Poster C66, Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 10:45 am – 12:30 pm, Restaurant Hall
Effects of Musical Training on White Matter Diffusivities and Speech in Noise Perception
Yi Du1, Xiaonan Li1;1Institute of Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Introduction: Musical training is related with pervasive plasticity in the brain. However, evidence linking specific neural reorganization with certain behavioral advantage after musical training is still lacking. Speech perception in noisy environments is one of the critical abilities that have been improved in musicians. Since sensorimotor synchronization is ubiquitous in playing music, musician is an effective model for understanding the nature of sensory-motor coordination in speech perception. Although studies have found that musicians and non-musicians differed in morphology of white matter (WM) tracts implicated in sensorimotor integration, none has directly associated those changes with speech in noise (SIN) perception ability. Methods: In the current diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study, deterministic tracking algorithm was used to attain the averaged diffusivity values (FA, fractional anisotropy; AD, axial diffusivity; RD, radical diffusivity; MD, mean diffusivity) of three representative tracts and their subcomponents which connect sensory and motor regions, the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), anterior thalamic radiation (ATR) and corpus callosum (CC), in a group of young musicians (n = 14) and a group of young non-musicians (n = 14). Participants’ SIN performance as tested by a syllable-in-noise identification task, pure-tone hearing threshold, auditory working memory as measured by forward and backward digit span, and non-verbal IQ by Cattell’s culture fair intelligence test were also recorded. Results: Compared with non-musicians, musicians had higher FA values in the right arcuate fasciculus (AF), orbital and anterior frontal portions of CC, lower RD values in the left anterior of SLF, right ATR and orbital portion of CC, as well as lower MD value in the right ATR. Moreover, higher FA and lower RD and MD values in those tracts significantly correlated with better SIN performance in all participants after controlling for hearing level, auditory working memory and non-verbal IQ. Additionally, the RD value of the left AF and MD value of the left anterior of SLF negatively correlated with SIN accuracy, although no significant group difference was found. Surprisingly, longer musical training time was associated with decrement of FA value in the right AF and increment of RD value in the left anterior of SLF, indicating a complex effect of long-term musical training on myelination of tracts. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the white matter reorganization in the right AF, left anterior of SLF, right ATR, orbital and anterior frontal of CC, which connect intra- and inter-hemispherical sensorimotor regions, may serve as a neural foundation of musician advantage in understanding speech under noisy circumstances.
Themes: Speech Perception, Multisensory or Sensorimotor Integration
Method: White Matter Imaging (dMRI, DSI, DKI)