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Abstract

Music is becoming more and more of an issue in the cognitive neurosciences. A major finding in this research area is that musical practice is associated with structural and functional plasticity of the brain. In this brief review, I will give an overview of the most recent findings of this research area.
Music drives brain plasticity
Lutz Jäncke
Address: Division of Neuropsychology, Psychological Institute, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14, 8050 Zürich, Switzerland
Email: l.jaencke@psychologie.uzh.ch
F1000 Biology Reports 2009, 1:78 (doi:10.3410/B1-78)
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found at: http://F1000.com/Reports/Biology/content/1/78
Abstract
Music is becoming more and more of an issue in the cognitive neurosciences. A major finding in this
research area is that musical practice is associated with structural and functional plasticity of the
brain. In this brief review, I will give an overview of the most recent findings of this research area.
Introduction and context
Professional musicians have been used over the last
15 years as a model for brain plasticity [1,2]. Why are
musicians so interesting for plasticity research? First of
all, they are experts in playing musical instruments. To
play the demanding two three-second segments of the
11th variation from the sixth Paganini Etude by Franz
Liszt, for example, requires the production of 30 notes
per second. A tremendous amount of training is needed
to achieve this kind of finger speed . Ericsson and
colleagues [3] were among the first to show how much
professional musicians do in fact practice. The authors
showed that professional pianists and violinists practice
for 7,500 hours before reaching the age of 18 years,
whereas music teachers can look back on a total practice
time of approximately 3,500 hours. This differen ce was
unaffected by the quality of musical education since all
musicians in this study had graduated from the
prestigious Berlin Academy of Music. Thus, the amount
of practice is one of the most important factors
influencing musical expertise, at least in terms of the
skill required to play a musical instrument. If musicians
practice that much, it is hypothesised, they should show
some kind of neuroanatomical and neurophysiological
adaptations. P rofessional, semi-professional, and
non-professional musicians have no w been studied
extensively in terms of the neuroanatomical and
neurophysiological underpinnings of their expertise. In
principle, three different approaches to studying plastic
processes in musicians are possible: (a) Th e first
approach is cross-sectional in nature and mostly employs
quasi-experimental designs (post-test-only designs with
non-equivalent groups in the terminology of Cook and
Campbell [4]). With this design, musicians and non-
musicians are studied at the same point in time in
terms of anatomical or functional brain measures. This
approach has been widely used because it is relatively
easy to collect the data. Differences between both groups
are attributed mostly to the different learning histories of
musicians and non-musicians. However, the interpreta-
tion of these data is limited since this approach does not
allow the inference of strong causation because it cannot
be ruled out that selection differences between the two
groups or the different treatments (here, music lessons)
are responsible for the results. To enhance the interpret-
ability of such design s, several research groups have
employed pretest measures related to musical expertise
to control for pretest between-group differences. This
design, which is called the untreated control group
design with proxy pretest measures [4], allows stronger
causation about the influence of musical training. (b)
The second approa ch used in this research context
consists of short-term longitudinal studies in which
subjects have undergone a specific training intervention.
These studies are typically designed according to a pre-
post design, and the subjects are enrolled in training
programs lasting from several hours to several months.
(c) Finally, long-term longitudinal studies in which
subjects have undergone a longer (at least a period of
years) training are also used. Longitudinal studies are
more co mplicated in terms o f organisation of the
experiments, they take longer, and they are more
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expensive. In addition, longitudinal studies are repeated
measurements studies, implying some methodological
problems (for example, unwanted practice effects). To
understand the influence of music practice on brain
plasticity more precisely, it is necessary to combine these
different approaches.
A general finding of the studies published thus far is that
nearly all of those brain areas involved in the control of
musical expertise (motor cortex, auditory cortex, cerebel-
lum, and other areas) show specific anatomical and
functional features in professional and semi-professional
musicians. In the following, I will review most of the
recent papers (after 2002) supporting the idea of brain
plasticity driven by musical expertise and musical training.
Major recent advances
Structural brain plasticity
Recently, Hyde and colleagues [5] published a paper
strongly supporting the idea of use-dependent brain
plasticity driven by musical training. In summary, this
study demonstrates that 6-year-old children receiving
instrumental musical training for 15 months (compared
with children receiving non-musical training) not only
learned to play their musical instrument but also showed
changed anatomical features in brain areas known to be
involved in the control of playing a musical instrument.
Most of these brain areas are part of the cortical motor
system, but there were also structural changes in the
auditory system and in the corpus callosum. This is the
first longitudinal study demonstrating brain plasticity in
children in the context of learning a musical instrument.
Although longitudinal studies are the gold standard in
plasticity research, several cross-sectional studies demon-
strating specific anatomical features in musicians have
recently been published. For example, Bangert and
Schlaug [6] reported that pianists atypically showed the
omega sign (indicative of a larger hand motor area) on
both hemispheres, where as violinists showed the omega
sign on only the right hemisphere controlling the left
hand. This specific anatomical feature is possibly related
to the fact that pianists practice a lot with both hands,
whereas violinists practice a lot with their left hand
(manipulating the strings) and the ir right arm (manip-
ulating the bow). Thus, violinists might drive only the
right-sided hand motor area, whereas pianists drive the
hand motor areas on both hemispheres. This interesting
finding is in strong concordance with older studies
reporting specific anatomical features in the hand motor
area in pianists and violinists [7,8].
Using a voxel-based morphometry approach, Gaser and
Schlaug [9] identified grey matter volume differences in
motor, auditory, and visual-spatial brain regions when
comparing professional musicians (keyboard players in
this study) with a matched group of amateur musicians
and non-musicians. Most interestingly, they found a
strong association between structural differences (grey
matter density), musician status, and practice intensity,
supporting the view that practice (in this case, practicing
to play a musical instrument) has an impact on brain
anatomy. Increased grey matter density (and volume) is
currently taken as evidence of an increase in capillary
density as well as smaller changes in synapse and glial
cell density . Thus, these changes might reflect neuroana-
tomical adaptations in order to improve the cognitive
and motor functions controlled by these particular brain
areas.
Most recently, a Swedish group used diffusion tensor
imaging (D TI) to measure the integrity of fiber tracts
(association fibers and commissures) in eight profes-
sional pianists and found a strong positive co rrelation
between the measure of fractional anisotropy (FA)
(indicating the integrity of the fiber system) and time
spent practicing the piano [10,11]. Thus, the pianists
who practi ced more often showed higher FA values
(indicating a higher integrity of the fiber system). This
finding is of outstanding importance because it brings to
light morphometric differences even within a highly
specialised group of skilled pianists and indicates that
these differences are due to practice time (specialisation
of the specialised). In 2002, Schneider and colleagues
[12], of Heidelberg, Germany, reported a remarkable
anatomical finding in musicians. Using magnetoence-
phalography (MEG) and sophisticated anatomical
analyses, the authors found neurophysiological and
anatomical differences between musicians and non-
musicians. First, the neurophysiological activity in the
primary auditory cortex 19-30 ms after tone onset was
more than 100% larger. In addition, the grey matter
volume of the anteromedial part of Heschls gyrus
(which covers most of the primary auditory cortex) was
130% larger in musicians. Both measures were also
highly correlated with musical aptitude. This study is one
of the first to indicate that both the morphology and
neurophysiology of Heschls gyrus have an essential
influence on musical aptitude [12]. The second paper of
the same group was even more spectacular [13]. In this
paper, they found a strong relationship between the
strategy used in processing complex tones and anatomi-
cal features in the primary auditory cortex. Professional
musicians who preferentially analyse the fundamental
pitch (the fundamental tone, abbreviated f0 or F0, is the
lowest frequency in a harmonic series) of complex tones
were found to have a leftward asymmetry of grey matter
volume in Heschls gyrus, whereas those who prefer to
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analyse the spectral pitch of complex tones show a
rightward asymmetry of grey matter volume of Heschls
gyrus. Thus, a marked anatomical feature of the auditory
system correlated with a particular tone-processing
strategy within a group of professional musicians.
Patricia Sluming and colleagues [14], of Liverpool, UK,
published a paper in which they reported anatomical
differences in Brocas area between musicians and non-
musicians. In particular, the authors reported increased
grey matter in Brocas area in the left inferior frontal
gyrus in musicians. In addition, they obse rved significant
age-related volume reduction s in cerebral hemispheres,
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex bilaterally, and grey matter
density in the left inferior frontal gyrus in controls but
not in musicians! In other words, musicians showed no
or a smaller decrease in grey matter density in the frontal
cortex compared with non-musicians with increasing
age. (This is very important for aging research since the
volume of the frontal cortex has been shown to correlate
negatively with age [15,16].) This anatomical study
suggests that orchestral musical performance might
promote use-dependent retention, and possibly expan-
sion, of grey matter within Brocas area (a brain area that
is responsible for speech production, language proces-
sing, and language comprehension as well as controlling
facial neurons; it is named after Pierre Paul Broca, who
discovered the area after studying the postmortem brain
of a patient with a speech impairment). In addition, this
study emphasises the significant point that shared neural
networks (within Brocas area) are involved in the
control of language and music. In a more recent study,
the same group showed that Brocas area is also involved
in the control of mental rotation, but only in musicians
[17]. They relate this extraordinary finding to the sight-
reading skills of musicians. In sight reading, visuospatial
cognition is related to some ki nd of language decoding.
Brocas area might be involved in the control of this
specific inter-relationship.
The most recent study to use DTI techniques was
published by Imfeld et al. [18]. These authors measu red
the training effects on FA in the corticosp inal tract (CST)
of professional musicians and co ntrol non-musicians
and found significantly lower FA values in both the left
and the right CST in the musician group. Diffusivity, a
parameter indicating the amount of water that diffuses
along and across the axon, was negatively correlated with
the onset of musical training in childhood in the
musician group. A subsequently performed median
split into an early- and a late-onset musician group
(median of 7 years) revealed increased diffusivity in the
CST of the early-onset group as compared with both the
late-onset group and the controls. In conclusion, DTI was
successfully applied in revealing plastic changes in white
matter arc hitecture of the CST in professional musicians.
The present results challenge the notion that increased
myelination induced by sensorimotor practice leads to
an increase in FA, as has been sugg ested previously.
Instead, training- induced changes in diffusion character-
istics of the axonal membrane may lead to increased
radial diffusivity reflected in decreased FA values.
However, this issue deserves more intensiv e discussion
about the methodological aspects associated with FA and
diffusivity measurements.
Functional brain plasticity
Besides the above-mentioned specific anatomical fea-
tures in musicians, several recent (and older) studies
have shown specific neurophysiological adaptations.
Recently, Lappe et al. [19] dem onstrated particular
changes with respect to the neurophysiological responses
of the auditory cortex in non-musicians who trained for
2 weeks to play the piano. These authors randomly
assigned subjects to one of two groups: one group
learned to play a musical sequence on the piano, whereas
the control group listened to the music that had been
played by the other group. The authors demonstrated
training-induced cortical plasticity using the musically
elicited mismatch negativity (MMNm) from MEG
measurements before and after training. The MMNm
is a neurophysiological response reflecting the pre-
attentive processing of auditory stimuli [20,21].
The subjects who learned to play piano showed
significant enlargement of MMNm after training com-
pared with the group who only listened to the music.
Thus, practicing to play the piano improves not only
hand motor skills but also the auditor y representation of
the musical tones that are generated by the pi ano keys.
Thus, a strong crossmodal link between motor com-
mands and the representation of auditory information is
established, causing a stronger representation of musical
information in the auditory cortex. Several years ago,
Bangert and Altenmüller [22] demonstrated a similar
finding using electroencephalogaphy (EEG). They iden-
tified changed activations in frontal brain regions of
subjects who had just 20 minutes of piano training, but
only in the learning conditions during which the subjects
could easily associate a particular piano key with a note.
In situations during which this association was random,
there was no cortical crossmodal plasticity. Effects of
training have also been shown to be instrument-specific
[23-25], and the EEG responses of children taking music
lessons have been shown to change differently over the
course of a year compared with those of children not
studying music [26]. Thus, in summary, musicians or
musically experienced subjects respond differently to
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musical stimuli even if top-down factors like attention
are controlled for [27]. There is also ample evidence of
change in the auditory system due to musical practice
and in the entire sensorimotor system [28-32].
Interestingly, most of the recent findings indicate that
even neurophysiological responses at the level of the
brainstem are dependent on experie nce-dependent
influences. Neural activity generated from the brainstem
can be measured using frequency following responses
(FFRs). The FFR is an electrophysiological scalp-recorded
electrical response that reflects processing stages of
auditory information at the level of the brainstem.
Specifically, Wong et al. [33] first showed music-related
plasticity in FFRs elicited by speech. Later, Musacchia
et al. [34] found that musicians had more robust FFRs to
auditory and audiovisual speech and music sounds. The
latter study also strengthened the notion that musical
experience shapes not only auditory processing but
multisensory mechanisms as well. However, both studies
indicate that playing music enhances the fidelity of the
earliest stage of auditory response, not only to musical
stimuli but also to speech and multi sensory cues.
More recently, Krishnan et al. [35] analysed the FFRs
from Chinese and English subjects in response to four
Mandarin tonal contours presente d in a non-speech
context. The FFR analysis revealed that the Chinese group
exhibited st ronger representati on of multiple pitch-
relevant harmonics relative to the English group across
all four tones. The authors concluded that long-term
experience (here, experience with Mandarin) enhanced
the sensitivity to linguistically relevant variations in
pitch. Thus, specific language experience changes the FFR
in a manner similar to that of music experience.
Future directions
The preceding findings give rise to the question of
whether there is transfer from musical to non-musical
skills. A well-trained auditory system might support the
perception of auditory speech information and thus
auditory speech information might be processed more
efficiently. In addition, when learning to play a musical
instrument, the trainee also practices attention, planning
functions, memory, and self-discipline. It is thus
hypothesised that musical experience would positively
influence executive functions, lan guage functions, or
even intelligence in general. Several recently published
papers are in line with this hypothesis. For example, one
paper demonstrates that extended musical experience
enhances executive control on a non-verbal spatial task
and auditory tasks [36]. Glenn Schellenberg [37]
uncovered a greater IQ increase in children enrolled in
music classes compared with well-matched children who
received no musical lessons, and Ho et al. [38] uncovered
an enhancement of verbal memory skills (but not visual
memory skills) in children enrolled in musical lessons.
There is therefore mounting evidence on the behavioural
level of positive transfer from musical expertise to non-
musical domains. Recen tly, Moreno et al. [39] estab-
lished that musical training (not longer than 6 months)
improves non-musical functions such as reading and
linguistic perception. These non-musical enhancements
are also accompanied by changed cortical activation
patterns. This study is one of the very few longitudinal
studies to hav e been conducted in the context of musical
training.
If music has such a strong infl uence on brain plasticity,
this raises the question of whether this effect can be used
to enhance brain plasticity and cognitive performance in
general and clinical settings. In a recent single-blind
randomised controlled study, Särkämö et al.[40]
examined whether daily music listening enhances the
recovery of cognitive functions and mood after stroke.
This study demonstrates that recovery of verbal memory
and focused attention improved significantly and sub-
stantially in the group of patients who listened to their
favourite music on a daily basis compared with patients
who listened to audio books or received no listening
material. Besides the cognitive improvement in the
context of listening to music, there was a substantial
mood improvement in the patients who listened to
music. Thus, music could be used as a non-i nvasive tool
for neuropsychological and neurological therapies. In
addition, musical elements could be used to improve
specific cognitive functions for which positive transfer
effects have been demonstrated. For exam ple, reading
and writing skills as well as memory function s are
possible candidates for functions that might benefit from
musical training elements. Recent evidence shows that
writing and reading can be improved when dyslexic
children learn to associate graphemes and phonemes
with musical notes [41] and that many memory
elements are linked to music [42,43]. Hopefully, the
current trend in the use of musicians as a model for brain
plasticity will continue in future experiments and extend
to the field of neuropsychological rehabilitation.
Abbreviations
CST, corticospinal tract; DTI, diffusion tensor imaging;
EEG, electroencephalogaphy; FA, fractional ani sotropy;
FFR, frequency following response; MEG, magnetoence-
phalography; MMNm, musically el icited mismat ch
negativity.
Competing interests
The author declares that he has no compe ting interests.
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... c) Beim dritten Ansatz kommen auch langfristige Längsschnittstudien zum Einsatz, welche allerdings mehr Aufwand in Hinsicht auf die Organisation der Experimente erfordern und aufgrund der längeren Dauer ebenso kostenintensiver sind. Die Proband*innen haben hier eine längere, mindestens mehrjährige Ausbildung absolviert (Jäncke, 2009). ...
... Um besser und genauer zu verstehen, welchen Einfluss die musikalische Praxis auf die Gehirnplastizität ausübt, ist eine Kombination der oben beschriebenen verschiedenen Ansätze erforderlich (Jäncke, 2009). ...
... Neben der vergleichenden Untersuchung von professionellen Musiker*innen, musikalischen Amateuren sowie Anfänger*innen wird in neueren Studien der Fokus vor allem auf die besonderen Effekte des musikalischen Trainings gelegt. Um den Einfluss des musikalischen Handelns auf die Plastizität des Gehirns besser und detaillierter zu verstehen, ist eine Kombination aus querschnittsorientiertem Ansatz sowie kurz-und langfristigen Längsschnittstudien erforderlich (Jäncke, 2009). ...
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Der Zusammenhang von musikalischer Betätigung mit der strukturellen und funktionellen Plastizität des Gehirns ist eine wichtige Erkenntnis im Forschungsgebiet der kognitiven Neurowissenschaften. Dieser Beitrag verdeutlicht die Relevanz der Neuroplastizität in der gegenwärtigen Hirnforschung und die Fähigkeit des Gehirns, seine neuronalen Strukturen unter dem Einfluss von Musik neu zu organisieren. Das Erlernen und Spielen eines Musikinstruments ist eine hochkomplexe Aufgabe und bietet daher eine ideale Gelegenheit, die strukturelle Plastizität im sich entwickelnden Gehirn in Korrelation mit den durch das musikalische Training hervorgerufenen Verhaltensänderungen zu untersuchen. Aufgrund der besonderen Formbarkeit ihres Gehirns sind Kinder dabei ein hervorragendes Modell für die Untersuchung sensibler Entwicklungsphasen, da das musikalische Training bereits im frühen Lebensalter beginnt und quantifiziert werden kann. Die sensomotorischen und kognitiven Verbesserungen, die aufgrund der Plastizität des neuronalen Netzwerks mit dem Musiktraining verbunden sind, können neben Verhaltensänderungen ebenso Auswirkungen auf andere kognitive Prozesse haben. Es stellt sich daher die Frage, wie die Forschungsergebnisse und Erkenntnisse der kognitiven Neurowissenschaften sinnvoll in die praktische Umsetzung geführt und pädagogisch gewinnbringend angewandt werden können.
... Notably, studies have shown that the structure and function of the brains of music creators, including composers, performers, and singers, undergo transformations as they engage with music. These individuals have served as models for studying brain plasticity, with distinct differences observed in brain structures among professional, semi-professional, and non-professional musicians, particularly in areas related to motor skills, auditory processing, and the cerebellum [7]. For instance, research has demonstrated that children as young as 6 engaging in 15 months of instrument training can induce anatomical changes in brain regions associated with music [8]. ...
... Additionally, music can influence the function and structure of various brain regions, including the auditory system, sensorimotor system, and motor network. Long-term music training can have distinct effects on different age groups [7,13]. Individuals with extensive instrument training show more activity in their temporal lobe cortex and premotor cortex when listening to music compared to those without musical training [16]. ...
... Previous review studies have explored the effects of emotions in music and familiarity with music on brain function [19][20][21], the therapeutic effects of listening to music [22,23], cognitive performance after listening to music [24], physiological reactions while listening to music [25], the effect of singing on health [26], and the neural mechanisms of singing [27]. Additionally, investigations into musical training have shed light on its influence on brain function and structure [7,13,16]. While these reviews have individually explored the effects of listening to music, singing, and playing instruments (LSP) on humans, they have not provided a comprehensive discussion encompassing all aspects of musical engagement. ...
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Music is integrated into daily life when listening to it, playing it, and singing, uniquely modulating brain activity. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), celebrated for its ecological validity, has been used to elucidate this music–brain interaction. This scoping review synthesizes 22 empirical studies using fNIRS to explore the intricate relationship between music and brain function. This synthesis of existing evidence reveals that diverse musical activities, such as listening to music, singing, and playing instruments, evoke unique brain responses influenced by individual traits and musical attributes. A further analysis identifies five key themes, including the effect of passive and active music experiences on relevant human brain areas, lateralization in music perception, individual variations in neural responses, neural synchronization in musical performance, and new insights fNIRS has revealed in these lines of research. While this review highlights the limited focus on specific brain regions and the lack of comparative analyses between musicians and non-musicians, it emphasizes the need for future research to investigate the complex interplay between music and the human brain.
... Being "elastic" or "reactive" refers to being able to have a good ability to quickly develop force and transfer one movement's energy into another. The reactive strength index (RSI) is one of the most used field tests for assessing these qualities [11] [13]. What is elastic strength? ...
... Studies on physiological and structural brain functioning in expert and beginner dancers have revealed substantial differences. It has been seen that the increase in speed and accuracy of the typical performance of expert dancers are associated with changes in the primary motor cortex, in the form of an increase in the number of synapses per neuron in the fifth layer of M1 [9] [13]. The differences found between experts and beginners are unequivocally the product of training; the greatest competence is associated with increases in grey matter in some areas. ...
... Park et al. went on to investigate this process in basketball players, confirming a variation in the volume of grey matter in different cortical and cerebellar areas [18]. A further study confirms this variation in golf players ( [13] compared to controls that do not practice sports [3] [6] [10] [16]. Moreover, a study of Magneto encephalography was able to observe neuroplasticity phenomena in people who practice meditation, compared to people who have never practiced meditation and other forms of physical activity [13]. ...
... Considering the theoretical and conceptual foundations and parallels to the development of the concept of intelligence, including fields of architecture (Speaks 2002, 2006[in Sykes 2010], 2012a, 2012bSaunders 2007;Corner 2007;Allen, Foster and Frampton 2007;Van Schaik 2008;Mallgrave 2010;Hall and Citrenbaum 2010;Light 2015;Wright Steenson 2017), cognitive sciences and philosophy (Gardner 1983(Gardner , 1993(Gardner , 2007Messik 1992;Clark and Chalmers 1998;Clark 2008;Menary 2010), neurosciences (Purves et al. 2001(Purves et al. , 2018Dudai 2004;Jäncke 2009aJäncke , 2009bRubinov and Sporns 2010;Fornito et al. 2011;Sporns 2013;Richiardi et al. 2015;Goldman 2015), artificial intelligence and design of artificial cognitive and neural systems and networks (Galloway 2004;Negnevitsky [2002] 2005; Bostrom 2014), or the sciences and systems of support in decision-making (Warner 2002;Wheaton and Beerbower 2006;Steele 2010;Hall and Citrenbaum 2010;Dokman 2019), and the way all these traditions have been synthesized, transformed, and adapted to be applied to the explained design intelligence system and research structure (Ćirić 2016a, 2017a, 2019b, 2020), more details can be found in the supplementary material linked at the end of this article (Discussions 1 and 2). Figure 1: 3d (spatial) view of design intelligence system, its data-field or datascape (elements of semantic content), spatial organization, and form (architecture) Source: © Ćirić, D., 2016-2017 The field of diagrammatics, in this regard, has been substantial for two design intelligence (DI) levels, 2 later on transposed to the first two properties and strategies of the DI system and strategic action research mode. The first one refers to the internal relational logic that becomes established during the system's performance by following its formal and syntactic rules in line with the research objectives. ...
... As it can be seen, all these concepts imply and converge important references-the rules of memory in human cognitive systems (short-term and long-term consolidation and restructuring of information [Dudai 2004], alongside the property of plasticity [Jäncke 2009a[Jäncke , 2009bGoldman 2015]) to which the critical questions about their machinic counterparts and ICT and ICS interpretations have been added. The latter has particularly emphasized the theoretical and practical turn within the field of data systems design and programmingthe move from the categorizations or the logic of store, on the one side, towards the diagramming or the logic of search of big-data systems on the other (Carpo 2017; Ćirić 2018a). ...
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The term Design Intelligence System, Methodology, and Strategy indicates a new digital modality of architecturally constructed and visualized diagrammatic research framework and environment. Aiming to facilitate, articulate, and support any kind of documentary, scientific, and creative investigative practice with large amounts of data in a formalized way, DI system, methodology, and strategy have been proposed for consideration to be included into the fields of Design Research and Design Science. It has been argued that they can offer a specific response to various research requirements and make a contribution at the level of methodology, instrumentation, and research strategy. Beside the control and guidance of data-operations in line with research subjects and questions, the system preserves design research procedures and dynamics of problem-solving and decision-making as formal inscription, or information-architecture, enabling one to visualize maps and lines of inference and connectivity between different information and arguments, and to acknowledge main issues in delivering a proof and carrying out valid reasoning. Regarding the fact that, alongside extensive use as a means of artistic exploration, this kind of digital framework, formalization, and system has not been substantially questioned as a means of reliable and functional scientific research in the targeted Design Research and Design Science fields, the paper will address these issues through comments on the system's attributes, arguments, relevance, and contributions, and analysis of the performed test-studies, their development stages, and the system's determinants, which have led to its final eleven criteria-form. The field of Diagrammatics has been proposed as a broader context due to the Design Intelligence System's central diagrammatic properties and modes of operation.
... Musicians have been a favored group in studies investigating experience-dependent plasticity and the neural correlates of expertise. The years-long intensive training that musicians undergo, often beginning at a very young age, puts great demands not only on specific brain regions in the auditory and motor cortex but also on multisensory and higher order cognitive-processing brain regions (Jäncke 2009). Such high demands constitute an ideal condition for triggering brain plasticity, manifested as alterations in brain structure and function in an effort to respond to the challenges posed (Lövdén et al. 2010). ...
... The group difference in performance in the behavioral task of BGS and the performance in the fMRI task, paralleled by group differences in graph measures of network strength and global efficiency, adds to the rich literature of functional and structural reorganization of the brain in relation to musical training of different intensities and aspirations as well as expertise level (Jäncke 2009;Olszewska et al. 2021;Schlaug 2008;James et al. 2014;James et al. 2017;Oechslin et al. 2013). Average network strength is computed as the sum of all weights of all edges connected to a node, averaged for all nodes (Maudoux et al. 2012). ...
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Auditory experience-dependent plasticity is often studied in the domain of musical expertise. Available evidence suggests that years of musical practice are associated with structural and functional changes in auditory cortex and related brain regions. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to investigate neural correlates of musical training and expertise beyond specific task influences. Here, we compared two groups of musicians with varying expertise: 24 aspiring professional musicians preparing for their entrance exam at Universities of Arts versus 17 amateur musicians without any such aspirations but who also performed music on a regular basis. We used an interval recognition task to define task-relevant brain regions and computed functional connectivity and graph-theoretical measures in this network on separately acquired resting-state data. Aspiring professionals performed significantly better on all behavioral indicators including interval recognition and also showed significantly greater network strength and global efficiency than amateur musicians. Critically, both average network strength and global efficiency were correlated with interval recognition task performance assessed in the scanner, and with an additional measure of interval identification ability. These findings demonstrate that task-informed resting-state fMRI can capture connectivity differences that correspond to expertise-related differences in behavior. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00429-023-02711-1.
... 17 En el entendido actual de la intensiva moldeabilidad y organicidad del sistema nervioso humano, un estudio contemporáneo encuentra, por ejemplo, correlaciones entre entrenamientos musicales y densidad de redes neuronales. Véase Lutz (2009). 18 Se puede considerar que la memósfera apuntada por el filósofo anglosajón Daniel Dennett tiene una base material como condición de posibilidad y dinámicas históricas contradictorias y orientadas por procesos económicos, que son los que llevan al predominio de ciertos memes en detrimento de otros. ...
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Las teorías seculares sobre el origen del hombre y la cultura son un producto reciente y que acompaña revoluciones económicas, políticas e ideológicas. El origen de la economía capitalista y la Ilustración implican una pregunta insistente por el papel de la actividad humana en la configuración del tiempo y el espacio, y de las posibilidades de la actividad humana para la transformación de lo real. Se expone la concepción idealista de la historia de Hegel y la concepción materialista de Marx, como parte de las narrativas modernas sobre la génesis de la cultura humana y de la economía capitalista junto con sus crisis intrínsecas. Se exponen igualmente el idealismo de Hegel y el materialismo de Marx como paradigmas científicos para la teoría política y económica.
... Results are compatible with Groussard et al. (2014) who highlighted the power of music to increase structural brain changes, hence 'brain maturation'. In this regard, Jäncke (2009) cuts to the chase: "Music drives brain plasticity". ...
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The theoretical framework presented in this article explains expert performance as the end result of individuals' prolonged efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational and external constraints. In most domains of expertise, individuals begin in their childhood a regimen of effortful activities (deliberate practice) designed to optimize improvement. Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years. Analysis of expert performance provides unique evidence on the potential and limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning.
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b ¨¨ Abstract Hemodynamic responses were measured applying functional magnetic resonance imaging in two professional piano players and two carefully matched non-musician control subjects during the performance of self-paced bimanual and unimanual tapping tasks. The bimanual tasks were chosen because they resemble typical movements pianists have to generate during piano exercises. The results showed that the primary and secondary motor areas (M1, SMA, pre-SMA, and CMA) were considerably activated to a much lesser degree in professional pianists than in non-musicians. This difference was strongest for the pre-SMA and CMA, where professional pianists showed very little activation. The results suggest that the long lasting extensive hand skill training of the pianists leads to greater efficiency which is reflected in a smaller number of active neurons needed to perform given finger movements. This in turn enlarges the possible control capacity for a wide range of movements because more movements, or more 'degrees of freedom', are controllable. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. During motor skill acquisition, movements gain speed, sentations of graphomotor trajectories are multiply repre- precision, automaticity, and adaptability. These behav- sented, especially in the human parietal cortex, and that ioural consequences of motor skill acquisition and practise this representation changes during the course of physical are often accompanied by considerable neuronal reorgani- and imagined training (17). Furthermore, it has been sations both within the primary and secondary motor and shown that during the course of learning visuomotor sensory cortices. Applying imaging methods such as PET associations activations within the lateral premotor cortices and fMRI, it has been shown that these reorganisations change substantially (8). However, all of these brain include an initial decrease of activation within the M1 imaging studies focused on cortical and subcortical reor- contralateral to the moving hand, which is followed by an ganisations due to short-term learning of motor skills enlargement of M1 activation during the course of motor lasting not longer than 4 months. Effects of long-term training which is sustained after 4 weeks of training. These motor training of the kind needed to achieve a high changes persist for several months (13). Additional evi- standard of performance in playing musical instruments dence has shown changed cortical activation patterns have received little attention. For instance, Elbert et al. (5) within the basal ganglia, the cerebellum, and the parietal demonstrated by means of magnetoencephalography cortex during motor skill acquisition. For instance Seitz et (MEG) that the cortical sensory representation area of the al. (18) showed that learning new movement trajectories left-hand digits of professional string players is more involves the cerebellum, while overlearned trajectorial extended than that of untrained controls. Based on in vivo movements engage the premotor cortex. A further study by morphometrical techniques, Amunts et al. (1) showed that Seitz and colleagues revealed that the kinematic repre- the intrasulcal depth of the central sulcus in the vicinity of the hand motor area was substantially enlarged in profes- sional musicians in especially on the right hemisphere
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Background Performing music requires fast auditory and motor processing. Regarding professional musicians, recent brain imaging studies have demonstrated that auditory stimulation produces a co-activation of motor areas, whereas silent tapping of musical phrases evokes a co-activation in auditory regions. Whether this is obtained via a specific cerebral relay station is unclear. Furthermore, the time course of plasticity has not yet been addressed. Results Changes in cortical activation patterns (DC-EEG potentials) induced by short (20 minute) and long term (5 week) piano learning were investigated during auditory and motoric tasks. Two beginner groups were trained. The 'map' group was allowed to learn the standard piano key-to-pitch map. For the 'no-map' group, random assignment of keys to tones prevented such a map. Auditory-sensorimotor EEG co-activity occurred within only 20 minutes. The effect was enhanced after 5-week training, contributing elements of both perception and action to the mental representation of the instrument. The 'map' group demonstrated significant additional activity of right anterior regions. Conclusion We conclude that musical training triggers instant plasticity in the cortex, and that right-hemispheric anterior areas provide an audio-motor interface for the mental representation of the keyboard.
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The relative pitch of harmonic complex sounds, such as instrumental sounds, may be perceived by decoding either the fundamental pitch (f0) or the spectral pitch (fSP) of the stimuli. We classified a large cohort of 420 subjects including symphony orchestra musicians to be either f0 or fSP listeners, depending on the dominant perceptual mode. In a subgroup of 87 subjects, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and magnetoencephalography studies demonstrated a strong neural basis for both types of pitch perception irrespective of musical aptitude. Compared with f0 listeners, fSP listeners possessed a pronounced rightward, rather than leftward, asymmetry of gray matter volume and P50m activity within the pitch-sensitive lateral Heschl's gyrus. Our data link relative hemispheric lateralization with perceptual stimulus properties, whereas the absolute size of the Heschl's gyrus depends on musical aptitude.
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The theoretical framework presented in this article explains expert performance as the end result of individuals' prolonged efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational and external constraints. In most domains of expertise, individuals begin in their childhood a regimen of effortful activities (deliberate practice) designed to optimize improvement. Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 yrs. Analysis of expert performance provides unique evidence on the potential and limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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The authors investigated whether intensive musical experience leads to enhancements in executive processing, as has been shown for bilingualism. Young adults who were bilinguals, musical performers (instrumentalists or vocalists), or neither completed 3 cognitive measures and 2 executive function tasks based on conflict. Both executive function tasks included control conditions that assessed performance in the absence of conflict. All participants performed equivalently for the cognitive measures and the control conditions of the executive function tasks, but performance diverged in the conflict conditions. In a version of the Simon task involving spatial conflict between a target cue and its position, bilinguals and musicians outperformed monolinguals, replicating earlier research with bilinguals. In a version of the Stroop task involving auditory and linguistic conflict between a word and its pitch, the musicians performed better than the other participants. Instrumentalists and vocalists did not differ on any measure. Results demonstrate that extended musical experience enhances executive control on a nonverbal spatial task, as previously shown for bilingualism, but also enhances control in a more specialized auditory task, although the effect of bilingualism did not extend to that domain.
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The human brain has the remarkable capacity to alter in response to environmental demands. Training-induced structural brain changes have been demonstrated in the healthy adult human brain. However, no study has yet directly related structural brain changes to behavioral changes in the developing brain, addressing the question of whether structural brain differences seen in adults (comparing experts with matched controls) are a product of "nature" (via biological brain predispositions) or "nurture" (via early training). Long-term instrumental music training is an intense, multisensory, and motor experience and offers an ideal opportunity to study structural brain plasticity in the developing brain in correlation with behavioral changes induced by training. Here we demonstrate structural brain changes after only 15 months of musical training in early childhood, which were correlated with improvements in musically relevant motor and auditory skills. These findings shed light on brain plasticity and suggest that structural brain differences in adult experts (whether musicians or experts in other areas) are likely due to training-induced brain plasticity.
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With the advent of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), the study of plastic changes in white matter architecture due to long-term practice has attracted increasing interest. Professional musicians provide an ideal model for investigating white matter plasticity because of their early onset of extensive auditory and sensorimotor training. We performed fiber tractography and subsequent voxelwise analysis, region of interest (ROI) analysis, and detailed slicewise analysis of diffusion parameters in the corticospinal tract (CST) on 26 professional musicians and a control group of 13 participants. All analyses resulted in significantly lower fractional anisotropy (FA) values in both the left and the right CST in the musician group. Furthermore, a right-greater-than-left asymmetry of FA was observed regardless of group. In the musician group, diffusivity was negatively correlated with the onset of musical training in childhood. A subsequent median split into an early and a late onset musician group (median=7 years) revealed increased diffusivity in the CST of the early onset group as compared to both the late onset group and the controls. In conclusion, these DTI-based findings might indicate plastic changes in white matter architecture of the CST in professional musicians. Our results imply that training-induced changes in diffusion characteristics of the axonal membrane may lead to increased radial diffusivity as reflected in decreased FA values.
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Recent studies in humans and nonhuman primates have shown that the functional organization of the human sensorimotor cortex changes following sensory stimulation or following the acquisition of motor skills. It is unknown whether functional plasticity in response to the acquisition of new motor skills and the continued performance of complicated bimanual movements for years is associated with structural changes in the organization of the motor cortex. Professional musicians, especially keyboard and string players, are a prototypical group for investigating these changes in the human brain. Using magnetic resonance images, we measured the length of the posterior wall of the precentral gyrus bordering the central sulcus (intrasulcal length of the precentral gyrus, ILPG) in horizontal sections through both hemispheres of right-handed keyboard players and of an age- and handedness-matched control group. Lacking a direct in vivo measurement of the primary motor cortex in humans, we assumed that the ILPG is a measure of the size of the primary motor cortex. Left-right asymmetry in the ILPG was analyzed and compared between both groups. Whereas controls exhibited a pronounced left-larger-than-right asymmetry, keyboard players had more symmetrical ILPG. The most pronounced differences in ILPG between keyboard players and controls were seen in the most dorsal part of the presumed cortical hand representation of both hemispheres. This was especially true in the nondominant right hemispheres. The size of the ILPG was negatively correlated with age of commencement of musical training in keyboard players, supporting our hypothesis that the human motor cortex can exhibit functionally induced and long-lasting structural adaptations.