Abstract
Executive functions (EF) are cognitive capacities that allow for planned, controlled behavior and strongly correlate with academic abilities. Several extracurricular activities have been shown to improve EF, however, the relationship between musical training and EF remains unclear due to methodological limitations in previous studies. To explore this further, two experiments were performed; one with 30 adults with and without musical training and one with 27 musically trained and untrained children (matched for general cognitive abilities and socioeconomic variables) with a standardized EF battery. Furthermore, the neural correlates of EF skills in musically trained and untrained children were investigated using fMRI. Adult musicians compared to non-musicians showed enhanced performance on measures of cognitive flexibility, working memory, and verbal fluency. Musically trained children showed enhanced performance on measures of verbal fluency and processing speed, and significantly greater activation in pre-SMA/SMA and right VLPFC during rule representation and task-switching compared to musically untrained children. Overall, musicians show enhanced performance on several constructs of EF, and musically trained children further show heightened brain activation in traditional EF regions during task-switching. These results support the working hypothesis that musical training may promote the development and maintenance of certain EF skills, which could mediate the previously reported links between musical training and enhanced cognitive skills and academic achievement.
Highlights
Executive functions (EF) encompass a number of cognitive processes that allow for independent and self-regulated behavior [1]
Functional neuroimaging and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation studies have demonstrated the reliance of taskswitching, or cognitive flexibility, on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and parietal areas [5,6], the ventrolateral PFC [7,8,9] and the middle/medial prefrontal cortex, which encompasses the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the pre-supplementary area [10,11,12,13]
No significant differences in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) or superior parietal Region of Interest (ROI) were found between musically trained and untrained children for this contrast
Summary
Executive functions (EF) encompass a number of cognitive processes that allow for independent and self-regulated behavior [1]. These cognitive constructs include inhibition, problem solving, goal-directed behavior, and maintenance of information in working memory [1,2]. Some EF constructs, such as working memory and processing speed, develop in a somewhat linear trend until early adolescence [21,22,23,24,25,26], while others (such as rule representation and task-switching) have been suggested to follow a more specific developmental trajectory into adolescence, with increasing achievement in rule representation starting only at roughly six years of age and difficulty switching between task sets until above age nine [27,28,29]. Substantial evidence indicates that constructs of EF, such as cognitive flexibility and working memory, begin to develop in childhood and continue through adolescence
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