Increased Insular Connectivity and Enhanced Empathic Ability Associated with Dance/Music Training

• Published in: Journal of neural transplantation & plasticity 2019-01, Vol.2019 (2019), p.1-13
• Main Authors: Luo, Cheng, Yao, Dezhong, Lei, Yang, Jing, Lu, Guofeng, Ye, Yutong, Yao, Lirong, Zhang, Xin, Li, He, Hui, Gujing, Li, Shulin, Zhou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Brain; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Computational linguistics; Dancing - physiology; Dancing - psychology; Emotions; Empathy; Empathy - physiology; Female; Functional Neuroimaging; Humans; Language processing; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Modern dance; Music - psychology; Musical performances; Musicians & conductors; Natural language interfaces; Nerve Net - diagnostic imaging; Neurophysiology; Studies; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2090-5904; 0792-8483; 1687-5443
• DOI: 10.1155/2019/9693109

Dance and music are expressive art forms. Previous behavioural studies have reported that dancers/musicians show a better sensorimotor ability and emotional representation of others. However, the neural mechanism behind this phenomenon is not completely understood. Recently, intensive researches have identified that the insula is highly enrolled in the empathic process. Thus, to expand the knowledge of insular function associated with empathy under the dance/music training background, we mapped the insular network and its associated brain regions in 21 dancers, 20 musicians, and 24 healthy controls using resting-state functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Whole brain voxel-based analysis was performed using seeds from the posterior insula (PI), the ventral anterior insula (vAI), and the dorsal anterior insula (dAI). The training effects of dance and music on insular subnetworks were then evaluated using one-way analysis of variance ANOVA. Increased insular FC with those seeds was found in dancers/musicians, including PI and anterior cingulated cortex (ACC), vAI and middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and middle cingulated cortex (MCC), and dAI and ACC and MTG. In addition, significant associations were found between discrepant insular FC patterns and empathy scores in dancers and musicians. These results indicated that dance/music training might enhance insular subnetwork function, which would facilitate integration of intero/exteroceptive information and result in better affective sensitivity. Those changes might finally facilitate the subjects’ empathic ability.