Hassler Marianne
Department of Clinical and Physiological Psychology, University of Tuebingen,
Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2000;21(2):101-106.
Music medicine is a relatively new medical specialty for most countries in the world and a rediscovery of a discipline for some countries in Europe. In the scope of music medicine are health problems of musicians like stage fright and psychic stress, pain syndromes and motor disturbances. Specific demands of musicianship like performing before the public, performing under the constant critical scrutiny of conductors, being expected to perform perfectly, and the physical demands of performing on a musical instrument were seen as the determinants of the complaints, and treatment does usually not differ between musicians and non-musicians with comparable diseases. In the present article, growing neurobiological evidence will be summarized showing that musicians differ from non-musicians on brain structure and function and on some hormonal and immunological parameters. Musicians tend to have atypical brain organization for verbal and non-verbal materials, their auditory system tracks sound levels more accurately, musicians attend pre-consciously to musical material and they react to music as if it is a stressor, i.e. with increased activity of the autonomic nervous system and with an increase in stress hormone production. A musician is more likely than a non-musician to be non-righthanded and to be vulnerable to atopic diseases. Testosterone levels are assumed to be lower (male) and higher (female) than controls. Melatonin was found to be elevated, and ACTH was related to musical talent. His/her brain reflects early music practice by enlarged structures, like the anterior part of the corpus callosum and the representation for piano tones and for the left thumb and little finger in string players. In addition, the left planum temporale was found to be larger in musicians with absolute pitch. These differences between musicians and non-musicians may have implications for music medicine in theory and practice, and further research should help to improve treatment of musicians.
音乐医学对世界上大多数国家来说是一个相对较新的医学专业，而在欧洲的一些国家则是一门被重新发现的学科。音乐医学的范畴包括音乐家的健康问题，如怯场和精神压力、疼痛综合征以及运动障碍。像在公众面前表演、在指挥的持续严格审视下表演、被期望完美演出等音乐表演的特定要求，以及演奏乐器的身体要求，都被视为引发这些问题的决定因素，而且通常音乐家和患有类似疾病的非音乐家在治疗上并无差异。在本文中，将总结越来越多的神经生物学证据，表明音乐家在大脑结构和功能以及一些激素和免疫参数方面与非音乐家存在差异。音乐家在处理语言和非语言材料时往往具有非典型的大脑组织，他们的听觉系统能更准确地追踪声音水平，音乐家会在潜意识中关注音乐素材，并且他们对音乐的反应就好像它是一个压力源，即自主神经系统活动增加以及应激激素分泌增多。与非音乐家相比，音乐家更有可能是左利手，并且更容易患过敏性疾病。据推测，男性音乐家的睾酮水平低于对照组，而女性则高于对照组。发现褪黑素水平升高，促肾上腺皮质激素与音乐天赋有关。他们的大脑通过一些增大的结构反映出早期的音乐训练，比如胼胝体前部，以及弦乐演奏者中对应钢琴音调、左手拇指和小指的脑区表征。此外，发现具有绝对音高的音乐家的左侧颞平面更大。音乐家和非音乐家之间的这些差异可能在音乐医学的理论和实践方面具有重要意义，进一步的研究应有助于改善对音乐家的治疗。
