Neuroplasticity - Music

Karen Bayley-Ewell

Donald Hebbs & Cell AssemblyCells that wire together

will fire together.

Persistent activation of

a cell assembly results

in neuro-connectivity

called Engrams

Illustration: Nature Reviews – Neuroscience 2005

Fixed Action Patterns…“Automatic brain modules

that make complex

movements; well

defined motor patterns,

(walking, swallowing)” I

of the Vortex - Rudolfo

Llinás

Can be learned

Can be innate

Can be perfected

Playing music in your mind…Sacks discusses how he

would “only glance at a

score or think of a

particular mazurka” and

then “I not only would

“hear” the music, but I

“see” my hands on the

keyboard… and “feel” them

playing the piece…” (Sacks

34)

Playing the piano in your mind…A 2004 study showed

that the same areas

of the brain where

activated when

subjects imagined

playing the piano as

when actually playing

the piano.

fMRIs of musical performance vs ImageryThe cortical activations

found for music performance

The cortical activations found for musical imagery

Precuneus“Region of the brain

that correlates

positively with

learning specific

reactions to visual

stimuli…”

Cognitive Brain

Research 19 (2004)

219-228

So what does this all have to do with music?

Sacks discusses how

musicians readapt

after suffering

lesions in the brain

or other trauma.

Musicians: A model of neuroplasticity

The complexity of

the stimulus (music)

The length of

exposure to the

stimulus

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3, 473-478 (June 2002)

Musicians: A model of neuroplasticity

Five finger piano

exercises have

demonstrated that the

motor cortex shows

changes within minutes

of practicing

techniques…

Alvaro Pascual-Leone at Harvard

Music as therapy

“Every disease is a

musical problem,

every cure is a

musical solution” ~

Novalis

The End