SynthesisScientific reports2022
An ALE meta-analytic review of musical expertise.
Synthesis in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Functional Neural Architecture of Working Memory in Musicians: An ALE Meta-Analysis and Review.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive sciencePooled it
- Musical and electrical stimulation as intervention in disorder of consciousness (DOC) patients: A randomised cross-over trial.PloS one · 2024Trial
- Expertise-driven differences in drummers' wrist-muscle motor unit behaviour.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The associations between playing a musical instrument and grey matter in older adults at risk for dementia: a whole-brain VBM analysis.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Cross-modal plasticity in a blind jazz pianist and prodigy.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- The Tuned Cortex: Convergent Expertise-Related Structural and Functional Remodeling across the Adult Lifespan.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Polygenic Associations Between Motor Behavior, Neuromotor Traits, and Active Music Engagement in Four Cohorts.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- GWAS of Active Music Engagement Frequency in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.Research square · 2026Article
- Optimizing cognitive load in Guzheng learning: a narrative review of demonstration, segmented practice, and feedback scaffolding.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Embodied Singing: Dual Role of Interoception in Vocal Expertise and Musical Competence.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- Working Memory Predicts Long-Term Recognition of Auditory Sequences: Dissociation Between Confirmed Predictions and Prediction Errors.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2025Article
- BROAD-NESS Uncovers Dual-Stream Mechanisms Underlying Predictive Coding in Auditory Memory Networks.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Topography of Functional Organization of Beat Perception in Human Premotor Cortex: Causal Evidence From a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Study.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Association between expertise in clinical skills and mental functions networking related to manual dexterity.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Dynamics of Pitch Perception in the Auditory Cortex.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Differences in dynamic functional connectivity between musicians and non-musicians during naturalistic music listening.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Basal ganglia and cerebellar lesions causally impact the neural encoding of temporal regularities.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- The brain on expert medical performance: a systematic review and activation likelihood estimation functional magentic resonance imaging meta-analysis.Psychoradiology · 2025Review
- Music literacy shapes the specialization of a right hemispheric word reading area.Neuroimage. Reports · 2024Article
- Music reward sensitivity is associated with greater information transfer capacity within dorsal and motor white matter networks in musicians.Brain structure & function · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Through long-term training, music experts acquire complex and specialized sensorimotor skills, which are paralleled by continuous neuro-anatomical and -functional adaptations. The underlying neuroplasticity mechanisms have been extensively explored in decades of research in music, cognitive, and translational neuroscience. However, the absence of a comprehensive review and quantitative meta-analysis prevents the plethora of variegated findings to ultimately converge into a unified picture of the neuroanatomy of musical expertise. Here, we performed a comprehensive neuroimaging meta-analysis of publications investigating neuro-anatomical and -functional differences between musicians (M) and non-musicians (NM). Eighty-four studies were included in the qualitative synthesis. From these, 58 publications were included in coordinate-based meta-analyses using the anatomic/activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method. This comprehensive approach delivers a coherent cortico-subcortical network encompassing sensorimotor and limbic regions bilaterally. Particularly, M exhibited higher volume/activity in auditory, sensorimotor, interoceptive, and limbic brain areas and lower volume/activity in parietal areas as opposed to NM. Notably, we reveal topographical (dis-)similarities between the identified functional and anatomical networks and characterize their link to various cognitive functions by means of meta-analytic connectivity modelling. Overall, we effectively synthesized decades of research in the field and provide a consistent and controversies-free picture of the neuroanatomy of musical expertise.
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Registered trials
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