Neural Advantages of Older Musicians Involve the Cerebellum: Implications for Healthy Aging Through Lifelong Musical Instrument Training

Abstract

This study compared 30 older musicians and 30 age-matched non-musicians to investigate the association between lifelong musical instrument training and age-related cognitive decline and brain atrophy (musicians: mean age 70.8 years, musical experience 52.7 years; non-musicians: mean age 71.4 years, no or less than 3 years of musical experience). Although previous research has demonstrated that young musicians have larger gray matter volume (GMV) in the auditory-motor cortices and cerebellum than non-musicians, little is known about older musicians. Music imagery in young musicians is also known to share a neural underpinning [the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and cerebellum] with music performance. Thus, we hypothesized that older musicians would show superiority to non-musicians in some of the abovementioned brain regions. Behavioral performance, GMV, and brain activity, including functional connectivity (FC) during melodic working memory (MWM) tasks, were evaluated in both groups. Behaviorally, musicians exhibited a much higher tapping speed than non-musicians, and tapping speed was correlated with executive function in musicians. Structural analyses revealed larger GMVs in both sides of the cerebellum of musicians, and importantly, this was maintained until very old age. Task-related FC analyses revealed that musicians possessed greater cerebellar-hippocampal FC, which was correlated with tapping speed. Furthermore, musicians showed higher activation in the SMG during MWM tasks; this was correlated with earlier commencement of instrumental training. These results indicate advantages or heightened coupling in brain regions associated with music performance and imagery in musicians. We suggest that lifelong instrumental training highly predicts the structural maintenance of the cerebellum and related cognitive maintenance in old age.

Music Engagement as a Source of Cognitive Reserve

“… 77 Stronger functional connectivity has also been found between hippocampal and cerebellar regions in aging instrumental musicians when compared to cognitively and socio-behaviorally matched non-musicians. 87 Zhang et al 88 also noted the preservation of functional connectivity in sensorimotor regions among older musicians, proposing that these effects were regulated through compensatory frontoparietal recruitment and deactivation of the default mode network. 88 Such findings suggest that musicianship may be associated with structural and functional preservation of ‘at risk’ brain regions during aging.…”

Perspectives of the brain mechanism for playing the piano in the light of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)

“…Musicians showed larger gray matter volume (GMV) with related cognitive maintenance in older age. 15…”

Fundamental Sensory and Motor Neural Control in the Brain for the Musical Performance

“…Authors and colleagues have managed various IM activities in the Shikoku Division of Integrative Medicine Japan (IMJ) and developed music therapy (MT) for years [3,4]. Several recent topics concerning MT, piano-playing, brain mechanism, and neuroimaging will be described in this article [5].…”