Evidence for training-induced crossmodal reorganization of cortical functions in trumpet players

The aim of this study was to compare multimodal information processing in the somatosensory and auditory cortices and related multimodal areas in musicians (trumpet players) and non-musicians. Magnetoencephalographic activity (MEG) was recorded in response to five stimulus conditions from 10 professional trumpet players and nine musically untrained control subjects. Somatosensory and auditory stimuli were presented alone or in combination. Our data suggest that musicians, in general, process multisensory stimuli differently to the control group. When stimulating the lip in professional trumpet players, a multimodal interaction (expressed as difference between the multimodal response and the sum of unimodal responses) in the corresponding somatosensory cortex showed a positive peak at 33 ms, which was not found in the control group. Conversely, the control group shows a significant interaction of opposite polarity around 60-80 ms. We suggest that training-induced reorganization in musicians leads to a qualitatively different way to process multisensory information. It favors an early stage of cortical processing, which is modified by the connections between multimodal and auditory neurons from thalamus to primary somatosensory area.