title: Transmodal sensorimotor networks during action observation in professional pianists.
abstract: Audiovisual perception and imitation are essential for musical learning and skill acquisition. We compared professional pianists to musically naive controls with fMRI while observing piano playing finger-hand movements and serial finger-thumb opposition movements both with and without synchronous piano sound. Pianists showed stronger activations within a fronto-parieto-temporal network while observing piano playing compared to controls and contrasted to perception of serial finger-thumb opposition movements. Observation of silent piano playing additionally recruited auditory areas in pianists. Perception of piano sounds coupled with serial finger-thumb opposition movements evoked increased activation within the sensorimotor network. This indicates specialization of multimodal auditory-sensorimotor systems within a fronto-parieto-temporal network by professional musical training. Musical ''language,'' which is acquired by observation and imitation, seems to be tightly coupled to this network in accord with an observation-execution system linking visual and auditory perception to motor performance.
authors.affiliation: Neurologische Klinik und Poliklinik, TU München, Munich, Germany. b.haslinger@lrz.tu-muenchen.de
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Haslinger
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Erhard
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Altenmüller
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Boecker
authors.forename: A O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Ceballos-Baumann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009146:Music; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*