title: Reading sheet music facilitates sensorimotor mu-desynchronization in musicians.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent brain imaging studies have demonstrated that the human mirror system, in addition to becoming active while viewing the actions of others, also responds to abstract visual and auditory stimuli associated with specific actions. Here, we test the hypothesis that when musicians read sheet music an associated motor act is automatically recruited in the same way as when we observe the actions of others.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using EEG, we measured event related desynchronization of the sensorimotor mu rhythm (mu-ERD) while musicians and non-musicians listened to music, observed movies of a musical instrument being played and observed a static image of the corresponding sheet music.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Musicians showed significantly greater mu-ERD than non-musicians when observing sheet music and musical performances.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results demonstrate that the human motor system aids in the process of perception and understanding by forming functional links between arbitrary, abstract percepts and associated acts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This research uniquely adds to the existing body of literature by demonstrating that abstract images are capable of triggering an "action understanding" system when viewed by experts who have formed the appropriate visual-motor association.
authors.affiliation: Western Washington University, WA, United States.
authors.forename: Lawrence Paul
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Behmer
authors.forename: Kelly J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Jantzen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003344:Cortical Synchronization / Q000502:physiology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011932:Reading; D011999:Recruitment, Neurophysiological / Q000502:physiology; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult