TY - JOUR
T1 - Broca's area supports enhanced visuospatial cognition in orchestral musicians
AU - Sluming, Vanessa
AU - Brooks, Jonathan
AU - Howard, Matthew
AU - Downes, John Joseph
AU - Roberts, Neil
PY - 2007/4/4
Y1 - 2007/4/4
N2 - We provide neurobehavioral evidence supporting the transferable benefit of music training to alter brain function and enhance cognitive performance in a nonmusical visuospatial task in professional orchestral musicians. In particular, orchestral musicians' performance on a three-dimensional mental rotation (3DMR) task exhibited the behavioral profile normally only attained after significant practice, supporting the suggestion that these musicians already possessed well developed neural circuits to support 3DMR. Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that only orchestral musicians showed significantly increased activation in Broca's area, in addition to the well known visuospatial network, which was activated in both musicians and nonmusicians who were matched on age, sex, and verbal intelligence. We interpret these functional neuroimaging findings to reflect preferential recruitment of Broca's area, part of the neural substrate supporting sight reading and motor-sequence organization underpinning musical performance, to subserve 3DMR in musicians. Our data, therefore, provide convergent behavioral and neurofunctional evidence supporting the suggestion that development of the sight-reading skills of musical performance alters brain circuit organization which, in turn, confers a wider cognitive benefit, in particular, to nonmusical visuospatial cognition in professional orchestral musicians.
AB - We provide neurobehavioral evidence supporting the transferable benefit of music training to alter brain function and enhance cognitive performance in a nonmusical visuospatial task in professional orchestral musicians. In particular, orchestral musicians' performance on a three-dimensional mental rotation (3DMR) task exhibited the behavioral profile normally only attained after significant practice, supporting the suggestion that these musicians already possessed well developed neural circuits to support 3DMR. Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that only orchestral musicians showed significantly increased activation in Broca's area, in addition to the well known visuospatial network, which was activated in both musicians and nonmusicians who were matched on age, sex, and verbal intelligence. We interpret these functional neuroimaging findings to reflect preferential recruitment of Broca's area, part of the neural substrate supporting sight reading and motor-sequence organization underpinning musical performance, to subserve 3DMR in musicians. Our data, therefore, provide convergent behavioral and neurofunctional evidence supporting the suggestion that development of the sight-reading skills of musical performance alters brain circuit organization which, in turn, confers a wider cognitive benefit, in particular, to nonmusical visuospatial cognition in professional orchestral musicians.
KW - Broca's area
KW - Cognition
KW - Human
KW - Mental rotation
KW - Musician
KW - Visuospatial
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34147107974&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0147-07.2007
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0147-07.2007
M3 - Article
C2 - 17409244
AN - SCOPUS:34147107974
VL - 27
SP - 3799
EP - 3806
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
SN - 0270-6474
IS - 14
ER -