fMRI of Piano Players

Stewart et al. studied mental representations used in music reading, as well as their instantiation within the brain. They performed a fMRI training study in which musically untrained adults were taught to read music and play piano keyboard over a period of three months. Specific learning-related changes were seen in the superior parietal cortex and fusiform gyrus, for melody reading and rhythm reading, respectively.

Meister at al. studied the neural correlates of piano playing. In the analysis of the fMRI data while the subjects played piano on a MRI-compatible keyboard, a predominantly frontoparietal cortical network was found to be active during piano performance.The activations comprise the primary sensorimotor cortex in the left hemisphere and the premotor cortex and the cerebellum bilaterally, in addition to a parietal network of precuneus and BA 40. An occipital network was also activated. The authors suggest that the frontoparietal network and the cerebellum are involved slightly more in rhythm processing, whereas the precuneus and the occipital regions seem to play a role in the processing of pitch and notereading.

Bengtsson et al. studied dissociation between melodic and rhythmic processing during piano performance from musical scores. They found that the medial occipital lobe, the superior temporal lobe, the rostral cingulate cortex, the putamen and the cerebellum process the melodic information, whereas the lateral occipital and the inferior temporal cortex, the left supramarginal gyrus, the left inferior and ventral frontal gyri, the caudate nucleus, and the cerebellum process the rhythmic information.