An equal start: absence of group differences in cognitive, social, and neural measures prior to music or sports training in children.

Bronte Ficek,David W. Shattuck,Michael Metke,Jonas T. Kaplan,Beatriz Ilari,Antonio Damasio,So Y. Choi,Assal Habibi,Richard M. Leahy,Anand A. Joshi,Justin P. Haldar,Hanna Damasio,Kevin Crimi

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00690

Abstract

Several studies comparing adult musicians and non-musicians have provided compelling evidence for functional and anatomical differences in the brain systems engaged by musical training. It is not known, however, whether those differences result from long-term musical training or from pre-existing traits favoring musicality. In an attempt to begin addressing this question, we have launched a longitudinal investigation of the effects of childhood music training on cognitive, social and neural development. We compared a group of 6- to 7-year old children at the start of intense after-school musical training, with two groups of children: one involved in high intensity sports training but not musical training, another not involved in any systematic training. All children were tested with a comprehensive battery of cognitive, motor, musical, emotional, and social assessments and underwent magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography. Our first objective was to determine whether children who participate in musical training were different, prior to training, from children in the control groups in terms of cognitive, motor, musical, emotional, and social behavior measures as well as in structural and functional brain measures. Our second objective was to determine whether musical skills, as measured by a music perception assessment prior to training, correlates with emotional and social outcome measures that have been shown to be associated with musical training. We found no neural, cognitive, motor, emotional, or social differences among the three groups. In addition, there was no correlation between music perception skills and any of the social or emotional measures. These results provide a baseline for an ongoing longitudinal investigation of the effects of music training.

Highlights

Observing a young child in a choir, singing a melody with perfect pitch, or another at a recital translating musical notations into precisely timed finger movements on a small violin, it is natural to wonder whether traits that might precede training favor musical abilities and even motivate children to pursue music training instead of other activities
We aimed to examine whether musical abilities as measured by a music perception assessment correlate with emotional and social benefits that have been previously associated with music training in adulthood
The immediate objective of the study was to determine if children beginning music training were different from children of the same age beginning sports training, or not involved in any formal training program

Summary

Introduction

Observing a young child in a choir, singing a melody with perfect pitch, or another at a recital translating musical notations into precisely timed finger movements on a small violin, it is natural to wonder whether traits that might precede training favor musical abilities and even motivate children to pursue music training instead of other activities. Playing music is a complex task that of necessity engages many different brain regions because it requires the concurrent recruitment of distinct sensory systems, including the auditory, somatosensory, and visual, as well as the interplay of these sensory systems with the motor, executive and affective systems. The mastering of this rich and demanding process requires regular and intense practice, and it involves coordinating both hands, and communicating emotionally with other players and listeners. As one might expect, has been found to be positively associated with superior performance on a variety of auditory tasks including frequency discrimination (Schellenberg and Moreno, 2010), perception of pitch in speech (Schön et al, 2004; Wong et al, 2007), detection of minor changes of pitch in familiar (Schellenberg and Moreno, 2010) and unfamiliar melodies (Habibi et al, 2013), identification of a familiar melody when it is played at a fast or slow tempo

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Results

Conclusion