Brain changes following four weeks of unimanual motor training: Evidence from fMRI‐guided diffusion MRI tractography

Diffusion tensor MRI tractography reveals increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in arcuate fasciculus following music-cued motor training

Auditory cues are frequently used to support movement learning and rehabilitation, but the neural basis of this behavioural effect is not yet clear. We investigated the microstructural neuroplasticity effects of adding musical cues to a motor learning task. We hypothesised that music-cued, left-handed motor training would increase fractional anisotropy (FA) in the contralateral arcuate fascicul...

Evidence for Brain White Matter Damage and Atrophy With Aging: A Diffusion Tensor MRI Tractography Study

Introduction. Diffusion tensor (DT) MRI allows to obtain indices of white matter (WM) integrity. A method to obtain estimates of WM fiber bundle volumes using DT MRI has also been developed [1]. Investigating the relationship between simultaneous age effects on different diffusivity parameters could provide more insight into the mechanisms of WM aging [2]. In this study, we investigate linear a...

Can Musical Training Influence Brain Connectivity? Evidence from Diffusion Tensor MRI

In recent years, musicians have been increasingly recruited to investigate grey and white matter neuroplasticity induced by skill acquisition. The development of Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DT-MRI) has allowed more detailed investigation of white matter connections within the brain, addressing questions about the effect of musical training on connectivity between specific brain...

Anatomical accuracy of brain connections derived from diffusion MRI tractography is inherently limited.

Tractography based on diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) is widely used for mapping the structural connections of the human brain. Its accuracy is known to be limited by technical factors affecting in vivo data acquisition, such as noise, artifacts, and data undersampling resulting from scan time constraints. It generally is assumed that improvements in data quality and implementation of sophisticate...

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