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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on May 11, 2009
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp074
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Mapping Surface Variability of the Central Sulcus in Musicians

Shuyu Li1, Ying Han2,3, Deyi Wang3, Hong Yang4,5, Yubo Fan1, Yating Lv3, Hehan Tang4, Qiyong Gong4, Yufeng Zang3 and Yong He3

1 School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing, 100191 China, 2 Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100053 China, 3 State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China, 4 Department of Radiology, Huaxi MR Research Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041 China, 5 Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medical Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310003 China

Address correspondence to email: yong.he{at}bnu.edu.cn.

We employed a sulcal geometry–based approach to investigate the morphology of the central sulcus (CS) in musicians (pianists). The anterior and posterior walls of the CS were first manually outlined from high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) images of 41 right-handed subjects (20 musicians and 21 controls), followed by a surface reconstruction and parameterization procedure to ensure the anatomical correspondence of surface locations across subjects. The intrasulcal length, surface area, and local variability of the CS were measured. There were no significant differences in either the intrasulcal length or surface area of the anterior or posterior walls between the 2 groups. However, we observed that the controls had a pronounced left-larger-than-right asymmetry that was reduced in the musicians. Importantly, we found that the musicians showed greater local variability in the middle section (i.e., somatotopic hand area) of the right CS and the lower section of the left CS as compared with the controls. Further analysis revealed significantly negative correlations between the variability of the middle section of the right CS and the age of commencement of musical training. Our findings suggest that the musicians might be associated with plastic changes in the 3D morphology of the CS in response to long-term motor skill training.

Key Words: asymmetry • MRI • pianist • plasticity • primary motor cortex • primary sensory cortex • sulcal variability

Shuyu Li and Ying Han contributed equally to this work.


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