Choi Uk-Su, Sung Yul-Wan, Ogawa Seiji
Gwangju Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (GARD) Cohort Research Center, Chosun University, Gwangju 61452, Republic of Korea.
Kansei Fukushi Research Institute, Tohoku Fukushi University, Sendai, Miyagi 9893201, Japan.
Cereb Cortex Commun. 2021 May 31;2(2):tgab037. doi: 10.1093/texcom/tgab037. eCollection 2021.
Learning a musical instrument requires a long period of training and might induce structural and functional changes in the brain. Previous studies have shown brain plasticity resulting from training with a musical instrument. However, these studies did not distinguish the effects on brain plasticity of specific musical instruments as they examined the brain of musicians who had learned a single musical instrument/genre and did not control for confounding factors, such as common or interactive effects involved in music training. To address this research gap, the present work investigated musicians who had experience with both a piano and a wind instrument, for example, flute, trumpet, clarinet etc. By examining the difference between the 2 musical instruments in the same subject, we avoided the effects common to all musical instruments and the confounding factors. Therefore, we identified several high-tier brain areas displaying a brain plasticity specific to each musical instrument. Our findings show that learning a musical instrument might result in the development of high cognitive functions reflecting the skills/abilities unique to the instrument played.
学习一种乐器需要长时间的训练，并且可能会引起大脑结构和功能的变化。先前的研究已经表明，通过乐器训练可产生大脑可塑性。然而，这些研究并没有区分特定乐器对大脑可塑性的影响，因为它们研究的是学习了单一乐器/音乐类型的音乐家的大脑，且没有控制混杂因素，比如音乐训练中涉及的共同或交互作用。为了填补这一研究空白，本研究调查了有钢琴和管乐器（如长笛、小号、单簧管等）演奏经验的音乐家。通过研究同一受试者两种乐器之间的差异，我们避免了所有乐器共有的影响和混杂因素。因此，我们确定了几个高级脑区，它们表现出每种乐器特有的大脑可塑性。我们的研究结果表明，学习一种乐器可能会促进高级认知功能的发展，这些功能反映了所演奏乐器独有的技能/能力。
