Skilled musicians have an area of the brain that is up to 25 percent larger than those who have never played an instrument, research has shown.

The region is part of the cortex where nerve cells group together according to pitch, much like notes on a piano's keyboard are arranged in ascending order.

The researchers, based at the University of Munster in Germany, have been imaging these "tonotopic maps" in the cortex of musicians and non-musicians as they listen to a series of up to 35 notes. They found that, in the most experienced players, the area stimulated was up to a quarter larger than in non-musicians.

The scientists also found a link between the age at which a person starts learning an instrument and the size of the musical area. Musicians who began playing aged nine or younger had the largest tonotopic maps as adults.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, have been made by a team at the university led by Christo Pantev. They studied 20 musicians from the conservatory in Munster, some of whom had perfect or instinctive pitch and others who had relative pitch. The musicians had been playing for between 13 and 23 years.

Nine said the piano was their primary instrument and 11 favored strings or woodwinds. A group of students who had never played were also screened.

The scientists found no difference between those with perfect pitch and those with relative or learned pitch.

The researchers believe that it is not just an area of the cortex that is enlarged in musicians. The team previously pinpointed that the planum temporale of the left hemisphere was also bigger.


(Recall Weeks 34 and 35: The Brain-Music Connection)