Plasticity of the neuro-auditory network in musically trained adolescents II

对音乐大脑从童年到成年的可塑性变化的研究是一个巨大的挑战。除了包括儿童年龄的研究外，到目前为止，还没有对青少年进行神经学纵向研究，以调查音乐与大脑成熟的关系。然而，为了理清成熟因素、学习诱导因素和易感因素之间的相互作用，有必要进行系统的神经科学纵向研究。在我的海森堡奖学金计划的第一阶段，我们成功地完成了第四个测量时间点，作为先前进行的纵向研究(2009-2015)的一部分，包括之前对小学生(7-12岁)进行的三次后续测量。基于家庭的长期接触和高积极性，之前的220名青春期(13-17岁)受试者中有~90%的人有可能再次参加海德堡大学医院的心理声学、脑磁图和磁共振断层扫描。目前的研究结果证实，在青春期就积极地演奏乐器可以抵消听力障碍以及发育和学习障碍，如AD(H)、D或阅读障碍。这些结果的一个基本潜力在于对发育障碍进行客观的、基于大脑的早期诊断。本建议的一个问题是进行第5次后续测量，包括所有先前在年轻成人(19-20岁)时接受调查的参与者。这将允许分析从初学年龄到成年的12年的一生中所观察到的个体神经听觉特征的成熟度和可塑性。重点放在音乐实践中自然成熟和训练诱导的可塑性的特定标志上，这些标志应该在音乐天赋的受试者、非音乐家和患有发育和学习障碍的参与者之间进行比较。应该进行全面的分析，以了解听力功能的发展和/或稳定性、听觉皮质中的声音处理和相关的大脑网络以及特殊的音乐技能和听觉功能障碍之间的关系。这种方法有望成功地解释杰出的听觉技能和听觉功能障碍的神经基础，在听力治疗、诊断和音乐教育学应用方面具有相当大的潜力。

The investigation of plastic changes of the musical brain from childhood to adulthood is a great challenge. Besides studies that included subjects in the age of childhood, up to date no neurological longitudinal study has been conducted with adolescents to investigate the relationship between musicality and brain maturation. Systematic neuroscientific longitudinal studies are necessary, however, in order to disentangle the interplay between maturational, learning-induced and predispositional factors.During the first period of my Heisenberg Fellowship programme we succeeded to complete the 4th measurement timepoint as part of the previously conducted longitudinal study “Audio and neuroplasticity and musical learning” (2009-2015), including three preceding follow-up measurements with elementary school children (age range 7-12). Based on the longlasting contact and high motivation of the families it was possible to gain ~90% of the previous 220 subjects in puberty age (13-17 years) to participate one more time in the psychoacoustic, magnetencephalographic and magnetic resonance tomographic measurements at the University Hospital of Heidelberg. The currently available results corroborate that playing an instrument actively just in the age of puberty counteracts hearing deficits as well as developmental and learning disorders such as AD(H)D or dyslexia. An essential potential of these results lies in an objective, brain based early diagnostic of developmental disorders. It is an issue of the present proposal to conduct a 5th follow-up measurement including all previous investigated participants at the age of young adulthood (19-20 years). This will allow to analyse the matuartion and plasticity of the observed individual neuro-auditory profiles in a never before attained lifetime period of 12 years from elemantary school age until adulthood. The focus is on specific markers of natural maturation and training-induced plasticity by musical practice, that should be compared between musically gifted subjects, non-musicians and participants with developmental and learning disorders. Comprehensive analyses should be performed to understand the relationship between the development and / or stability of hearing functions, sound processing in the auditory cortex and associated brain networks as well as exceptional musically skills and auditory dysfunctions. This approach is expected to succeed in explaining neural foundations of both outstanding auditory skills and auditory dysfunctions, with considerable potential for hearing-therapeutical, diagnostical and musicpedagogical applications.