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

The study of music training as a model for structural plasticity has evolved significantly over the past 15 years. Neuroimaging studies have identified characteristic structural brain alterations in musicians compared to nonmusicians in school-age children and adults, using primarily cross-sectional designs. Despite this emerging evidence and advances in pediatric neuroimaging techniques, hardly any studies have examined brain development in early childhood (before age 8) in association with musical training, and longitudinal studies starting in infancy or preschool are particularly scarce. Consequently, it remains unclear whether the characteristic "musician brain" is solely the result of musical training, or whether certain predispositions may have an impact on its development. Moving toward a developmental perspective, the present review considers various factors that may contribute to early brain structure prior to the onset of formal musical training. This review introduces a model for potential neurobiological pathways leading to the characteristic "musician brain," which involves a developmental interaction between predisposition and its temporal dynamics, environmental experience, and training-induced plasticity. This perspective illuminates the importance of studying the brain structure associated with musical training through a developmental lens, and the need for longitudinal studies in early childhood to advance our understanding of music training-induced structural plasticity.

Section: Training‐induced Structural Plasticity In Musicianssupporting

confidence: 63%

Evaluating predisposition and training in shaping the musician's brain: the need for a developmental perspective

Zuk

Gaab

2018

“…No comparable significant difference was observed when the children with music training were compared with the children with sports training. Percent signal change in both the inferior frontal gyrus and the supplementary motor area was positively correlated with performance on a behavioral version of the color-word Stroop task that was completed outside of the scanner 43 (Fig. 2).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Individual subject‐level models were then combined into a higher level to compare differences in brain activation during these contrasting conditions between the three groups. Percent change of the BOLD signal between the incongruent and congruent conditions within two ROIs, the inferior frontal gyrus and the supplementary motor area, was then correlated with behavioral measures collected outside of the scanner during tasks of cognitive control …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music training and child development: a review of recent findings from a longitudinal study

Habibi

Damásio

Ilari

et al. 2018

Self Cite

Evidence suggests that learning to play music enhances musical processing skills and benefits other cognitive abilities. Furthermore, studies of children and adults indicate that the brains of musicians and nonmusicians are different. It has not been determined, however, whether such differences result from pre-existing traits, musical training, or an interaction between the two. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study, we investigated the effects of music training on children's brain and cognitive development. The target group of children was compared with two groups of children, one involved in sports and another not enrolled in any systematic afterschool training. Two years after training, we observed that children in the music group had better performance than comparison groups in musically relevant auditory skills and showed related brain changes. For nonmusical skills, children with music training, compared with children without music or with sports training, showed stronger neural activation during a cognitive inhibition task in regions involved in response inhibition despite no differences in performance on behavioral measures of executive function. No such differences were found between music and sports groups. We conclude that music training induces brain and behavioral changes in children, and those changes are not attributable to pre-existing biological traits.

“…In children, one study found that 9‐ to 12‐year‐old musically trained children recruited the supplemental motor area and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex more strongly than untrained children in an audiovisual set‐shifting task . Along the same lines, a subsequent study focused on inhibition found that school‐aged children who had participated in a music training program for 2 years showed stronger activation in the ACC, inferior frontal gyrus, pre‐supplementary motor area (SMA)/SMA, and insula on the incongruent trials of a color–word Stroop task relative to an active control group participating in a sports training and a passive control group who did not participate in an extracurricular program …”

Section: Previous Studies On Musical Training and The Neural Correlatmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…22 Along the same lines, a subsequent study focused on inhibition found that school-aged children who had participated in a music training program for 2 years showed stronger activation in the ACC, inferior frontal gyrus, pre-supplementary motor area (SMA)/SMA, and insula on the incongruent trials of a color-word Stroop task relative to an active control group participating in a sports training and a passive control group who did not participate in an extracurricular program. 72 It is not possible to draw definite conclusions about the neural basis of the supposed musician advantage in executive functions based on such a scarce literature, especially since these studies have targeted different (albeit related) executive functions. Nonetheless, these studies tentatively suggest that adult musicians show decreased activity in more anterior prefrontal regions, while musically trained children display increased activity in more posterior frontal cortex (as indicated by the peak voxel coordinates) and other structures during executive function tasks.…”

Section: Previous Studies On Musical Training and The Neural Correlatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural correlates of enhanced executive functions: is less more?

Putkinen

Saarikivi

2018

Musical training has been associated with superior performance in various executive function tasks. To date, only a few neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural substrates of the supposed "musician advantage" in executive functions, precluding definite conclusions about its neural basis. Here, we provide a selective review of neuroimaging studies on plasticity and typical maturation of executive functions, with the aim of investigating how proficient performance in executive function tasks is reflected in brain activity. Specifically, we examine the evidence for the hypothesis that enhanced or mature executive functions are manifested as efficient use of neural systems supporting those functions. We also present preliminary results from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study suggesting-in line with this hypothesis-that musically trained adolescents recruit frontoparietal regions less strongly during executive functions tasks than untrained peers.