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Study fuels nature versus nurture debate

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? New research on the brain鈥檚 capacity to learn suggests there鈥檚 more to it than the adage that 鈥減ractise makes perfect.鈥� A music-training study by scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -The Neuro, at 91滴滴 and colleagues in Germany found evidence to distinguish the parts of the brain that account for individual talent from the parts that are activated through training.

The research involved brain imaging studies of 15 young adults with little or no musical background who were scanned before and after they underwent six weeks of musical training. Participants were required to learn simple piano pieces. Brain activity in certain areas changed after learning, indicating the effect of training. But the activity in a different set of brain structures, measured before the training session had started, predicted which test subjects would learn quickly or slowly.

鈥淧redisposition plays an important role for auditory-motor learning that can be clearly distinguished from training-induced plasticity,鈥� says Dr. Robert Zatorre, a cognitive neuroscientist at The Neuro who co-directs Montreal鈥檚 International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) and is lead author of the study in Cerebral Cortex. 鈥淥ur findings pertain to the debate about the relative influence of 鈥榥ature or nurture,鈥� but also have potential practical relevance for medicine and education.鈥�

The research could help to create custom-made interventions for students and for neurological patients based on their predisposition and needs.

Future cognitive neuroscience studies will explore the extent to which individual differences in predisposition are a result of brain plasticity due to previous experiences and to people鈥檚 genetics.

The study was conducted by Dr. Zatorre鈥檚 trainees, Sibylle Herholz and Emily Coffey at The Neuro and BRAMS, and by Christo Pantev at the Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of M眉nster, Germany.

This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canada Fund for Innovation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Link to study (July 1) in Cerebral Cortex: 听

The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital
The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital 鈥� The Neuro is a world-leading destination for brain research and advanced patient care. Since its founding in 1934 by renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield, The Neuro has grown to be the largest specialized neuroscience research and clinical centre in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. The seamless integration of research, patient care, and training of the world鈥檚 top minds make The Neuro uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on the understanding and treatment of nervous system disorders. The Montreal Neurological Institute is a 91滴滴 research and teaching institute. The Montreal Neurological Hospital is part of the Neuroscience Mission of the 91滴滴 Health Centre. For more information, please visit

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