Cui Anja-Xiaoxing, Kraeutner Sarah N, Motamed Yeganeh Negin, Hermiston Nancy, Werker Janet F, Boyd Lara A
Department of Musicology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2023 Sep 29;17:1195996. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1195996. eCollection 2023.
A growing body of research has investigated how performing arts training, and more specifically, music training, impacts the brain. Recent meta-analytic work has identified multiple brain areas where activity varies as a function of levels of musical expertise gained through music training. However, research has also shown that musical sophistication may be high even without music training. Thus, we aim to extend previous work by investigating whether the functional connectivity of these areas relates to interindividual differences in musical sophistication, and to characterize differences in connectivity attributed to performing arts training.
We analyzed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging from = 74 participants, of whom 37 received performing arts training, that is, including a musical instrument, singing, and/or acting, at university level. We used a validated, continuous measure of musical sophistication to further characterize our sample. Following standard pre-processing, fifteen brain areas were identified based on meta-analytic work and used as seeds in separate seed-to-voxel analyses to examine the effect of musical sophistication across the sample, and between-group analyses to examine the effects of performing arts training.
Connectivity of bilateral superior temporal gyrus, bilateral precentral gyrus and cerebellum, and bilateral putamen, left insula, and left thalamus varied with different aspects of musical sophistication. By including these measures of these aspects as covariates in analyses, we found that connectivity of the right superior temporal gyrus and left precentral gyrus relate to effects of performing arts training beyond effects of individual musical sophistication.
Our results highlight the potential role of sensory areas in active engagement with music, the potential role of motor areas in emotion processing, and the potential role of connectivity between putamen and lingual gyrus in general musical sophistication.
越来越多的研究探讨了表演艺术训练，尤其是音乐训练，对大脑的影响。最近的荟萃分析研究确定了多个脑区，这些脑区的活动会随着通过音乐训练获得的音乐专业水平而变化。然而，研究也表明，即使没有音乐训练，音乐素养也可能很高。因此，我们旨在通过研究这些区域的功能连接是否与音乐素养的个体差异相关，并描述因表演艺术训练而导致的连接差异，来扩展先前的研究。
我们分析了74名参与者的静息态功能磁共振成像数据，其中37人在大学阶段接受了表演艺术训练，包括乐器演奏、唱歌和/或表演。我们使用经过验证的音乐素养连续测量方法来进一步描述我们的样本。在进行标准的预处理后，根据荟萃分析确定了15个脑区，并将其用作单独的种子点到体素分析中的种子，以检验整个样本中音乐素养的影响，以及组间分析以检验表演艺术训练的影响。
双侧颞上回、双侧中央前回和小脑，以及双侧壳核、左侧岛叶和左侧丘脑的连接性随音乐素养的不同方面而变化。通过将这些方面的测量作为协变量纳入分析，我们发现右侧颞上回和左侧中央前回的连接性与表演艺术训练的影响有关，而不仅仅是个体音乐素养的影响。
我们的结果突出了感觉区域在积极参与音乐中的潜在作用、运动区域在情绪处理中的潜在作用，以及壳核与舌回之间的连接在一般音乐素养中的潜在作用。
