Lecture 16

Question 1

true or false - the tendancy to practice is heritable

Answer 1

true

Question 2

how did monozygotic twins supported a causal role for practice

Answer 2

those who practiced more showed differences of the same nature -> greater cortical thickness in auditory and motor regions and white matter enhancements in corpus callosum

Question 3

which confounding variables did Steele et al. take into account when comparing the early and late musical training groups

Answer 3

years of musical experience, formal training, hours of current practice and cognitive measures

Question 4

in the study investigating the differences between early and late musical training conditions what was the dependent variable

Answer 4

musical skills such as rhythm reproduction, melody, etc…

Question 5

in the study investigating the differences between early and late musical training conditions (done by Steele et al.), what were the 2 measures of performance

Answer 5

percentage correct and percentage synchronization

Question 6

what were the three results of the in the study investigating the differences between early and late musical training conditions

Answer 6

early musical training musicians
1. large increases in prefrontal cortex volume
2. enhanced white matter in corpus callosum
3. better rhythm reproduction

Question 7

bailey and penhune predicted that early training has its effects when they start (at what age)

Answer 7

between 7 and 9

Question 8

peak enhancements in _____ and _____ in individuals who begin musical training between 6 and 8

Answer 8

motor regions and corpus callosum

Question 9

true or false - the variability found in the development of the corpus callosum is related to genetics

Answer 9

false - it is more related to environmental factors than genetics

Question 10

what did steele et a;. hypothesize about brain plasticity

Answer 10

peak maturational change in motor regions and corpus callosum -> enhance brain plasticity -> scaffold effect -> early training promotes brain plasticity that can be enhanced later on

Question 11

explain the metaplastic effect in relation to cortisol and stress

Answer 11

stress -> cortisol -> reduce ability of hippocampus to modulate synaptic activity through long term potentiation -> impair the ability of the hippocampus to form new memories

Question 12

there was a contradiction to the results of early trained musicians compared to late trainers, what was this

Answer 12

Baer et al. reported that the volume of the cerebellum was smaller in early trainers than late

Question 13

what is the explanation for the contradiction about the cerebellum in early trained musicians

Answer 13

-> might relate to how the cerebellum develops
-> peak growth only occurs ages 12-18, so much later
-> effects of training cerebllum might be very different than other structures

Question 14

true or false - the cerebellum is known to be homogeneous

Answer 14

true

Question 15

what does the cerebellum being homogeneous mean for the rest of the circuits

Answer 15

all circuits might play a similar role for error correction and performance monitoring, no matter the type of taskw

Question 16

why is the cortex different than the cerebellum, explain using an example

Answer 16

in the cortex it is heterogeneous -> need separate regions to process input from different fingers so not one region is responsible for multiple tasks

Question 17

what are the 3 reasons as two why music has strong effects on plasticity

Answer 17

1. practice
2. multi sensory
3. reward