Musical Training In Children Research Articles

A Pilot Study Examining the Effects of Music Training on Attention in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

Prior studies indicate differences in brain volume and neurophysiological responses of musicians relative to non-musicians. These differences are observed in the sensory, motor, parietal, and frontal cortex. Children with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) experience deficits in auditory, motor, and executive function domains. Therefore, we hypothesized that short-term music training in children with an FASD due to prenatal alcohol exposure may improve brain function. Children (N = 20) with an FASD were randomized to participate in either five weeks of piano training or to a control group. Selective attention was evaluated approximately seven weeks apart (pre-/post-music training or control intervention), examining longitudinal effects using the Attention Networks Test (ANT), a well-established paradigm designed to evaluate attention and inhibitory control, while recording EEG. There was a significant group by pre-/post-intervention interaction for the P250 ms peak of the event-related potential and for theta (4–7 Hz) power in the 100–300 ms time window in response to the congruent condition when the flanking stimuli were oriented congruently with the central target stimulus in fronto-central midline channels from Cz to Fz. A trend for improved reaction time at the second assessment was observed for the music trained group only. These results support the hypothesis that music training changes the neural indices of attention as assessed by the ANT in children with an FASD. This study should be extended to evaluate the effects of music training relative to a more closely matched active control and determine whether additional improvements emerge with longer term music training.

The relationship between early musical training and executive functions: Validation of effects of the sensitive period

Interest in the influence of musical training on executive functions (EFs) has been growing in recent years. However, the relationship between musical training and EFs remains unclear. By dividing EFs into inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, this study systematically examined its association with musical training in children, and further verified whether there was a sensitive period for the influence of music training on EFs. In Experiment 1, musically trained and untrained children were asked to complete the Go/No-go, Stroop, Continuous Performance, and Switching tasks. Results showed that musically trained children had an advantage in attention inhibition, response inhibition, and working memory, but not in cognitive flexibility. Moreover, the level of musical training was positively correlated with response inhibition and working memory abilities. In Experiment 2, results showed that early-trained musicians performed better on measures of attention inhibition, response inhibition, and working memory than did the age-matched control group, but late-trained musicians only performed better in attention inhibition. Thus, our findings suggest that music training is associated with enhanced EF abilities and provide the first evidence that early childhood is a sensitive period when musical training has a more powerful effect on the development of EFs.

Changes in auditory cortical thickness following music training in children: converging longitudinal and cross-sectional results.

Evidence is accumulating to suggest that music training is associated with structural brain differences in children and in adults. We used magnetic resonance imagining in two studies to investigate neuroanatomical correlates of music training in children. In study 1, we cross-sectionally compared a group of child musician (ages 9-11) matched to non-musicians and found that cortical thickness was greater in child musician in the posterior segment of the right-superior temporal gyrus (STG), an auditory association area that is involved in processing complex auditory stimuli, including pitch. We also found that thickness in the right posterior STG is related to music proficiency, however this relationship did not reach significance. In study 2, a longitudinal study, we investigated change in cortical thickness over a four-year period comparing a group of children involved in a systematic music training program with another group of children who did not have any music training. In this 2nd study we assessed both groups at the beginning of the study, prior to music training for the music group, and four years later. We found that children in the music group showed a strong trend of lower rate of cortical thinning in the right posterior superior temporal gyrus. Together, our results provide evidence that music training induces structural brain changes in school-age children and that these changes are predominantly pronounced in the right auditory association areas.

Increased engagement of the cognitive control network associated with music training in children during an fMRI Stroop task.

Playing a musical instrument engages various sensorimotor processes and draws on cognitive capacities collectively termed executive functions. However, while music training is believed to associated with enhancements in certain cognitive and language abilities, studies that have explored the specific relationship between music and executive function have yielded conflicting results. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study, we investigated the effects of music training on executive function using fMRI and several behavioral tasks, including the Color-Word Stroop task. Children involved in ongoing music training (N = 14, mean age = 8.67) were compared with two groups of comparable general cognitive abilities and socioeconomic status, one involved in sports (“sports” group, N = 13, mean age = 8.85) and another not involved in music or sports (“control” group, N = 17, mean age = 9.05). During the Color-Word Stroop task, children with music training showed significantly greater bilateral activation in the pre-SMA/SMA, ACC, IFG, and insula in trials that required cognitive control compared to the control group, despite no differences in performance on behavioral measures of executive function. No significant differences in brain activation or in task performance were found between the music and sports groups. The results suggest that systematic extracurricular training, particularly music-based training, is associated with changes in the cognitive control network in the brain even in the absence of changes in behavioral performance.

Lifetime benefits of musical training.

Lifetime benefits of musical training.

Active music classes in infancy enhance musical, communicative and social development

Previous studies suggest that musical training in children can positively affect various aspects of development. However, it remains unknown as to how early in development musical experience can have an effect, the nature of any such effects, and whether different types of music experience affect development differently. We found that random assignment to 6 months of active participatory musical experience beginning at 6 months of age accelerates acquisition of culture-specific knowledge of Western tonality in comparison to a similar amount of passive exposure to music. Furthermore, infants assigned to the active musical experience showed superior development of prelinguistic communicative gestures and social behaviour compared to infants assigned to the passive musical experience. These results indicate that (1) infants can engage in meaningful musical training when appropriate pedagogical approaches are used, (2) active musical participation in infancy enhances culture-specific musical acquisition, and (3) active musical participation in infancy impacts social and communication development.

Can you hear a difference? Neuronal correlates of melodic deviance processing in children

Many studies investigating music processing in adult musicians and nonmusicians point towards pronounced behavioral and neurophysiological differences between the two groups. Recent studies indicate that these differences can already be found in early childhood. Further, electro-encephalography studies using musical discrimination tasks have demonstrated that differences in music processing become more pronounced when explicitly rather than implicitly trained musical abilities are required. Exploring the functional neuroanatomy underlying the processing of different expectation violations in children and its association with musical training, we investigated neural responses to different melodic deviances in musically trained and untrained children. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, children (aged 11–14 years) were examined while comparing pairs of short melodies that were either identical or differed with respect to four notes. The implemented deviances were either subtle (by inserting plausible in-key notes) or obvious (by inserting implausible out-of-key notes). Our results indicate a strong association between musical training and functional neuroanatomy of the brain. Similar to research on music processing in adults, the processing of obvious melodic deviances activated a network involving inferior frontal, premotor and anterior insula regions in musically trained and untrained children. By contrast, subtle deviances led to activation in the inferior frontal and premotor cortex, the anterior insula, the superior temporal gyrus, and the supramarginal gyrus in musically trained children only. Our work provides further insights into the functional neuroanatomy of melody processing and its association with musical training in children, providing the basis for further studies specifying distinct musical processes (e.g. contour and interval processing).

Effects of Music Training on the Child's Brain and Cognitive Development

Research has revealed structural and functional differences in the brains of adult instrumental musicians compared to those of matched nonmusician controls, with intensity/duration of instrumental training and practice being important predictors of these differences. Nevertheless, the differential contributions of nature and nurture to these differences are not yet clear. The musician-nonmusician comparison is an ideal model for examining whether and, if so, where such functional and structural brain plasticity occurs, because musicians acquire and continuously practice a variety of complex motor, auditory, and multimodal skills (e.g., translating visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands while simultaneously monitoring instrumental output and receiving multisensory feedback). Research has also demonstrated that music training in children results in long-term enhancement of visual-spatial, verbal, and mathematical performance. However, the underlying neural bases of such enhancements and whether the intensity and duration of instrumental training or other factors, such as extracurricular activities, attention, motivation, or instructional methods can contribute to or predict these enhancements are yet unknown. Here we report the initial results from our studies examining the brain and cognitive effects of instrumental music training on young children in a longitudinal study and a cross-sectional comparison in older children. Further, we present a comparison of the results in these children's studies with observations from our cross-sectional studies with adults.