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Increased auditory cortical representation in musicians

Nature volume 392, pages 811–814 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Acoustic stimuli are processed throughout the auditory projection pathway, including the neocortex, by neurons that are aggregated into ‘tonotopic’ maps according to their specific frequency tunings1,2,3. Research on animals has shown that tonotopic representations are not statically fixed in the adult organism but can reorganize after damage to the cochlea4 or after training the intact subject to discriminate between auditory stimuli5. Here we used functional magnetic source imaging (single dipole model) to measure cortical representations in highly skilled musicians. Dipole moments for piano tones, but not for pure tones of similar fundamental frequency (matched in loudness), were found to be enlarged by about 25% in musicians compared with control subjects who had never played an instrument. Enlargement was correlated with the age at which musicians began to practise and did not differ between musicians with absolute or relative pitch. These results, when interpreted with evidence for modified somatosensory representations of the fingering digits in skilled violinists6, suggest that use-dependent functional reorganization extends across the sensory cortices to reflect the pattern of sensory input processed by the subject during development of musical skill.

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Figure 1: Cortical stimulation by pure and piano tones in musicians and non-musicians.
Figure 2: Strength of cortical activation is higher in response to piano, rather than pure, tones and in musicians who began practising before age 9.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our subjects for their cooperation, K. Berning for assistance and A.Wollbrink for engineering. This research was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and NATO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomagnetism Center, Institute of Experimental Audiology, University of Mnster, D-48129, Mnster, Germany

    Christo Pantev, Robert Oostenveld, Bernhard Ross & Manfried Hoke

  2. Neurology Department, University of Mnster, D-48129, Mnster, Germany

    Almut Engelien

  3. Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, L8S 4K1, Ontario, Canada

    Larry E. Roberts

Authors
  1. Christo Pantev
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  2. Robert Oostenveld
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  3. Almut Engelien
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  4. Bernhard Ross
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  6. Manfried Hoke
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Correspondence to Christo Pantev.

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Pantev, C., Oostenveld, R., Engelien, A. et al. Increased auditory cortical representation in musicians. Nature 392, 811–814 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/33918

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