Corpus callosum: musician and gender effects

Dennis J. Lee,1,2 Yi Chen1 and Gottfried Schlaug1

Previously we found that musicians have signi¢cantly larger anterior
corpus callosum(CC). In the current study,we intended to replicate
and extend our previous results using a new and larger
sample of gender-matched subjects (56 right-handed professional
musicians and 56 age- and handedness-matched controls). We
found a signi¢cant gender musicianship interaction for anterior
and posterior CC size; male musicians had a larger anterior CC
than non-musicians, while females did not show a signi¢cant e¡ect
of musicianship. The lack of a signi¢cant e¡ect in females may be
due to a tendency for a more symmetric brain organization and a
disproportionately high representation of absolute pitch (AP) musicians
among females. Although a direct causal e¡ect between
musicianship and alterations in the midsagittal CC size cannot be
established, it is likely that the early commencement and continuous
practice of bimanualmotor training serves as an external trigger
that can in£uence midsagittal CC size through changes in the
actual callosal ¢ber composition andin the degree ofmyelinization,
which will have implications for interhemispheric connectivity.
NeuroReport14:205^209 c 2003 LippincottWilliams &Wilkins.
Key words: Absolute pitch; Corpus callosum; Gender; Laterality; Magnetic resonance imaging; Motor skills; Music; Plasticity

http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~mgorman/lee.pdf