Krishnan, S., Lima, C., Evans, S., Chen, S., Guldner, S., Yeff, H., Manly, T. and Scott, S. 2018. Beatboxers and guitarists engage sensorimotor regions selectively when listening to the instruments they can play. Cerebral Cortex. 28 (11), pp. 4063-4079. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhy208
| Title | Beatboxers and guitarists engage sensorimotor regions selectively when listening to the instruments they can play |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Krishnan, S., Lima, C., Evans, S., Chen, S., Guldner, S., Yeff, H., Manly, T. and Scott, S. |
| Abstract | Studies of classical musicians have demonstrated that expertise modulates neural responses during auditory perception. However, it remains unclear whether such expertise-dependent plasticity is modulated by the instrument that a musician plays. To examine whether the recruitment of sensorimotor regions during music perception is modulated by instrument-specific experience, we investigated non-classical musicians – beatboxers, who predominantly use their vocal apparatus to produce sound, and guitarists, who use their hands. We contrast fMRI activity in 20 beatboxers, 20 guitarists, and 20 non-musicians as they listen to novel beatboxing and guitar pieces. All musicians show enhanced activity in sensorimotor regions (IFG, IPC and SMA), but only when listening to the musical instrument they can play. Using independent component analysis, we find expertise-selective enhancement in sensorimotor networks, which are distinct from changes in attentional networks. These findings suggest that long-term sensorimotor experience facilitates access to the posterodorsal “how” pathway during auditory processing. |
| Keywords | auditory perception, dorsal stream, expertise, fMRI, musician |
| Journal | Cerebral Cortex |
| Journal citation | 28 (11), pp. 4063-4079 |
| ISSN | 1047-3211 |
| Year | 2018 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Publisher's version | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhy208 |
| Publication dates | |
| Published online | 31 Aug 2018 |
| Published in print | 01 Nov 2018 |
| Funder | Wellcome Trust |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |