title: Musical expertise affects neural bases of letter recognition.
abstract: It is known that early music learning (playing of an instrument) modifies functional brain structure (both white and gray matter) and connectivity, especially callosal transfer, motor control/coordination and auditory processing. We compared visual processing of notes and words in 15 professional musicians and 15 controls by recording their synchronized bioelectrical activity (ERPs) in response to words and notes. We found that musical training in childhood (from age ~8 years) modifies neural mechanisms of word reading, whatever the genetic predisposition, which was unknown. While letter processing was strongly left-lateralized in controls, the fusiform (BA37) and inferior occipital gyri (BA18) were activated in both hemispheres in musicians for both word and music processing. The evidence that the neural mechanism of letter processing differed in musicians and controls (being absolutely bilateral in musicians) suggests that musical expertise modifies the neural mechanisms of letter reading.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy. mado.proverbio@unimib.it
authors.forename: Alice Mado
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Proverbio
authors.forename: Mirella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manfredi
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zani
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Adorni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011361:Professional Competence; D011930:Reaction Time; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult