title: Musical expertise is related to altered functional connectivity during audiovisual integration.
abstract: The present study investigated the cortical large-scale functional network underpinning audiovisual integration via magnetoencephalographic recordings. The reorganization of this network related to long-term musical training was investigated by comparing musicians to nonmusicians. Connectivity was calculated on the basis of the estimated mutual information of the sources' activity, and the corresponding networks were statistically compared. Nonmusicians' results indicated that the cortical network associated with audiovisual integration supports visuospatial processing and attentional shifting, whereas a sparser network, related to spatial awareness supports the identification of audiovisual incongruences. In contrast, musicians' results showed enhanced connectivity in regions related to the identification of auditory pattern violations. Hence, nonmusicians rely on the processing of visual clues for the integration of audiovisual information, whereas musicians rely mostly on the corresponding auditory information. The large-scale cortical network underpinning multisensory integration is reorganized due to expertise in a cognitive domain that largely involves audiovisual integration, indicating long-term training-related neuroplasticity.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany;
authors.forename: Evangelos
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Paraskevopoulos
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany; Research Group of Chronobiology, Leibniz Research Center for Working Enviroment and Human Factors, Dortmund, 44139 North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany;
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kraneburg
authors.affiliation: German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, 53175 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Sibylle Cornelia
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Herholz
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece;
authors.forename: Panagiotis D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9936-5805
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Bamidis
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany; pantev@uni-muenster.de.
authors.forename: Christo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pantev
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D015225:Magnetoencephalography / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: MEG; cortical plasticity; functional connectivity; multisensory integration; musical training