Grant: Operating Grant

The brain is the source of all behavior, but in turn is modified anatomically and physiologically by the behaviors it produces. In the planned research, we propose to understand the relationships between anatomical brain structure and behavior in the context of learning. Musical production and perception provide a particularly good model system to understand these interactions because they involve complex yet highly determined movements that produce organized sequences of sound. We will study the relation between brain structure and the ability to learn these auditory-motor processes by considering three major influences on that relationship: the effects of explicit training, the developmental stage at which the training takes place, and the influence of individual differences in pre-existing anatomical features on the behaviors of interest. The significance of this work lies in its contribution to understanding the interplay between neural structure and function in the context of learning. Our focus here is on the basic science behind these relationships; but understanding the anatomical substrates that may enhance or limit learning has potential implications for everything from pedagogy to rehabilitation.