title: Action in Perception: Prominent Visuo-Motor Functional Symmetry in Musicians during Music Listening.
abstract: Musical training leads to sensory and motor neuroplastic changes in the human brain. Motivated by findings on enlarged corpus callosum in musicians and asymmetric somatomotor representation in string players, we investigated the relationship between musical training, callosal anatomy, and interhemispheric functional symmetry during music listening. Functional symmetry was increased in musicians compared to nonmusicians, and in keyboardists compared to string players. This increased functional symmetry was prominent in visual and motor brain networks. Callosal size did not significantly differ between groups except for the posterior callosum in musicians compared to nonmusicians. We conclude that the distinctive postural and kinematic symmetry in instrument playing cross-modally shapes information processing in sensory-motor cortical areas during music listening. This cross-modal plasticity suggests that motor training affects music perception.
authors.affiliation: Finnish Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research, Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Department of Mathematical Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Iballa
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Burunat
authors.affiliation: Center for Music in the Brain (MIB), Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Cognitive Brain Research Unit (CBRU), Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Advanced Magnetic Imaging (AMI) Centre, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Elvira
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brattico
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Tuomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Puoliväli
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Tapani
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ristaniemi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sams
authors.affiliation: Finnish Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research, Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Petri
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Toiviainen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D011859:Radiography; D066191:Sensorimotor Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*