title: Learning piano melodies in visuo-motor or audio-motor training conditions and the neural correlates of their cross-modal transfer.
abstract: To investigate the cross-modal transfer of movement patterns necessary to perform melodies on the piano, 22 non-musicians learned to play short sequences on a piano keyboard by (1) merely listening and replaying (vision of own fingers occluded) or (2) merely observing silent finger movements and replaying (on a silent keyboard). After training, participants recognized with above chance accuracy (1) audio-motor learned sequences upon visual presentation (89±17%), and (2) visuo-motor learned sequences upon auditory presentation (77±22%). The recognition rates for visual presentation significantly exceeded those for auditory presentation (p<.05). fMRI revealed that observing finger movements corresponding to audio-motor trained melodies is associated with stronger activation in the left rolandic operculum than observing untrained sequences. This region was also involved in silent execution of sequences, suggesting that a link to motor representations may play a role in cross-modal transfer from audio-motor training condition to visual recognition. No significant differences in brain activity were found during listening to visuo-motor trained compared to untrained melodies. Cross-modal transfer was stronger from the audio-motor training condition to visual recognition and this is discussed in relation to the fact that non-musicians are familiar with how their finger movements look (motor-to-vision transformation), but not with how they sound on a piano (motor-to-sound transformation).
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. engela@cbs.mpg.de
authors.forename: Annerose
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bangert
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Horbank
authors.forename: Brenda S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Hijmans
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wilkens
authors.forename: Peter E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keysers
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D009146:Music; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult