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Eckart Altenmüller

Publications and source records attributed to Eckart Altenmüller.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Classical conditioned responses to absent tones.

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence for a tight coupling of sensorimotor processes in trained musicians led to the question of whether this coupling extends to preattentively mediated reflexes; particularly, whether a classically conditioned response in one of the domains (auditory) is generalized to another (tactile/motor) on the basis of a prior association in a second-order Pavlovian paradigm. An eyeblink conditioning procedure was performed in 17 pianists, serving as a model for overlearned audiomotor integration, and 14 non-musicians. RESULTS: During the training session, subjects were conditioned to respond to auditory stimuli (piano tones). During a subsequent testing session, when subjects performed keystrokes on a silent piano, pianists showed significantly higher blink rates than non-musicians. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest a tight coupling of the auditory and motor domains in musicians, pointing towards training-dependent mechanisms of strong cross-modal sensorimotor associations even on sub-cognitive processing levels.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Combined perception of emotion in pictures and musical sounds.

Evaluation of emotional scenes requires integration of information from different modality channels, most frequently from audition and vision. Neither the psychological nor neural basis of auditory-visual interactions during the processing of affect is well understood. In this study, possible interactions in affective processing were investigated via event-related potential (ERP) recordings during simultaneous presentation of affective pictures (from IAPS) and affectively sung notes that either matched or mismatched each other in valence. To examine the role of attention in multisensory affect-integration ERPs were recorded in two different rating tasks (voice affect rating, picture affect rating) as participants evaluated the affect communicated in one of the modalities, while that in the other modality was ignored. Both the behavioral and ERP data revealed some, although non-identical, patterns of cross-modal influences; modulation of the ERP-component P2 suggested a relatively early integration of affective information in the attended picture condition, though only for happy picture-voice pairs. In addition, congruent pairing of sad pictures and sad voice stimuli affected the late positive potential (LPP). Responses in the voice affect rating task were overall more likely to be modulated by the concomitant picture's affective valence than vice versa.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Shared networks for auditory and motor processing in professional pianists: evidence from fMRI conjunction.

To investigate cortical auditory and motor coupling in professional musicians, we compared the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity of seven pianists to seven non-musicians utilizing a passive task paradigm established in a previous learning study. The tasks involved either passively listening to short piano melodies or pressing keys on a mute MRI-compliant piano keyboard. Both groups were matched with respect to age and gender, and did not exhibit any overt performance differences in the keypressing task. The professional pianists showed increased activity compared to the non-musicians in a distributed cortical network during both the acoustic and the mute motion-related task. A conjunction analysis revealed a distinct musicianship-specific network being co-activated during either task type, indicating areas involved in auditory-sensorimotor integration. This network is comprised of dorsolateral and inferior frontal cortex (including Broca's area), the superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke's area), the supramarginal gyrus, and supplementary motor and premotor areas.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Botulinum toxin injections in the treatment of musician's dystonia.

The authors present the results of 84 musicians with focal task-specific dystonia treated with EMG-guided botulinum toxin injections. Treatment outcome was assessed by subjective estimation of playing before and after treatment and self-rating of treatment response. Fifty-eight (69%) of the musicians experienced improvement from the injections and 30 of 84 musicians (36%) reported long-term benefit in their performance ability.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Focal dystonia in musicians: treatment strategies and long-term outcome in 144 patients.

We present the long-term outcome of 144 musicians with focal dystonia after treatment with botulinum toxin (n = 71), trihexiphenidyl (n = 69), pedagogical retraining (n = 24), ergonomic changes (n = 51), or nonspecific exercises on the instrument (n = 78). Outcome was assessed by patients' subjective rating of cumulative treatment response and response to individual therapies. Seventy-seven patients (54%) reported an alleviation of symptoms: 33% of the patients with trihexiphenidyl, 49% with botulinum toxin, 50% with pedagogical retraining, 56% with unmonitored technical exercises, and 63% with ergonomic changes.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Enhanced P1-N1 auditory evoked potential in patients with musicians' cramp.

Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were examined in patients with musician's cramp (focal dystonia) in order to determine whether these patients have electrophysiological changes in a sensory system that is not usually associated with symptoms. All participants were professional guitarists and were required to listen to 2,000 monaurally presented stimuli (middle C, with duration of 7 ms). During one block, 250 stimuli were presented to one ear. Once a block was finished, another block was presented in the other ear; in total there were eight blocks of stimuli. During this task, EEGs from 10 scalp electrodes and one bipolar eye channel were continuously recorded. There were no significant latency or topographical differences in the electrophysiological recordings. However, there was a significant group difference in the peak-to-peak amplitude of the P1-N1a component. The patients had a larger peak-to-peak difference than controls (1.63 vs. 0.62 microV). The P1 and N1a are cortically generated potentials. Patients with focal dystonia had an increase in activity compared to controls when processing simple auditory stimuli. Such changes in electrophysiological responses may be a result of increases in excitation or lack of inhibition; alternatively the changes may represent cross-modal maladaptive plasticity from the somatosensory modality to the auditory modality. Thus, this study provides further evidence that patients with focal dystonia have alterations of the central nervous system that are not limited to their symptomatic sensory domain.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2004

Sensory mapping of lip representation in brass musicians with embouchure dystonia.

Embouchure dystonia is a focal task-specific disorder involving abnormal non-coordinated movements and involuntary muscle contraction around the mouth. In professional brass players it is often so disabling that patients have to limit or give up their occupation. We examined the somatosensory homuncular representation and measured gap detection sensitivity of the lips in eight former professional musicians affected by embouchure dystonia and eight control subjects. Relative to controls, the patients' digit, and especially the thumb, representations were shifted in a lateral direction towards the lip representational zone. Patients' upper lips showed decreased sensitivity compared to their lower lips (p < 0.01). This asymmetry result was absent in controls. Abnormal somatosensory reorganization may contribute to the disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Reduced recruitment of motor association areas during bimanual coordination in concert pianists.

Bimanual motor coordination is essential for piano playing. The functional neuronal substrate for high-level bimanual performance achieved by professional pianists is unclear. We compared professional pianists to musically naïve controls while carrying out in-phase (mirror) and anti-phase (parallel) bimanual sequential finger movements during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This task corresponds to bimanually playing scales practiced daily by pianists from the beginning of piano playing. Musicians and controls showed significantly different functional activation patterns. When comparing performance of parallel movements to rest, musically naïve controls showed stronger activations than did pianists within a network including anterior cingulate cortex, right dorsal premotor cortex, both cerebellar hemispheres, and right basal ganglia. The direct comparison of bimanual parallel to mirror movements between both groups revealed stronger signal increases in controls within mesial premotor cortex (SMA), bilateral cerebellar hemispheres and vermis, bilateral prefrontal cortex, left ventral premotor cortex, right anterior insula, and right basal ganglia. These findings suggest increased efficiency of cortical and subcortical systems for bimanual movement control in musicians. This may be fundamental to achieve high-level motor skills allowing the musician to focus on artistic aspects of musical performance.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Quantification of focal dystonia in pianists using scale analysis.

Focal dystonia in pianists is a task-specific movement disorder that causes loss of pianistic skills and provokes irregularities in playing. So far, no method has been available for objective quantification of the disorder. Eight professional pianists with focal dystonia and eight healthy professional pianists matched by age, gender, and handedness were examined, using a newly developed MIDI-based Scale Analysis as well as the Arm Dystonia Disability Scale (ADDS). Key velocities and timing parameters were analyzed. In 5 pianists with dystonia, follow-up examinations were carried out after treatment with botulinum toxin-A. In affected hands, significantly higher mean standard deviations of timing parameters were seen compared with healthy reference hands. After treatment with botulinum toxin-A, significant improvements in performance parameters were monitored by Scale Analysis. Mean standard deviations of inter-onset intervals correlated with ADDS scores. We conclude that Scale Analysis is an effective and precise tool for quantification of focal dystonia in pianists and provides fine resolution. It is independent of rating methods and allows reliable follow-up examinations during treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Anxiety in musicians with focal dystonia and those with chronic pain.

Psychological conditions were studied in 20 musicians with focal dystonia and compared with 20 musicians with chronic pain and 30 healthy musicians using the Freiburg Personality Inventory and the Questionnaire for Competence and Control Orientations. Additional questionnaires focused on perfectionism and anxiety particularly with regard to the dynamics of these psychological features. Musicians with focal dystonia and those with chronic pain more often displayed anxiety than controls. In both patient groups, anxiety was present before onset of the playing-related disorder. Dystonic musicians additionally showed higher levels of perfectionism than controls, which was not observed in musicians with chronic pain.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Changes in emotional tone and instrumental timbre are reflected by the mismatch negativity.

The present study examined whether or not the brain is capable to preattentively discriminate tones differing in emotional expression or instrumental timbre. In two event-related potential (ERP) experiments single tones (600 ms) were presented which had been rated as happy or sad in a pretest. In experiment 1, 12 non-musicians passively listened to tone series comprising a frequent (standard) single musical tone played by a violin in a certain pitch and with a certain emotional connotation (happy or sad). Among these standard tones deviant tones differing in emotional valence, either in instrumental timbre or in pitch were presented. All deviants generated mismatch negativity (MMN) responses. The MMN scalp topography was similar for all of the three deviants but latency was shorter for pitch deviants than for the other two conditions. The topography of the mismatch responses was indistinguishable. In a second experiment, subjects actively detected the deviant tones by button press. All detected deviants generated P3b waves at parietal leads. These results indicate that the brain is not only able to use simple physical differences such as pitch for rapid preattentive categorization but can also perform similar operations on the basis of more complex differences between tones of the same pitch such as instrumental timbre and the subtle timbral differences associated with different emotional expression. This rapid categorization may serve as a basis for the further fine-grained analysis of musical (and other) sounds with regard to their emotional content.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2004

Superior tactile performance and learning in professional pianists: evidence for meta-plasticity in musicians.

Musician's brains constitute an interesting model for neuroplasticity. Imaging studies demonstrated that sensorimotor cortical representations are altered in musicians, which was assumed to arise from the development of skilled performance. However, the perceptual consequences of the cortical changes remain elusive. Here we ask whether cortical reorganization induced by professional musical skill training is paralleled by the evolution of other, unrelated perceptual abilities. We therefore studied psychophysically tactile spatial acuity as an indirect marker of cortical changes in professional pianists and non-musician control subjects using a simultaneous two-point discrimination paradigm. We show that long-lasting piano practising resulted in lower spatial discrimination thresholds in comparison to non-musicians. In musicians, individual discrimination thresholds were linearly correlated with the daily training duration, indicating a direct link between tactile acuity and the degree of piano practising. To investigate whether the superior acuity in pianists is subject to further improvement, we used a Hebbian stimulation protocol of tactile coactivation known to improve spatial tactile acuity. Three hours of coactivation further reduced their discrimination thresholds. The coactivation-induced gain in pianists was significantly larger in comparison to control subjects and correlated with the years of heavy daily practising (>3 h/day), but not with the total years including casual playing. Our results suggest that despite already high-level performance in pianists, Hebbian learning was more effective in musicians than in controls. This implies stronger capacities for plastic reorganization and points to enhanced learning abilities implicating a form of meta-plasticity in professional pianists.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Abnormal sensorimotor processing in pianists with focal dystonia.

Focal dystonia is a task-specific sensorimotor disorder that is characterized by sustained muscle contractions, which may cause twisting, repetitive movements, or abnormal postures. In the current study, the contingent negative variation was recorded in a group of professional pianists with focal dystonia (musicians' cramp) and compared to pianist controls. The CNV is composed of an early stimulus processing component and a later response preparation component. The CNV can be elicited in tasks that require movement and nonmovement. A subtractive analysis with a nonmovement condition was used to minimize effects of the CNV not related to response preparation. The current results revealed no group differences for the early CNV (processing of stimulus properties). In contrast, a significant group difference was found in the late CNV (movement preparation) between patients and controls, with the patients showing significantly higher activation prior to movement. The current study demonstrates an increase in overall sensorimotor activity prior to movement in patients with musicians' cramp. This overexcitation of the cortex may be the result of a dysfunction in the globus pallidus, resulting in a lack of inhibition and/or an increase in excitation.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Perceptual differences in sequential stimuli across patients with musician's and writer's cramp.

Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between the regularity of motor production and the ability to make accurate perceptual judgments. The current study investigated the temporal abilities of two groups of patients with known movement problems (musicians' and writers' cramp), some of whom have had many years of training in temporal discrimination. Patients and controls (musician and nonmusician, respectively) judged whether the last of six sequential auditory or tactile stimuli occurred earlier or later in comparison to five previously and regularly presented stimuli. In both sensory domains, patients with musicians' cramp detected the early stimulus better than controls. When detecting the onset of late stimuli, only in the auditory domain were patients worse than controls. Patients with writers' cramp, however, did not show any significant group differences in either auditory or tactile domains, suggesting that such patients are not deficient in processing sequential stimuli. In conclusion, compared to controls, patients with musician's cramp demonstrated generalized timing anomalies, occurring in the symptomatic (tactile) and the asymptomatic (auditory) sensory domains. This timing problem is likely to be a consequence of the dystonic symptoms rather than the cause.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Focal dystonia: advances in brain imaging and understanding of fine motor control in musicians.

This article reviews the neuroanatomic and neurophysiologic foundations of music performance and learning. Music performance is regarded as complex voluntary sensorimotor behavior that becomes automated during extensive practice with auditory feedback. It involves all motor, somatosensory, and auditory areas of the brain. Because of the life-long plasticity of neuronal connections, practicing a musical instrument results first in a temporary and later in a stable increase in the amount of nerve tissue devoted to various component tasks. Motor and somatosensory brain regions corresponding to specific subtasks of music performance are larger in musicians starting younger than age 10 years than in the general population. In rare cases, overuse of movement patterns may induce a degradation of motor memory that results in a loss of voluntary control of movements, called musician's cramp. Specific therapeutic options for this condition are reviewed.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗