curve) andafter (black curve) training. Data are presented for central (Cz) and parietal (Pz) electrodes.

By contrast, analysis of the ERPsrevealed significant differencesbetween music and paintinggroups. Clearly, whereas the strongincongruities elicited very similareffects in both groups beforetraining, a decrease in theamplitude of a late positivity aftertraining was found only in themusic group

Word and NonWord Reading

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

F+pre

test

F+post

est

F- pre

test

F-post

est

F0 pre

test

F0 post

est

Reg

ul pre

test

Reg

ul post

est

Irre

gul pre

test

Irre

gul post

est

Calib

rate

d s

co

res

SMT MST SDT

LeNormand et al. (2007) : comparing 3 training methods in dyslexic children: semiophony(speech envelope-based therapy); modified (temporal) speech training; standard speech therapy. F+=familiar words, F- =unfamiliar, F0=non-words

Significant improvement for all 3 methods :"Modified Speech Training cannot beconsidered so far as the most efficient program for improving metaphonology"

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subjects listened to three-tone sequences comprising two complex tones and were asked to reproduce the order of the tones manually. Each tone was 75 ms longand had a fundamental frequency of either 100 Hz or 300 Hz. The interstimulus interval (ISI) between the three tones varied in four steps (5 ms, 20 ms, 50 ms,and 300 ms). The sequences required either sequencing (S+: e.g., 100-300-100 Hz) or nonsequencing (S-: e.g., 100-100-100 Hz).

The present study revealed morphologicalchanges in the late components of the AEFover the period of 1 year in 4- to 6-year-oldchildren, particularly in the 100–400 ms timewindow. In addition, larger P100m and N450mamplitude as well as more rapid changes of theN250m amplitude andlatency were associated with the violin soundrather than the noise stimuli. The positiveP100m and P320m componentswere larger over the left than the righthemisphere. Of most importance, the effects ofSuzuki musical training over a 1-year periodwere seen in response to musical sound but notnoise and were accompanied by enhancedbehavioural performances in musicaldiscrimination and non-musicalworking memory.

If learning was correlated with changes in theMMN from recording 1 to recording 2, wecould conclude that changes in theneural generators of the MMN must haveoccurred during the discrimination session orthe 10-min break after it. For the LD group,this correlation was very strong (r = 0.76),suggesting thatfor the easier discrimination, MMNgenerators strengthened during learning.On the other hand, for the HD group, therewas no such correlation. Instead, in the HDgroup, learning tended to be associated withthe initial level of the MMN (r = 0.47). Thus, forthe difficult deviant, stronger preexistingMMN generators predicted subsequentlearning. Collectively, these results suggestthat the temporal relationship betweenlearning and neurophysiological plasticity isvariable and may depend on the relativedifficulty of discriminations.

MMN in 32 volunteers, two EEG recordings whilethey watched silent films and ignored auditorystimuli. Stimuli were a standard (probability =85%) and two deviant (probability = 7.5% each forhigh [HD] and low [LD]) eight-tone sequences thatdiffered in the frequency of one tone. The LD waseasier to discriminate than was the HD.

Stages of development

target identification

migration

neurogenesis

axonal extension

synaptogenesis

morphological differentiation