Want a bigger motor cortex? Play violin for one side, piano for both sides now...

New Scientist (15/5/21) reports on the work of Stanford Uni's David Eagleman, a neuroscientist seeking to build new senses - such as helping deaf people develop a new sense of 'hearing' via a wrist band which vibrates in time with sounds.

Eagleman's work rests on the way the brain has been found in recent years to develop physically, building new connections and capabilities in response to repeated activity. This is usually known as neuroplasticity, where the synapses between the brain's neurons develop. Eagleman argues that this is too narrow a term as even the wiring within (rather than just between) neurons can develop, and prefers the term "livewired" to represent the way in which billions of neurons can reconfigure their circuitry every second.

So what has this to do with making music? As a stark example of neuroplasticity Eagleman reports that when the brain of a violinist is viewed via a brain scan, one side of the motor cortex is larger, because the violinst is using one hand with great precision. The part of the motor cortex responsible for driving movement in that hand enlarges in response. Likewise, a pianist needing fine, high precision movement of both hands will have enlargement of both sides of the motor cortex.

Make music, grow your brain.

My son giving both sides of his motor cortex a good workout

Update 31May21: I've been digging into Prof. Eagleman's book Livewired: The inside story of the ever-changing brain for the original research to back up this finding. The source papers are:1,2.

The feature of the brain affected is the gyrus: a little Ω- shaped wobble in one of the external folds of the brain. In a non-musician the gyrus runs straight. For a violinist, whose left hand does the detailed work, the gyrus on the right side has a puckering detour. For pianists, the gyri on both sides have the puckering detours.

Elbert T et Al (1995), Increased finger representation of the fingers of the left hand in string players, Science 270: 305-6
Bangert M, Schlaug G (2006), Specialization of the specialized in features of external human brain morphology, EUR J Neurosci 24: 1832-34

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