Brain Plasticity Reflects Specialized Cognitive Development Induced by Musical Training

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.