Changes in auditory cortical thickness following music training in children: converging longitudinal and cross-sectional
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Changes in auditory cortical thickness following music training in children: converging longitudinal and cross‑sectional results Assal Habibi1 · Beatriz Ilari2 · Katrina Heine1 · Hanna Damasio1 Received: 21 February 2020 / Accepted: 22 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Evidence is accumulating to suggest that music training is associated with structural brain differences in children and in adults. We used magnetic resonance imagining in two studies to investigate neuroanatomical correlates of music training in children. In study 1, we cross-sectionally compared a group of child musician (ages 9–11) matched to non-musicians and found that cortical thickness was greater in child musician in the posterior segment of the right-superior temporal gyrus (STG), an auditory association area that is involved in processing complex auditory stimuli, including pitch. We also found that thickness in the right posterior STG is related to music proficiency, however this relationship did not reach significance. In study 2, a longitudinal study, we investigated change in cortical thickness over a four-year period comparing a group of children involved in a systematic music training program with another group of children who did not have any music training. In this 2nd study we assessed both groups at the beginning of the study, prior to music training for the music group, and four years later. We found that children in the music group showed a strong trend of lower rate of cortical thinning in the right posterior superior temporal gyrus. Together, our results provide evidence that music training induces structural brain changes in school-age children and that these changes are predominantly pronounced in the right auditory association areas. Keywords Cortical thickness · Superior temporal gyrus · Music training · Auditory cortex · Child development
Introduction Playing a musical instrument is a complex multisensory experience requiring several skills including reading and translating abstract musical notation to fine and coordinated motor movements in order to produce a sound. The mastering of this rich and demanding process requires regular and intense practice, often from a young age on, and the combination of such demand is likely to influence the differential development, maintenance, and operation of certain brain structures. Over the past two decades, many studies comparing adult musicians and non-musicians have shown that music training is associated with anatomical * Assal Habibi [email protected] 1
Brain and Creativity Institute, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, 3620 A McClintock Avenue, Suite 262, Los Angeles, CA 90089‑2921, USA
Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
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brain differences (for comprehensive reviews see Gaser and Schlaug 2003; Herholz and Zatorre 2012; Jäncke 2009). Although the precise brain coordinates and lateralization of
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