Auditory neuroplasticity in the adult musical brain

专业音乐家的大脑在听觉皮层的大小和功能方面与非音乐家的大脑不同。这些差异在多大程度上代表了高强度音乐训练的结果，还是归因于先天的倾向，在神经科学领域仍然是一个有争议的问题。我们的研究旨在评估听觉神经可塑性的横断面和纵向相结合的设计。巴塞尔音乐大学的优秀音乐学生将在为期三年的强化大学培训计划中接受监控，所有学习参与者将遵循相同的教育计划。一个独特的新方法的组合被用来建立个人的听觉档案，包括心理声学，形态学和神经功能参数。这些配置文件的变化和时间动态将在四个时间点进行评估，使变量的歧视，可能容易受到训练诱导的可塑性。这项工作有望深入了解听觉学习和行为的性格和训练诱导因素之间的相互作用，并在更广泛的角度作出有价值的贡献，性质与教养的辩论。研究结果可能对音乐教育的各个方面产生直接的影响。G.学习和职业策略的适应，以及扩展到成人神经可塑性其他领域的潜力。

Brains of professional musicians are different from those of non-musicians in terms of size andfunctionality of their auditory cortex. To which extent these differences represent the result of intense musical training or are attributable to an innate predisposition remains a matter of controversy in the field of neuroscience. Our study aims to evaluate auditory neuroplasticity in a combined crosssectional and longitudinal design. Highly talented musical students of the Basle University of Music will be monitored during a three year intensive university training program, where all study participants will follow the same educational schedule. A unique combination of novel methods is used to establish individual auditory profiles consisting of psychoacoustic, morphological and neurofunctional parameters. Changes and temporal dynamics of these profiles will be assessed at four time points enabling discrimination of variables that are potentially susceptible to training-induced plasticity. The proposed work is expected to provide insight into the interactions between dispositional and traininginduced factors of auditory learning and behavior, and in the broader perspective to make a valuable contribution to the nature versus nurture debate. Results may have direct implications for aspects of musical education, e. g. adaptation of learning and career strategies, and the potential to be extended to other domains of adult neuroplasticity.