Abstract
Music can affect the functional activities and morphological basis of internal brain nerves. In contrast to the functional activity of brain, the characteristics of structural brain morphometry between musicians and nonmusicians are often overlooked, which also limits the practical use of music’s emotional, cognitive and motor functions. By comparing the differences of structural morphometry between sixteen musicians and seventeen nonmusicians, significant differences were found in cortical thickness, fractal dimensionality, gyrification, and sulcal depth. Compared with nonmusicians, musicians showed greater cortical thickness advantages in the left superior frontal gyrus and the right central parietal region, and showed structural advantages in fractal dimensionality and sulcal depth in the left fusiform gyrus and the right central region. In contrast, nonmusicians had more prominent gyrification in the bilateral insula, right superior parietal lobule, and right supramarginal gyrus than musicians. More importance, the interactive effects between gender and cortical thickness, fractal dimensionality, gyrification, and sulcal depth were significant in limbic system (the hippocampus, cingulate gyrus, insula gyrus, fusiform, and precuneus). In conclusion, the differences of frontal area, limbic system, and sensorimotor areas of structural brain morphometry between musicians and nonmusicians provide straight evidence of brain structure for brain function of music, and also provides guidance for improving the mental health and neuroplasticity of music.