title: Tracking Training-Related Plasticity by Combining fMRI and DTI: The Right Hemisphere Ventral Stream Mediates Musical Syntax Processing.
abstract: As a functional homolog for left-hemispheric syntax processing in language, neuroimaging studies evidenced involvement of right prefrontal regions in musical syntax processing, of which underlying white matter connectivity remains unexplored so far. In the current experiment, we investigated the underlying pathway architecture in subjects with 3 levels of musical expertise. Employing diffusion tensor imaging tractography, departing from seeds from our previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study on music syntax processing in the same participants, we identified a pathway in the right ventral stream that connects the middle temporal lobe with the inferior frontal cortex via the extreme capsule, and corresponds to the left hemisphere ventral stream, classically attributed to syntax processing in language comprehension. Additional morphometric consistency analyses allowed dissociating tract core from more dispersed fiber portions. Musical expertise related to higher tract consistency of the right ventral stream pathway. Specifically, tract consistency in this pathway predicted the sensitivity for musical syntax violations. We conclude that enduring musical practice sculpts ventral stream architecture. Our results suggest that training-related pathway plasticity facilitates the right hemisphere ventral stream information transfer, supporting an improved sound-to-meaning mapping in music.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.|Department of Education and Culture of the Canton of Thurgau, CH-8500, Frauenfeld, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mathias S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Oechslin
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospitals, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.|Department of Neuroscience, Campus Biotech, University of Geneva, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gschwind
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.|Geneva Neuroscience Center, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.|HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, School of Health Sciences, CH-1206 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Clara E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: James
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001306:Auditory Pathways; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology; D011361:Professional Competence; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen