Music Lessons and Intelligence: A Relation Mediated by Executive Functions

Degé, Franziska; Kubicek, Claudia; Schwarzer, Gudrun

doi:10.1525/mp.2011.29.2.195

Cited by 148 publications

(200 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This has, of course, also been the case in previous correlational studies (e.g. Degé et al 2011;Schellenberg 2006aSchellenberg , 2011.…”

Section: Extended Music Educationsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Practice in music has been found to speed-up literacy skills (Moreno et al 2009) and the studying of foreign languages (Slevc and Miyake 2006;Milovanov et al 2008). Some more general transfer effects have also been found; music education has been found to enhance selective attention (Degé et al 2011) and sensitivity to emotions in speech (Thompson, Schellenberg, and Husain 2004).…”

Section: Social Benefits Of Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extended music education enhances the quality of school life

Eerola

2013

Music Education Research

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The claim of whether music education can create social benefits in the school environment was tested in 10 Finnish schools with an extended music curricular class and control classes. The quality of school life (QSL) was assessed by a representative sample (N 0735) of pupils at years 3 and 6 (9-and 12-years-olds). The results showed that extended music education enhances the QSL, particularly in areas related to general satisfaction about the school and a sense of achievement and opportunity for students. Differences related to the schools and gender did not account for the results. A follow-up study examined whether the increase in critical QSL variables was related to music. This analysis utilised data from other classes (N 098) with an extended curriculum (sports and visual arts). These classes did not confer similar benefits. Overall, the results imply that extended music education has a positive effect on the social aspects of schooling.

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“…This has, of course, also been the case in previous correlational studies (e.g. Degé et al 2011;Schellenberg 2006aSchellenberg , 2011.…”

Section: Extended Music Educationsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Social Benefits Of Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extended music education enhances the quality of school life

Eerola

2013

Music Education Research

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“…However, our understanding of this relationship is limited because most previous studies have examined only individual components of EF and have examined relatively small groups of participants. In addition, the only two relatively large studies that examined how musical experience relates to multiple aspects of EF (in children) yielded inconsistent findings (Degé et al, 2011;Schellenberg, 2011). Drawing conclusions from this past work is difficult not only because of the variety of EF components examined, but also the variety of tasks used to measure EF and the variety of criteria used to categorize participants as "musicians" or "nonmusicians".…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, past studies have typically discussed EFs only generally without systematically differentiating between various aspects of EF. To our knowledge, only two studies have systematically investigated multiple components of EF: one found that duration of music lessons in children correlated with performance on multiple EF tasks (Degé, Kubicek, & Schwarzer, 2011) but another found no such relationships (Schellenberg, 2011). Relatedly, the modality-specificity or generality of these effects remains unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tuning the mind: Exploring the connections between musical ability and executive functions

et al. 2016

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A growing body of research suggests that musical experience and ability are related to a variety of cognitive abilities, including executive functioning (EF). However, it is not yet clear if these relationships are limited to specific components of EF, limited to auditory tasks, or reflect very general cognitive advantages. This study investigated the existence and generality of the relationship between musical ability and EFs by evaluating the musical experience and ability of a large group of participants and investigating whether this predicts individual differences on three different components of EF – inhibition, updating, and switching – in both auditory and visual modalities. Musical ability predicted better performance on both auditory and visual updating tasks, even when controlling for a variety of potential confounds (age, handedness, bilingualism, and socio-economic status). However, musical ability was not clearly related to inhibitory control and was unrelated to switching performance. These data thus show that cognitive advantages associated with musical ability are not limited to auditory processes, but are limited to specific aspects of EF. This supports a process-specific (but modality-general) relationship between musical ability and non-musical aspects of cognition.GRAMMY Foundatio

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“…Although these group differences could reflect innate predispositions rather than causal effects of training, they are supported by longitudinal evidence for improved inhibitory control with short-term music training (Moreno et al, 2011). Furthermore, it has been suggested that enhancements in inhibitory control may underlie the transfer of benefits from musical practice to more general cognitive functions (Moreno & Farzan, 2015;Degé, Kubicek, & Schwarzer, 2011). It is therefore of interest to determine which elements of musical experience may lead to these enhancements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Got Rhythm? Better Inhibitory Control Is Linked with More Consistent Drumming and Enhanced Neural Tracking of the Musical Beat in Adult Percussionists and Nonpercussionists

Slater¹,

Ashley²,

Tierney³

et al. 2018

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Abstract■ Musical rhythm engages motor and reward circuitry that is important for cognitive control, and there is evidence for enhanced inhibitory control in musicians. We recently revealed an inhibitory control advantage in percussionists compared with vocalists, highlighting the potential importance of rhythmic expertise in mediating this advantage. Previous research has shown that better inhibitory control is associated with less variable performance in simple sensorimotor synchronization tasks; however, this relationship has not been examined through the lens of rhythmic expertise. We hypothesize that the development of rhythm skills strengthens inhibitory control in two ways: by fine-tuning motor networks through the precise coordination of movements "in time" and by activating rewardbased mechanisms, such as predictive processing and conflict monitoring, which are involved in tracking temporal structure in music. Here, we assess adult percussionists and nonpercussionists on inhibitory control, selective attention, basic drumming skills (self-paced, paced, and continuation drumming), and cortical evoked responses to an auditory stimulus presented on versus off the beat of music. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that better inhibitory control is correlated with more consistent drumming and enhanced neural tracking of the musical beat. Drumming variability and the neural index of beat alignment each contribute unique predictive power to a regression model, explaining 57% of variance in inhibitory control. These outcomes present the first evidence that enhanced inhibitory control in musicians may be mediated by rhythmic expertise and provide a foundation for future research investigating the potential for rhythm-based training to strengthen cognitive function. ■

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Music Lessons and Intelligence: A Relation Mediated by Executive Functions

Cited by 148 publications

References 24 publications

Extended music education enhances the quality of school life

Extended music education enhances the quality of school life

Tuning the mind: Exploring the connections between musical ability and executive functions

Got Rhythm? Better Inhibitory Control Is Linked with More Consistent Drumming and Enhanced Neural Tracking of the Musical Beat in Adult Percussionists and Nonpercussionists

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