Neuroplasticity, music, and human brain

Abstract

Introduction. Studying the influence of music on the human brain is one of the key topics in neuroscience as it allows extending our understanding of brain neuroplasticity. This study aimed to investigate structural brain organization in professional musicians. Materials and methods. We investigated 27 brains (i.e. 54 hemispheres) of male musicians, female musicians, male non-musicians, and female non-musicians by magnetic resonance imaging. All study participants were aged 20 to 30 years and did not have any mental or neurological disorders. Gray matter volume and cortex thickness in different cortical structures of the right and left hemispheres were measured. Results. We found major changes in the brain structure in professional musicians (both male and female) vs. non-musicians. We found differences in the macroscopic structure of the triangular region in the Broca’s motor speech area in musicians’ brain. Increases in gray matter volume in the brain of musicians and its individual cortical structures were shown in the superior temporal region, Broca’s motor speech area, hippocampus, superior parietal lobule, and other structures. We found increased thickness of cortical structures in musicians vs. non-musicians. Conclusions. Practicing music regularly was shown to change structural brain organization; we found significant increases in gray matter volume and cortex thickness in various cortical structures in the right and left brain hemispheres of musicians vs. non-musicians.