Musician's brain and the structural differences in white/grey matters: A DT-MRI study

Participation in music in a performative way is one of the rare activities of humans which requires the use of almost all brain regions simultaneously and cognitively. Musicians are the most active participants of music creation process. They had a long period of training starting from their childhood in order to gain cognitive skills and use these skills intensively in their career, therefore they are defined as "musicians" in the scope of this study. The categorization of "musician's brain" is based on the hypothesis that some of the significant elements in the musician brain which started "long" and "intense" musical practices at early ages may be different than that of non-musicians and points to the differences that discriminate the effects of participating in music in an unprofessional way or basically "to be exposed to music" in the brain of musicians. The benefit of this study for the researchers is that, it both comprise the findings of experimental studies based on the hypothesis in question and includes the instructions for new studies. The neural case studies that are based on the comparison of the brain maps of test groups consisted of musicians and non-musicians control group, show findings that support the hypothesis in question so different brain structures in musicians. The aim of the present study is to determine the potential differences of white and grey matters, which have central function in transfer and process of all environmental pressors therefore have significant role in intellectual skills, in musicians considering the hypothesis in question. For this purpose the brain maps of 15 right handed female musicians aged between 21-43 and the control group composed of 8 people coherent in age, gender and hand dominance are compared using DT-MRI (Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and VBM (Voxel Based Morphometry) analysis and it is observed that there are significant increases for white matter in corpus callosum and internal capsule and for gray matter in precuneus of left parietal lobe in the brains of musicians.The acquired data support the hypothesis, that the physical and mental musical practices starting in childhood and continue for a long period may significantly change certain brain structures in specific to grey and white matter.