Chapter 8 - Training-induced cognitive and neural changes in musicians: implications for healthy aging

Abstract

Mounting evidence supports training-induced brain changes from extended musical practice that can translate into cognitive and neural reserve in advanced age with potential to reduce cognitive decline. We will review current evidence supporting structural and functional changes from music training in the neural networks common to music, skilled movements, and auditory processing. The literature comparing professional and amateur musicians with nonmusicians will be considered in terms of innate and training-induced changes with potential to enhance cognitive and neural functions. The impact of instrumental musical practice on general cognition will be discussed with respect to neural network changes stimulated by task-specific cognitive enrichment. There will be a primary focus on how the timing of musical engagement and the years of musical activity influence cognitive and neural reserve. This theoretical framework will be considered in the context of modifiable lifestyle factors that delay expression of brain pathology. Models of environmental enrichment that can enhance neuroplasticity through multisensory stimulation are critical for development of compensatory neural networks that allow for adaptation of age-related cognitive declines.