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Whole brain white matter map with right arcuate fasciculus identified from probabilistic neighbourhood tractography (insert) indicated in red for a 23 year-old female volunteer.
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Auditory cues are frequently used to support movement learning and rehabilitation, but the neural basis of this behavioural effect is not yet clear. We investigated the microstructural neuroplasticity effects of adding musical cues to a motor learning task. We hypothesised that music-cued, left-handed motor training would increase fractional anisot...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... representation of the fasciculus-of-interest were removed from further analysis, an ap- proach that removes any noise in the data caused by the inclusion of water diffusion biomarker measurements from structures not within the tract of interest. An example of the right arcuate fasciculus segmented using PNT in a representative subject is shown in Fig. ...
Citations
... The body of the CC has been associated with motor and visuomotor task activation [55][56][57] and FA measures in this region positively correlate with performance during a motor learning session 58 . While past work has shown relationships between FA in the CST and CC, with measures of motor learning [8][9][10][11][12]30,[59][60][61][62][63] very little work has considered how biological sex impacts this relationship. This gap in our knowledge fundamentally limits our ability to tailor sex specific motor learning interventions. ...
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has increasingly been used to characterize structure–function relationships during white matter neuroplasticity. Biological sex differences may be an important factor that affects patterns of neuroplasticity, and therefore impacts learning and rehabilitation. The current study examined a participant cohort before and after visuo-motor training to characterize sex differences in microstructural measures. The participants (N = 27) completed a 10-session (4 week) complex visuo-motor training task with their non-dominant hand. All participants significantly improved movement speed and their movement speed variability over the training period. White matter neuroplasticity in females and males was examined using fractional anisotropy (FA) and myelin water fraction (MWF) along the cortico-spinal tract (CST) and the corpus callosum (CC). FA values showed significant differences in the middle portion of the CST tract (nodes 38–51) across the training period. MWF showed a similar cluster in the inferior portion of the tract (nodes 18–29) but did not reach significance. Additionally, at baseline, males showed significantly higher levels of MWF measures in the middle body of the CC. Combining data from females and males would have resulted in reduced sensitivity, making it harder to detect differences in neuroplasticity. These findings offer initial insights into possible female versus male differences in white matter neuroplasticity during motor learning. This warrants investigations into specific patterns of white matter neuroplasticity for females versus males across the lifespan. Understanding biological sex-specific differences in white matter neuroplasticity may have significant implications for the interpretation of change associated with learning or rehabilitation.
... Anatomically these regions are connected by the arcuate fasciculus 39 . Especially the right arcuate fasciculus has been linked to musical auditory-motor feedback [83][84][85] . Vaquero et al. 84 for example could link right arcuate fasciculus integrity and volume to learning speed of melodies in non-musicians and therefore demonstrate a right-lateralized integration of the dorsal auditory stream for music. ...
Learning to play an instrument at an advanced age may help to counteract or slow down age-related cognitive decline. However, studies investigating the neural underpinnings of these effects are still scarce. One way to investigate the effects of brain plasticity is using resting-state functional connectivity (FC). The current study compared the effects of learning to play the piano (PP) against participating in music listening/musical culture (MC) lessons on FC in 109 healthy older adults. Participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging at three time points: at baseline, and after 6 and 12 months of interventions. Analyses revealed piano training-specific FC changes after 12 months of training. These include FC increase between right Heschl’s gyrus (HG), and other right dorsal auditory stream regions. In addition, PP showed an increased anticorrelation between right HG and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex and FC increase between the right motor hand area and a bilateral network of predominantly motor-related brain regions, which positively correlated with fine motor dexterity improvements. We suggest to interpret those results as increased network efficiency for auditory-motor integration. The fact that functional neuroplasticity can be induced by piano training in healthy older adults opens new pathways to countervail age related decline.
... Investigating joint-action in music performance and interaction could thus help to shed light on the sensorimotor, affective, and cognitive processes facilitating coordination. In addition to music's coregulatory function, it can enhance learning (Moore et al., 2017) and induce positive prosocial effects (Stupacher et al., 2017). For instance, synchronizing with music has been shown to lead to a sense of connectedness between people (Demos et al., 2012) with (shared) intentions playing an important role (Goupil et al., 2021). ...
Emerging technologies in the domain of extended reality offer rich, new possibilities for the study and practice of joint music performance. Apart from the technological challenges, bringing music players together in extended reality raises important questions on their performance and embodied coordination. In this study, we designed an extended reality platform to assess a remote, bidirectional polyrhythmic interaction between two players, mediated in real time by their three-dimensional embodied avatars and a shared, virtual drum circle. We leveraged a multi-layered analysis framework to assess their performance quality, embodied co-regulation and first-person interaction experience, using statistical techniques for time-series analysis and mixed-effect regression and focusing on contrasts of visual coupling (not seeing / seeing as avatars / seeing as real) and auditory context (metronome / music). Results reveal that an auditory context with music improved the performance output as measured by a prediction error, increased movement energy and levels of experienced agency. Visual coupling impacted experiential qualities and induced prosocial effects with increased levels of partner realism resulting in increased levels of shared agency and self-other merging. Embodied co-regulation between players was impacted by auditory context, visual coupling, and task complexity, suggesting prediction-based compensatory mechanisms to deal with the novelty, difficulty, and expressivity in the musical interaction. This study contributes to the understanding of music performance in extended reality by using a methodological approach to demonstrate how co-regulation between players is impacted by visual coupling and auditory context and provides a basis and future directions for further action-oriented research.
... 33,34 Generally, a decrease in RD indicates an increase in myelination, 35 a decrease in MD is associated with an increase in the volume of myelinated structures and neuronal maturation, 36,37 and the potential mechanisms of an increase in FA include increased myelination, changes in axonal membrane structure, increases in axon diameter, and changes in fiber packing density. 38 A previous study on BMS reported decreased FA in various WM regions. 4 However, increased FA has also been reported in patients with other pain conditions 39,40 as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ...
Purpose: Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is defined by a burning sensation or pain in the tongue or other oral sites despite the presence of normal mucosa on inspection. Both psychiatric and neuroimaging investigations have examined BMS; however, there have been no analyses using the neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) model, which provides detailed information of intra- and extracellular microstructures. Therefore, we performed voxel-wise analyses using both NODDI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) models and compared the results to better comprehend the pathology of BMS.
Methods: Fourteen patients with BMS and 11 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects were prospectively scanned using a 3T-MRI machine using 2-shell diffusion imaging. Diffusion tensor metrics (fractional anisotropy [FA], mean diffusivity [MD], axial diffusivity [AD], and radial diffusivity [RD]) and neurite orientation and dispersion index metrics (intracellular volume fraction [ICVF], isotropic volume fraction [ISO], and orientation dispersion index [ODI]) were retrieved from diffusion MRI data. These data were analyzed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and gray matter-based spatial statistics (GBSS).
Results: TBSS analysis showed that patients with BMS had significantly higher FA and ICVF and lower MD and RD than the healthy control subjects (family-wise error [FWE] corrected P < 0.05). Changes in ICVF, MD, and RD were observed in widespread white matter areas. Fairly small areas with different FA were included. GBSS analysis showed that patients with BMS had significantly higher ISO and lower MD and RD than the healthy control subjects (FWE-corrected P < 0.05), mainly limited to the amygdala.
Conclusion: The increased ICVF in the BMS group may represent myelination and/or astrocytic hypertrophy, and microstructural changes in the amygdala in GBSS analysis indicate the emotional-affective profile of BMS.
... Different colours indicate different directions. This figure is reprinted from Ref.[12] with open access under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. ...
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are a promising drug delivery system to treat brain diseases, as the particle transport trajectory can be manipulated by an external magnetic field. However, due to the complex microstructure of brain tissues, particularly the arrangement of nerve fibres in the white matter (WM), how to achieve desired drug distribution patterns, e.g., uniform distribution, is largely unknown. In this study, by adopting a mathematical model capable of capturing the diffusion trajectories of MNPs, we conducted a pilot study to investigate the effects of key parameters in the MNP delivery on the particle diffusion behaviours in the brain WM microstructures. The results show that (i) a uniform distribution of MNPs can be achieved in anisotropic tissues by adjusting the particle size and magnetic field; (ii) particle size plays a key role in determining MNPs' diffusion behaviours. The magnitude of MNP equivalent diffusivity is reversely correlated to the particle size. The MNPs with a dimension greater than 90 nm cannot reach a uniform distribution in the brain WM even in an external magnitude field; (iii) axon tortuosity may lead to transversely anisotropic MNP transport in the brain WM; however, this effect can be mitigated by applying an external magnetic field perpendicular to the local axon track. This study not only advances understanding to answer the question of how to optimise MNP delivery, but also demonstrates the potential of mathematical modelling to help achieve desired drug distributions in biological tissues with a complex microstructure.
... Respecto a la lateralidad, los estudios en neuroimagen se desarrollan bajo la premisa de que zurdos, ambidiestros y diestros poseen una configuración o funcionamiento cerebral distinto (Guadalupe et al., 2014;Hammond, 2002;Jäncke et al., 1998;Kertesz et al., 1990;Kim et al., 1993;Pool et al., 2014). Por este motivo, es habitual que ser zurdo o ambidiestro se considere como un criterio de exclusión en los estudios, incluyendo así en muchos casos únicamente diestros como parte de las muestras de las investigaciones en neurociencia de la música (Baer et al., 2015;Bailey et al., 2014;Bianco et al., 2022;Foster et al., 2013;Gärtner et al., 2013;Moore et al., 2017;van Vugt et al., 2021;Vaquero et al., 2016;Vaquero et al., 2020;Zarate & Zatorre, 2008), de manera que los potenciales resultados no estén "contaminados" por la preferencia manual. ...
El entrenamiento musical reiterado puede modificar el cerebro tanto anatómicamente como en su función, pero existen una serie de variables que condicionan la neuroplasticidad. Este texto realiza una revisión actualizada sobre ellas, revisitándolas incluyendo las últimas investigaciones en el campo de la neurociencia de la música. Entre las variables de interés, se encuentran las diferencias individuales, el sexo, la lateralidad manual, la habilidad de oído absoluto, el instrumento que se interpreta, el tipo de formación musical que recibe el intérprete, las particularidades del entrenamiento –como la intensidad del mismo o la edad de inicio, por ejemplo–, además de otros factores ambientales y genéticos.
... tracts identified in longitudinal musical training studies among school-age children and adults: the corpus callosum(Habibi et al., 2018) and arcuate fasciculus(Moore et al., 2017), and (b) tracts previously shown to predict the subsequent rate of learning success prior to training onset: the corticospinal tract and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF;Engel et al., 2014). These tracts of interest were examined bilaterally to evaluate hemispheric specificity of associations with subsequent musicality. ...
Musical training has long been viewed as a model for experience‐dependent brain plasticity. Reports of musical training‐induced brain plasticity are largely based on cross‐sectional studies comparing musicians to non‐musicians, which cannot address whether musical training itself is sufficient to induce these neurobiological changes or whether pre‐existing neuroarchitecture before training predisposes children to succeed in music. Here, in a longitudinal investigation of children from infancy to school age ( n = 25), we find brain structure in infancy that predicts subsequent music aptitude skills at school‐age. Building on prior evidence implicating white matter organization of the corticospinal tract as a neural predisposition for musical training in adults, here we find that structural organization of the right corticospinal tract in infancy is associated with school‐age tonal and rhythmic musical aptitude skills. Moreover, within the corpus callosum, an inter‐hemispheric white matter pathway traditionally linked with musical training, we find that structural organization of this pathway in infancy is associated with subsequent tonal music aptitude. Our findings suggest predispositions prior to the onset of musical training from as early as infancy may serve as a scaffold upon which ongoing musical experience can build.
Research Highlights
Structural organization of the right corticospinal tract in infancy is associated with school‐age musical aptitude skills.
Longitudinal associations between the right corticospinal tract in infancy and school‐age rhythmic music aptitude skills remain significant even when controlling for language ability.
Findings support the notion of predispositions for success in music, and suggest that musical predispositions likely build upon a neural structural scaffold established in infancy.
Findings support the working hypothesis that a dynamic interaction between predisposition and experience established in infancy shape the trajectory of long‐term musical development.
... Different colours indicate different directions. This figure is reprinted from Ref. [12] with open access under the terms of CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. ...
Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs) is a promising technique to cure brain diseases. On the one hand, by serving as drug carriers, they can bypass the blood-brain barrier and deliver drug molecules to the brain parenchyma; on the other hand, their transport trajectory can be manipulated by applying an external magnetic field. However, due to the complex microstructure of brain tissues, e.g. the anisotropy of white matter (WM), how to achieve desired drug distribution patterns, e.g. uniform distribution, by tuning the drug delivery system is largely unknown. Here, in this study, by adopting a mathematical model capable of capturing the diffusion trajectories of MNPs in the microstructures, we systematically investigated the effects of key parameters in the MNPs delivery system on the equivalent diffusion coefficient of MNPs in the microenvironment of brain WM. The results show that uniform distribution of MNPs in anisotropic tissues can be achieved by adjusting the particle size and magnetic field. We have not only obtained a deeper understanding on how to optimise the MNPs delivery system, it can also be anticipated that an improved mathematical model could even help to achieve complex drug distribution patterns in the complicated brain environment by designing an appropriate combination of the key parameters.
... A more recent study found that the microstructural organization of WM tracts that connect auditory and frontal motor regions in both hemispheres of the brain may serve as a neural foundation of the musicality or musicians' advantage (Li et al., 2021). Nevertheless, the most frequently reported WM microstructural differences in musicians compared with nonmusicians appears to be in the cross-hemispheric connections (i.e., Corpus Callosum CC) (for a review, see Moore et al., 2017). ...
... In a study done in a Mandarin population with amusia, DTI-derived results showed the higher WM integrity in the right posterior AF as well as lower WM integrity in the right anterior AF in amusics (Chen et al., 2018). Moreover, increased FA value in the right AF was observed as the effect of musical training on the WM changes in a short time (20 min, three times per week, for 4 weeks), compared to controls (Moore et al., 2017). Above all, the higher integrity and volume of right AF are reported to have an association with music learning speed and rate (Vaquero et al., 2018). ...
... These findings suggest that song may aid in the processing of syllable rhythms for difficult listening conditions, but not for normal rate speech. This runs counter to many behavioural accounts of musical enhancement of normal-rate speech processing due to bottom-up factors such as music's rhythmic regularity ( Falk and Dalla Bella, 2016 ;Rathcke et al., 2021 ;Moore et al., 2017 ). ...
Music is often described in the laboratory and in the classroom as a beneficial tool for memory encoding and retention, with a particularly strong effect when words are sung to familiar compared to unfamiliar melodies. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this memory benefit, especially for benefits related to familiar music are not well understood. The current study examined whether neural tracking of the slow syllable rhythms of speech and song is modulated by melody familiarity. Participants became familiar with twelve novel melodies over four days prior to MEG testing. Neural tracking of the same utterances spoken and sung revealed greater cerebro-acoustic phase coherence for sung compared to spoken utterances, but did not show an effect of familiar melody when stimuli were grouped by their assigned (trained) familiarity. When participant's subjective ratings of perceived familiarity during the MEG testing session were used to group stimuli, however, a large effect of familiarity was observed. This effect was not specific to song, as it was observed in both sung and spoken utterances. Exploratory analyses revealed some in-session learning of unfamiliar and spoken utterances, with increased neural tracking for untrained stimuli by the end of the MEG testing session. Our results indicate that top-down factors like familiarity are strong modulators of neural tracking for music and language. Participants’ neural tracking was related to their perception of familiarity, which was likely driven by a combination of effects from repeated listening, stimulus-specific melodic simplicity, and individual differences. Beyond simply the acoustic features of music, top-down factors built into the music listening experience, like repetition and familiarity, play a large role in the way we attend to and encode information presented in a musical context.
