The Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess and Harvard Medical School
The human brain has the remarkable ability to adapt in response to changes in the environment over the course of a lifetime. This is the mechanism for learning, growth, and normal development. Similar changes or adaptations can also occur in response to focal brain injuries, e.g., partially-adapted neighboring brain regions or functionally-related brain systems can either substitute for some of the lost function or develop alternative strategies to overcome a disability.
Through ongoing research, the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory’s mission is to:
- Reveal the perceptual and cognitive aspects of music processing including the perception and memory for pitch, rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic stimuli.
- Investigate the use of music and musical stimuli as an interventional tool for educational and therapeutic purposes.
- Reveal the behavioral and neural correlates of learning, skill acquisition, and brain adaptation in response to changes in the environment or brain injury in the developing and adult brain.
- Reveal the determinants and facilitators for recovery from brain injury.
The Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory is currently involved in a variety of neurology/neuroscience research projects, ranging from studies examining the effects of instrumental music training on children’s brain and cognitive development to studies examining the neural correlates of absolute pitch, congenital and acquired amusia, neural effects of auditory and motor learning, neural correlates of singing and speaking in normal subjects as well as aphasic patients, to studies examining the effects of therapies that could facilitate the recovery from aphasia and sensorimotor deficits after a stroke. We have also recently begun to examine the effects of a non-invasive, electrical stimulation technique (TDCS – transcranial direct current stimulation) on blocking or enhancing regional brain activity.
- Children’s Music Studies
- Adult Musician Studies
- Amusia Studies
- Absolute Pitch Studies
- Acute-Stroke Studies
- Stroke Recovery Studies
- Aphasia-Therapy Studies
1. The Brain that Makes Music or the Musical Brain. We are studying the cerebral correlates of musical abilities and the functional/structural cerebral adaptations of music training using musicians as a model. This work is supported by the NSF and the International Foundation for Music Research (IFMR). For a sample of recent papers please see Publications (Schlaug et al., 1995a,b; Amunts et al., 1997; Jaencke et al., 1997; Schlaug, 2001; Keenan et al., 2001; Muente et al., 2002; Lee et al., 2003; Hutchinson et al., 2003; Gaser et al., 2003).
2. The Effects of Music Training on Cognitive and Brain Development in Children. In longitudinal and cross-sectional studies we are examining the effects of learning to play a musical instrument as well as the effects of enriched music instruction in school on various behavioral and cognitive measures as well as brain development. This work is supported by NSF, the International Foundation for Music Research, and the Grammy Foundation.
3. Neural Correlates of Absolute Pitch. We are examining the structural and functional brain markers of this unique ability. We are also interested in the incidence of this ability in special populations and the familial occurrence of absolute pitch. For a sample of recent papers see Publications (Schlaug et al., 1995; Keenan et al., 2001; Schlaug, 2003).
4. Behavioral and Neural Effects of Auditory Learning. We are examining the behavioral and brain effects of acquiring auditory skills in adults, mainly in those without any musical training.
5. Pathophysiology of Acute Human Stroke. We are using new magnetic resonance imaging methods such as perfusion and diffusion weighted imaging to select patients for treatment, to determine the benefit/risk ratios of experimental treatment approaches, and to assess tissue outcome after an intervention is done. This work is supported by the NIH and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. For a sample of recent papers please see Publications (Schlaug et al., 1997, 1999; Fink et al., 2002a,b; Selim et al., 2002; Linfante et al., 2002).
6. Determinants and Facilitators of Stroke Recovery. W are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to study stroke recovery. This research is supported by the Dana Foundation and the NIH. For a sample of relevant papers please see Publications (Hutchinson et al., 2002; Kobayashi et al., 2002; Mottaghy et al., 2002).
7. Singing and Speaking in Normal Subjects and in Patients with Aphasia. We are examining the sharing of neural substrates when subjects sing and speak. This work will be used the examine the neural correlates of innovative therapies in aphasia rehabilitation.
For List of Lab Technicians and Staff follow Link:
Music & Neuroimaging Lab People
PDF files are available for selected publications. Please see bibliography for a full list of publications.
18. Schlaug G, Jäncke L, Huang Y, Steinmetz H. In vivo evidence of structural brain asymmetry in musicians. Science 1995;267:699-671. [PDF]
19. Schlaug G, Jäncke L, Huang Y, Steinmetz H. Musical ability [letter]. Science 1995;268:621-622. [PDF]
21. Schlaug G, Jäncke L, Huang Y, Staiger JF, Steinmetz H. Increased corpus callosum size in musicians. Neuropsychologia 1995;33:1047-1055. [PDF]
36. Jäncke L, Schlaug G, Steinmetz H. Hand skill asymmetry in professional musicians. Brain and Cognition 1997;34:424-432. [PDF]
46. Amunts K, Schlaug G, Jäncke L, Steinmetz H, Schleicher A, Dabringhaus A, Zilles K. Motor cortex and hand motor skills: structural compliance in the human brain. Human Brain Mapping 1997;5: 206-215. [PDF]
61. Sanger TD, Pascual-Leone A, Tarsy D, Schlaug G. fMRI evidence of sensory receptive fields spanning multiple fingers in Writer’s cramp. Movement Disorders 2002;17:105-111. [PDF]
63. Keenan JP, Halpern AR, Thangaraj V, Chen C, Edelman RR, Schlaug G. Absolute pitch and planum temporale. Neuroimage 2001;14:1402-1408. [PDF]
65. Schlaug G. The brain of musicians: A model for functional and structural plasticity. Ann NY Acad Sci 2001;930: 281-299. [PDF]
66. Fink JN, Selim MH, Kumar S, Silver B, Linfante I, Caplan LR, Schlaug G. Is the association of NIH stroke scale scores and acute MRI stroke volume equal for patients with right and left hemisphere stroke? Stroke 2002;33:954-958. [PDF]
67. Fink JN, Kumar S, Horkan C, Linfante I, Selim M, Caplan LR, Schlaug G. The stroke patient who woke up: clinical and radiological features, including diffusion and perfusion MRI. Stroke 2002;33:988-993. [PDF]
68. Linfante I, Llinas R, Selim M, Chaves C, Caplan LR, Schlaug G. Clinical and vascular outcome in internal carotid artery versus middle cerebral artery occlusions after intravenous tissue plasminogen activator. Stroke 2002;33:2066-2071. [PDF]
69. Selim M, Fink JN, Kumar S, Caplan LR, Horkan C, Chen Y, Linfante I, Schlaug G. Predictors of Hemorrhagic Transformation after intravenous rt-PA: Prognostic Value of The Initial Apparent Diffusion Coefficient and Diffusion-Weighted Lesion Volume. Stroke 2002;33:2047-2052. [PDF]
72. Hutchinson S, Kobayashi M, Horkan C, Pascual-Leone A, Alexander M, Schlaug G. Age-related differences in movement representation. Neuroimage 2002;17:1720-1728. [PDF]
73. Hutchinson S, Lee LHL, Gaab N, Schlaug G. Cerebellar volume: gender and musicianship effects. Cerebral Cortex 2003, in press. [PDF]
74. Gaab N, Keenan J, Schlaug G. The effects of gender on the neural substrates of pitch memory. J Cogn Neurosci 2003;15:810-820. [PDF]
75. Gaab N, Gaser C, Zaehle T, Chen Y, Schlaug G. Functional anatomy of pitch memory – a fMRI study with sparse temporal sampling. Neuroimage 2003;19:1417-1426. [PDF]
76. Mottaghy F, Gangitano, M, Horkan C, Chen Y, Pascual-Leone A, Schlaug G. Repetitive TMS temporarily alters brain diffusion. Neurology 2003;60:1539-1541. [PDF]
77. Lee DJ, Chen Y, Schlaug G. Corpus callosum: musician and gender effects. NeuroReport 2003;14:205-209. [PDF]
78. Kobayashi M, Hutchinson S, Schlaug G, Pascual-Leone A. Ipsilateral motor cortex activation on functional magnetic resonance imaging during unilateral hand movements is related to interhemispheric interactions. Neuroimage 2003; 20:2259-2270. [PDF]
79. Gaab N, Schlaug G. The Effect of musicianship on pitch memory in performance matched groups. Neuroimage 2003;14:2291-2295. [PDF]
80. Gaser C, Schlaug G. Brain structures differ between musicians and non-musicians. J. Neuroscience 2003; 23:9240-9245. [PDF]
81. Kobayashi M, Hutchinson S, Theoret H, Schlaug G, Pascual-Leone A. Repetitive TMS of the motor cortex improves ipsilateral sequential simple finger movements. Neurology 2004;62:91-99. [PDF]
84. Gaab N, Paetzold M, Becker M, Walker MP, Schlaug G. The influence of sleep on auditory learning – a behavioral study. Neuroreport 2004;15:731-734. [PDF]
85. Hamilton R, Pascual-Leone A, Schlaug G. Absolute Pitch in Blind Musicians. Neuroreport 2004;15:803-806. [PDF]
86. Luders E, Gaser C, Jancke L, Schlaug G. A voxel-based approach to gray-matter asymmetries. Neuroimage 2004;22:656-664. [PDF]
87. Norton A, Winner E, Cronin K, Overy K, Lee DJ, Schlaug G. Are there pre-existing neural, cognitive, or motoric markers for musical ability? Brain Cogn 2005;59:124-134. [PDF]
88. Overy K, Norton A, Cronin K, Gaab N, Alsop D, Schlaug G. Imaging melody and rhythm processing in young children. Neuroreport 15:1723-1726. [PDF]
89. Koelsch S, Fritz T, Schulze K, Alsop D, Schlaug G. Adults and children processing music: an fMRI study. Neuroimage 2005;25:1068-1076. [PDF]
90. Selim M, Savitz S, Gomes J, Linfante I, Caplan L, Finley A, Schlaug G. Effect of pre-stroke use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors on ischemic stroke severity. BMC Neurol 2005; Jun 10:5:10. [PDF]
91. Alsop DC, Makovetskaya E, Kumar S, Selim M, Schlaug G. Markedly reduced apparent blood volume on bolus contrast MRI as a predictor of hemorrhage following thrombolytic therpy for acute ischemic stroke. Stroke 2005;36:746-750.[PDF]
92. Walker, M, Stickgold R, Alsop D, Gaab N, Schlaug G. Sleep-dependent motor memory plasticity in the human brain. Neuroscience 2005;133:911-917. [PDF]
94. Savitz I, Schlaug G, Caplan L, Selim M. Arterial occlusive lesions recanalize more frequently in women than in men after intravenous tissue plasminogen activator administration for acute stroke. Stroke 2005;36:1447-1451. [PDF]
95. Schlaug G, Norton A, Overy K, Winner E. Effects of music training on brain and cognitive development. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2005;1060:219-230. [PDF]
96. Overy K, Norton A, Cronin K, Winner E, Schlaug G. Examining rhythm and melody processing in young children using fMRI. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2005;1060:210-218. [PDF]
95. Lahav A, Boulanger A, Schlaug G, Saltzman E. The power of listening. Auditory-motor interactions in musical training. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2005;1060:189-194. [PDF]
101. Gaab N, Gaser C, Schlaug G. Improvement-related functional plasticity following pitch memory training. Neuroimage 2006, in press. [PDF]
102. Duhamel G, Schlaug G, Alsop DC. Measurement of arterial input functions for dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI using echoplanar images: comparison of physical simulations with in-vivo results. Magn Reson Med 2006; 55:514-523.[PDF]
103. Vines BW, Nair DG, Schlaug G. Contralateral and ipsilateral transcranial direct current stimulation. Neuroreport 2006;17:671-674. [PDF]
104. Vines BW, Schnider NM, Schlaug G. Testing for causality with tDCS: pitch memory and the let supramarginal gyrus. Neuroreport 2006;17:1047-1050. [PDF]
dear sir/madam:
please send me newsletter and take me as a membre of your group.
thank you
Scincerely yourse
Yaghoub Nazaralian