Does Playing an Instrument Affect Cortical Excitability? A Study in Healthy Musicians

A BSTRACT Introduction: Musicians are an excellent example of people executing the perfect intended movements. Timing, sequencing, and precision are essential for purposeful actions. While playing an instrument, musicians must make motor adjustments to perform flawless music. These motor adjustments are made through auditory, tactile, and proprioceptive feedback. This study sought to investigate the cortical excitability and sensory-motor interaction in healthy professional musicians utilizing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Subjects and Methods: Fifteen healthy professional musicians and equal number of age and sex-matched control volunteers participated in this study. Motor thresholds (at both 200 μV and 1 mV), short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) (within interstimulus intervals of 1–7 ms), and short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI) (within interstimulus intervals of 16–24 ms) were recorded in the dominant and nondominant flexor carpi ulnaris muscles. Results: Analysis revealed no significant differences in RMT, SICI, or SAI between healthy musicians and controls across both dominant and nondominant sides. Conclusion: Motor cortex excitability and sensorimotor integration were comparable between healthy musicians and nonmusicians. TMS offers insights into motor system function, yet voluntary movement and TMS-induced motor responses engage different neurobiological pathways. Structural and functional alterations in the sensorimotor integration of healthy musicians may not be detectable through the SAI paradigm. Thus, TMS might not effectively detect alterations in cortical excitability or sensorimotor integration resulting from long-term instrument playing.