Plasticity of the Superior and Middle Cerebellar Peduncles in Musicians Revealed by Quantitative Analysis of Volume and Number of Streamlines Based on Diffusion Tensor Tractography Ihssan A. Abdul-Kareem & Andrej Stancak & Laura M. Parkes & May Al-Ameen & Jamaan AlGhamdi & Faten M. Aldhafeeri & Karl Embleton & David Morris & Vanessa Sluming Published online: 19 April 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract This work was conducted to study the plasticity of superior (SCP) and middle (MCP) cerebellar peduncles in musicians. The cerebellum is well known to support several musically relevant motor, sensory and cognitive functions. Previous studies reported increased cerebellar volume and grey matter (GM) density in musicians. Here, we report on plasticity of white matter (WM) of the cerebellum. Our cohort included 10/10 gender and handedness-matched musicians and controls. Using diffu- sion tensor imaging, fibre tractography of SCP and MCP was performed. The fractional anisotropy (FA), number of streamlines and volume of streamlines of SCP/MCP were compared between groups. Automatic measurements of GM and WM volumes of the right/left cerebellar hemi- spheres were also compared. Musicians have significantly increased right SCP volume (p =0.02) and number of streamlines (p =0.001), right MCP volume (p =0.004) and total WM volume of the right cerebellum (p =0.003). There were no significant differences in right MCP number of streamlines, left SCP/MCP volume and number of stream- lines, SCP/MCP FA values, GM volume of the right cerebellum and GM/WM volumes of the left cerebellum. We propose that increased volume and number of streamlines of the right cerebellar peduncles represent use-dependent struc- tural adaptation to increased sensorimotor and cognitive functional demands on the musician’s cerebellum. Keywords Musicians . Superior/middle cerebellar peduncle . DTI Introduction The musician’s brain has excited the scientific community as it represents the ideal model to study neuroplasticity (for review, see [1]). Musicians contrast with subjects of other professions in two major aspects. First, they begin their training at an earlier age when many brain regions have not gained optimum maturity and hence are vulnerable to plastic changes imposed by a variety of sensorimotor stimuli [2]. Second, to master their profession, they must I. A. Abdul-Kareem : J. AlGhamdi : F. M. Aldhafeeri : V. Sluming Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK I. A. Abdul-Kareem (*) : A. Stancak : J. AlGhamdi : F. M. Aldhafeeri : V. Sluming Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre (MARIARC), University of Liverpool, Pembroke Place, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK e-mail: Ihssan.abdulkareem@liv.ac.uk A. Stancak School of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK L. M. Parkes : D. Morris Department of Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering, School of Cancer and Imaging Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK M. Al-Ameen Department of Human Anatomy, School of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK K. Embleton School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Cerebellum (2011) 10:611–623 DOI 10.1007/s12311-011-0274-1