Neuroplasticity And The Brain

Neuroplasticity is defined as any structural or functional change in the central nervous system due to experience or adaptation to environmental pressures.(McFerran & Rickard, 2012) Recently, several studies have been demonstrating that music has an important impact on human brain. There are many differences between the brain of musicians and non-musicians such as volume, connectivity, morphology, density and functional activity.(Merrett, Peretz, & Wilson, 2013) On the last decades, important evidences were found in researches using music to induce neural plasticity.

Since the 19th century there are reports of some “anomalies” on musician’s brain in post mortem examinations. On those times, these differences were considered the reason of musical skills.(McFerran & Rickard, 2012) Nowadays, observing the fact that musical expertise is related to the amount of practice, scientists postulated that some brain adaption should happen in response to training.(Jancke, 2009) As long as the impact of intensive training in the brain became better understood, it enhanced the idea that differences in musician’s brains are more related to neural plasticity than genetic predisposition. However, as not all children receiving music lessons would become a professional musician, it is difficult to determine if musicians had or not atypical skills in childhood.

This literature review aims to analyse these findings and the trends in music neuroscience. The research included articles published in the last 10 years that responded to the search of the terms “music”, “brain”, and “plasticity” or “neuroplasticity” in PubMed database.

The impact of music training in children has been studied intensively. In 2009, a longitudinal study demonstrated that there...

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...., Soinila, S., Mikkonen, M., . . . Hietanen, M. (2008). Music listening enhances cognitive recovery and mood after middle cerebral artery stroke. Brain, 131(3), 866-876 %R 810.1093/brain/awn1013.

Skoe, E., & Kraus, N. (2012). A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood. The Journal of Neuroscience, 32(34), 11507-11510 %R 11510.11523/JNEUROSCI.11949-11512.12012.

Wan, C. Y., & Schlaug, G. (2010). Music making as a tool for promoting brain plasticity across the life span. Neuroscientist, 16(5), 566-577. doi: 10.1177/1073858410377805

White-Schwoch, T., Carr, K. W., Anderson, S., Strait, D. L., & Kraus, N. (2013). Older Adults Benefit from Music Training Early in Life: Biological Evidence for Long-Term Training-Driven Plasticity. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33(45), 17667-17674 %R 17610.11523/JNEUROSCI.12560-17613.12013.