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Cited by 1,633

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 11 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians

Open access
Gaser, Christian, Schlaug, Gottfried·2003·The Journal of Neuroscience

Abstract

From an early age, musicians learn complex motor and auditory skills (e.g., the translation of visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands with simultaneous auditory monitoring of output), which they practice extensively from childhood throughout their entire careers. Using a voxel-by-voxel morphometric technique, we found gray matter volume differences in motor, auditory, and visual-spatial brain regions when comparing professional musicians (keyboard players) with a matched group of amateur musicians and non-musicians. Although some of these multiregional differences could be attributable to innate predisposition, we believe they may represent structural adaptations in response to long-term skill acquisition and the repetitive rehearsal of those skills. This hypothesis is supported by the strong association we found between structural differences, musician status, and practice intensity, as well as the wealth of supporting animal data showing structural changes in response to long-term motor training. However, only future experiments can determine the relative contribution of predisposition and practice.

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Crossref · 10.1523/jneurosci.23-27-09240.2003

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Metadata

Authors
Gaser, C., & Schlaug, G.
Venue
The Journal of Neuroscience
Published
2003-10-08
Volume
23
Issue
27
Pages
9240-9245
ISSN
  • 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
  • 1529-2401
OpenAlex
W1911060607
Cited by
1,633
References
11
FWCI
12.45
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1523/jneurosci.23-27-09240.2003
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Gaser, C., & Schlaug, G. (2003). Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians. The Journal of Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-27-09240.2003

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

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