title: Functional connectivity of the striatum in experts of stenography.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Stenography, or shorthand, is a unique set of skills that involves intensive training which is nearly life-long and orchestrating various brain functional modules, including auditory, linguistic, cognitive, mnemonic, and motor. Stenography provides cognitive neuroscientists with a unique opportunity to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the neural plasticity that enables such a high degree of expertise. However, shorthand is quickly being replaced with voice recognition technology. We took this nearly final opportunity to scan the brains of the last alive shorthand experts of the Japanese language.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirteen right-handed stenographers and fourteen right-handed controls participated in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The fMRI data revealed plastic reorganization of the neural circuits around the putamen. The acquisition of expert skills was accompanied by structural and functional changes in the area. The posterior putamen is known as the execution center of acquired sensorimotor skills. Compared to nonexperts, the posterior putamen in stenographers had high covariation with the cerebellum and midbrain.The stenographers' brain developed different neural circuits from those of the nonexpert brain.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current data illustrate the vigorous plasticity in the putamen and in its connectivity to other relevant areas in the expert brain. This is a case of vigorous neural plastic reorganization in response to massive overtraining, which is rare especially considering that it occurred in adulthood.
authors: Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University 6-1-1 Tamagawa Gakuen, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan ; Molecular Neuroimaging Program, Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba, 263-8555, Japan.
authors: Takehito
authors: T
authors: Ito
authors: Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University 6-1-1 Tamagawa Gakuen, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan.
authors: Tetsuya
authors: T
authors: Matsuda
authors: Division of Biology and Biological Engineering/Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology 139-74, Pasadena, California, 91125.
authors: Shinsuke
authors: S
authors: Shimojo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D011699:Putamen / Q000502:physiology*; D012781:Shorthand; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Long-term neural plasticity; putamen; stenography