Schlaug Gottfried, Norton Andrea, Overy Katie, Winner Ellen
Department of Neurology, Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Avenue, Palmer 127, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2005 Dec;1060:219-30. doi: 10.1196/annals.1360.015.
Research has revealed structural and functional differences in the brains of adult instrumental musicians compared to those of matched nonmusician controls, with intensity/duration of instrumental training and practice being important predictors of these differences. Nevertheless, the differential contributions of nature and nurture to these differences are not yet clear. The musician-nonmusician comparison is an ideal model for examining whether and, if so, where such functional and structural brain plasticity occurs, because musicians acquire and continuously practice a variety of complex motor, auditory, and multimodal skills (e.g., translating visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands while simultaneously monitoring instrumental output and receiving multisensory feedback). Research has also demonstrated that music training in children results in long-term enhancement of visual-spatial, verbal, and mathematical performance. However, the underlying neural bases of such enhancements and whether the intensity and duration of instrumental training or other factors, such as extracurricular activities, attention, motivation, or instructional methods can contribute to or predict these enhancements are yet unknown. Here we report the initial results from our studies examining the brain and cognitive effects of instrumental music training on young children in a longitudinal study and a cross-sectional comparison in older children. Further, we present a comparison of the results in these children's studies with observations from our cross-sectional studies with adults.
研究表明，与匹配的非音乐家对照组相比，成年器乐演奏者的大脑在结构和功能上存在差异，器乐训练和练习的强度/时长是这些差异的重要预测因素。然而，先天和后天因素对这些差异的不同贡献尚不清楚。音乐家与非音乐家的比较是检验大脑是否以及在何处发生这种功能和结构可塑性的理想模型，因为音乐家习得并持续练习各种复杂的运动、听觉和多模态技能（例如，将视觉感知的音乐符号转化为运动指令，同时监测乐器输出并接收多感官反馈）。研究还表明，儿童时期的音乐训练会长期提高视觉空间、语言和数学能力。然而，这种提高的潜在神经基础以及器乐训练的强度和时长或其他因素（如课外活动、注意力、动机或教学方法）是否能促成或预测这些提高尚不清楚。在此，我们报告了在一项纵向研究以及对大龄儿童的横断面比较中，关于器乐训练对幼儿大脑和认知影响的研究初步结果。此外，我们还将这些儿童研究的结果与我们对成年人的横断面研究观察结果进行了比较。
