Psychology

Abstract: Psychophysical studies have shown that there is somatotopically organized interaction in tasks involving somatosensory memory. In order to test the hypothesis that the ipsilateral somatosensory cortex contributes to the psychophysically demonstrated interaction, neuromagnetic steady-state responses induced by vibro-tactile stimuli were investigated in a frequency discrimination task. Subjects were requested to indicate whether two stimuli (first and test stimulus) presented subsequently at the index finger of one hand differed with respect to frequency. An interference stimulus interpolated between both stimuli was applied at the little or the index finger of either the left or right hand. Results show that in the present memory task, bilateral activation was found mainly for the test stimulus although stimuli were applied uni-laterally. As revealed by dipole analysis, sources ipsilateral to the side of stimulation were predominantly located in primary somatosensory cortex.

Abstract: We compared activation maps of professional and amateur violinists during actual and imagined performance of Mozart's violin concerto in G major (KV216). Execution and imagination of (left hand) fingering movements of the first 16 bars of the concerto were performed. Electromyography (EMG) feedback was used during imagery training to avoid actual movement execution and EMG recording was employed during the scanning of both executed and imagined musical performances. We observed that professional musicians generated higher EMG amplitudes during movement execution and showed focused cerebral activations in the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex, the bilateral superior parietal lobes, and the ipsilateral anterior cerebellar hemisphere. The finding that professionals exhibited higher activity of the right primary auditory cortex during execution may reflect an increased strength of audio-motor associative connectivity. It appears that during execution of musical sequences in professionals, a higher economy of motor areas frees resources for increased connectivity between the finger sequences and auditory as well as somatosensory loops, which may account for the superior musical performance. Professionals also demonstrated more focused activation patterns during imagined musical performance. However, the auditory-motor loop was not involved during imagined performances in either musician group. It seems that the motor and auditory systems are coactivated as a consequence of musical training but only if one system (motor or auditory) becomes activated by actual movement execution or live musical auditory stimuli.