Abstract
Adult abilities in complex cognitive domains such as music appear to depend critically on the age at which training or experience begins, and relevant experience has greater long-term effects during periods of peak maturational change. Previous work has shown that early trained musicians (ET; < age 7) out-perform later-trained musicians (LT; > age 7) on tests of musical skill, and also have larger volumes of the ventral premotor cortex (vPMC) and smaller volumes of the cerebellum. These cortico-cerebellar networks mature and function in relation to one another, suggesting that early training may promote coordinated developmental plasticity. To test this hypothesis, we examined structural covariation between cerebellar volume and cortical thickness (CT) in sensorimotor regions in ET and LT musicians and non-musicians (NMs). Results show that ETs have smaller volumes in cerebellar lobules connected to sensorimotor cortices, while both musician groups had greater cortical thickness in right pre-supplementary motor area (SMA) and right PMC compared to NMs. Importantly, early musical training had a specific effect on structural covariance between the cerebellum and cortex: NMs showed negative correlations between left lobule VI and right pre-SMA and PMC, but this relationship was reduced in ET musicians. ETs instead showed a significant negative correlation between vermal IV and right pre-SMA and dPMC. Together, these results suggest that early musical training has differential impacts on the maturation of cortico-cerebellar networks important for optimizing sensorimotor performance. This conclusion is consistent with the hypothesis that connected brain regions interact during development to reciprocally influence brain and behavioral maturation.
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JJS is funded by the by a Graduate Scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). CJS is supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC: RGPIN-2020-06812, DGECR-2020-00146), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada New Investigator Award, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (HNC 170723). MMC receives salary support from FRQS and research support from CIHR, NSERC, and the McGill Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives (HBHL) program. RJZ is a fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advance Research. Funding to RJZ and VBP from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (#143217).
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JJS, CJS, RJZ, and VBP contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection, preparation, and analysis were performed by JJS. CJS and MMC provided analytic tools. JJS and VBP wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors contributed to the final version. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Significance Statement: Musical abilities appear to depend critically on the age at which training or experience begins: early trained musicians (ET; < 7) out-perform later-trained musicians (LT; > 7) on tests of musical skill, and also exhibit neuroanatomical differences. This study shows that ET musicians have smaller volumes of cerebellar lobules connected to sensorimotor cortices, while both ET and LT groups had greater cortical thickness in right pre-supplementary motor area, dorsal premotor cortex, and ventral premotor cortex. Most importantly, ET had a specific effect on structural covariance between the cerebellum and cortex. The results of this study show that musical training before age 7 affects cortico-cerebellar structural covariation in adulthood, indicating that early experience has differential impacts on the maturation of these connected regions.
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Shenker, J.J., Steele, C.J., Chakravarty, M.M. et al. Early musical training shapes cortico-cerebellar structural covariation. Brain Struct Funct 227, 407–419 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02409-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02409-2