There is a dark side to the increasing specialization and prolonged training of modern musicians, namely loss of control and degradation of skilled hand movements, a disorder referred to as musicians’ cramp or focal dystonia. Neuroimaging studies point to dysfunctional (or maladaptive) neuroplasticity as its cause.
I will present new data on functional plasticity in musicians. It seems that early training leads to clearly more efficient networks as compared to late start of training. With respect to Musician’s dystonia, there are different categories of motor disturbances either linked to psychological traits, or to basal ganglia dysfunction. I will present a model accounting for our findings concerning the triggering factors of musician’s dystonia.