Training the brain's hand representation

Playing Technique
#1

I can play things I couldn’t a year ago, but it isn’t primarily because I understand more and know better. I think it’s due in large part because my brain’s representation of my right hand has increased in fidelity. I can feel nuances today that I couldn’t a year ago, and I have better fine motor control.

If you’d put me into an fMRI a year ago and again today you’d see a larger area of the brain light up, because the brain has created a higher fidelity model representing my right hand. That this is happening is well-known after putting professional athletes and musicians through an fMRI and comparing the brain scans with those of novices.

So here’s the question: If we theorize that the representation of your hand, in your brain, needs to reach a certain level of fidelity before you can perform certain complex movements, are there more efficient ways of increasing the fidelity of said model than playing the guitar?

#2

That’s an interesting concept regarding a larger portion of the brain lighting up now than a year ago on an fMRI. I’m curious, what is your background regarding knowledge of fMRIs. improvement of motor control, etc? I don’t have any kind of medical background aside from having read a fair amount on exercise physiology, so its hard for me to make any definitive comments regarding your idea.

From what I have read, the concept of specificity states that the best way to get better at doing something is to do that particular thing. Aside from that, the more closely related an exercise is to what you’re trying to get better at, the more carry over value it will have. For example, it’s more beneficial for a basketball player to exercise by running rather than riding a bike. Why? because when he’s playing a game, he’s running - not riding bike. My high school gym teacher taught me that.

To me it sounds like you’re saying your coordination has improved over the last year from practicing guitar. Are you asking if there’s a better way to improve coordination that relates to guitar playing more effectively than actually practicing the guitar?

BTW, what’s the difference between an MRI and an fMRI?

Have there been studies of the same person done chronologically over a period of years to see how much more of the brain lights up under an fMRI after one year of practice compared to after two years or three years of practice? I’d tend to think that would be more valuable than comparing the fMRI scan of a professional musician to that of a novice because you don’t know how much of the difference you see between the two people is because of the practice they’ve done and how much of the difference is simply genetic.