Gaser Christian, Schlaug Gottfried
Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
J Neurosci. 2003 Oct 8;23(27):9240-5. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.23-27-09240.2003.
From an early age, musicians learn complex motor and auditory skills (e.g., the translation of visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands with simultaneous auditory monitoring of output), which they practice extensively from childhood throughout their entire careers. Using a voxel-by-voxel morphometric technique, we found gray matter volume differences in motor, auditory, and visual-spatial brain regions when comparing professional musicians (keyboard players) with a matched group of amateur musicians and non-musicians. Although some of these multiregional differences could be attributable to innate predisposition, we believe they may represent structural adaptations in response to long-term skill acquisition and the repetitive rehearsal of those skills. This hypothesis is supported by the strong association we found between structural differences, musician status, and practice intensity, as well as the wealth of supporting animal data showing structural changes in response to long-term motor training. However, only future experiments can determine the relative contribution of predisposition and practice.
从幼年起，音乐家就学习复杂的运动和听觉技能（例如，将视觉感知的音乐符号转化为运动指令，并同时对输出进行听觉监测），他们从童年时期开始，在整个职业生涯中都广泛练习这些技能。通过使用逐体素形态测量技术，我们发现，将职业音乐家（键盘手）与一组匹配的业余音乐家和非音乐家进行比较时，运动、听觉和视觉空间脑区存在灰质体积差异。虽然这些多区域差异中的一些可能归因于先天倾向，但我们认为它们可能代表了对长期技能习得和这些技能的重复排练所做出的结构适应性变化。我们发现结构差异、音乐家身份和练习强度之间存在紧密关联，以及大量支持性动物数据表明长期运动训练会导致结构变化，这些都支持了这一假设。然而，只有未来的实验才能确定先天倾向和练习的相对贡献。
