To investigate plasticity of white matter tracts in expert dancers and pianists, we used diffusion spectrum imaging to measure generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) of 76 major white matter tracts. A novel metric called tract covariance was defined as the correlation between each pair of tracts in variations of the mean GFA values across subjects. As compared with control subjects, expert dancers showed overall enhancement of the tract covariance, whereas expert pianists showed enhancement specific to sensory-motor processing. The findings underline the different effects on white matter tract plasticity following different types of long-term training.
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