PURPOSE: To compare manual volumetry of gray matter (GM) / white matter (WM) of Broca's area subparts: pars opercularis (POP) and pars triangularis (PTR) in both hemispheres between musicians and nonmusician, as it has been shown that these regions are crucial for musical abilities. A previous voxel-based morphometric (VBM) study conducted in our laboratory reported increased GM density in Broca's area of left hemisphere in male orchestral musicians. Functional segregation of POP/PTR justified separate volumetric analysis of these parts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used the same cohort for the VBM study. Manual morphometry (stereology) was used to compare volumes between 26/26 right-handed orchestral musicians/nonmusicians. RESULTS: As expected, musicians showed significantly increased GM volume in the Broca's area, specifically in the left POP. No significant results were detected in right POP, left/right PTR GM volumes, and WM volumes for all regions. Results were positively correlated with years of musical performance (r = 0.7, P = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: This result corroborates the VBM study and is in line with the hypothesis of critical involvement of POP in hearing-action integration being an integral component of frontoparietotemporal mirror neuron network. We hypothesize that increased size of musicians' left POP represent use-dependent structural adaptation in response to intensive audiomotor skill acquisition.
PURPOSE: To compare manual volumetry of gray matter (GM) / white matter (WM) of Broca's area subparts: pars opercularis (POP) and pars triangularis (PTR) in both hemispheres between musicians and nonmusician, as it has been shown that these regions are crucial for musical abilities. A previous voxel-based morphometric (VBM) study conducted in our laboratory reported increased GM density in Broca's area of left hemisphere in male orchestral musicians. Functional segregation of POP/PTR justified separate volumetric analysis of these parts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used the same cohort for the VBM study. Manual morphometry (stereology) was used to compare volumes between 26/26 right-handed orchestral musicians/nonmusicians. RESULTS: As expected, musicians showed significantly increased GM volume in the Broca's area, specifically in the left POP. No significant results were detected in right POP, left/right PTR GM volumes, and WM volumes for all regions. Results were positively correlated with years of musical performance (r = 0.7, P = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: This result corroborates the VBM study and is in line with the hypothesis of critical involvement of POP in hearing-action integration being an integral component of frontoparietotemporal mirror neuron network. We hypothesize that increased size of musicians' left POP represent use-dependent structural adaptation in response to intensive audiomotor skill acquisition.
Authors: Suzana Herculano-Houzel; Pedro Ribeiro; Leandro Campos; Alexandre Valotta da Silva; Laila B Torres; Kenneth C Catania; Jon H Kaas Journal: Brain Behav Evol Date: 2011-10-07 Impact factor: 1.808
Authors: Ihssan A Abdul-Kareem; Andrej Stancak; Laura M Parkes; May Al-Ameen; Jamaan Alghamdi; Faten M Aldhafeeri; Karl Embleton; David Morris; Vanessa Sluming Journal: Cerebellum Date: 2011-09 Impact factor: 3.847
Authors: Miao Wei; Anand A Joshi; Mingxia Zhang; Leilei Mei; Franklin R Manis; Qinghua He; Rachel L Beattie; Gui Xue; David W Shattuck; Richard M Leahy; Feng Xue; Suzanne M Houston; Chuansheng Chen; Qi Dong; Zhong-Lin Lu Journal: J Neurolinguistics Date: 2015-05-22 Impact factor: 1.710