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Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Monthly
160 pp. per issue
8 1/2 x 11, illustrated
Founded: 1989
ISSN 0898-929X
E-ISSN 1530-8898
2008 ISI Impact Factor: 4.867

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

August 15, 2001, Vol. 13, No. 6, Pages 786-792
Posted Online March 13, 2006.
(doi:10.1162/08989290152541449)
© 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Involuntary Motor Activity in Pianists Evoked by Music Perception

Jens Haueisen

Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany

Thomas R. Knösche

Max-Planck-Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Leipzig, Germany

PDF (4,990.849 KB) PDF Plus (306.998 KB)

Pianists often report that pure listening to a well-trained piece of music can involuntarily trigger the respective finger movements. We designed a magnetoencephalography (MEG) experiment to compare the motor activation in pianists and nonpianists while listening to piano pieces. For pianists, we found a statistically significant increase of activity above the region of the contralateral motor cortex. Brain surface current density (BSCD) reconstructions revealed a spatial dissociation of this activity between notes preferably played by the thumb and the little finger according to the motor homunculus. Hence, we could demonstrate that pianists, when listening to well-trained piano music, exhibit involuntary motor activity involving the contralateral primary motor cortex (M1).

Cited by

Maike D. Hesse, Roland Sparing, Gereon R. Fink. (2009) End or Means—The “What” and “How” of Observed Intentional Actions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 21:4, 776-790
Online publication date: 1-Apr-2009.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (441 KB) | PDF Plus (391 KB) 
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