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

Abstract

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.

Music-reading expertise associates with face but not Chinese character processing ability

“…Thus, the finding of the importance of the age of music training onset on the music experts’ face processing suggests that the positive association between musical notation reading expertise and face processing is a developmental phenomenon: Whether musical notation reading associates with face processing depends on at which age, not how long, the music experts began their musical notation reading training, and the early commencement of music-reading training plays a more important role than the total accumulative music-reading experience. This finding is consistent with previous studies showing that some cognitive abilities (e.g., executive functions, rhythm synchronisation, and sensorimotor synchronisation skills) are strongly associated with early musical training (Bailey & Penhune, 2010, 2013; Chen et al, 2021). Neuroimage studies found that early musical training could lead to more extensive changes in brain structure than later training (Schlaug et al, 1995).…”

Effects of music training in executive function performance in children: A systematic review

“…The results did not identify a significant group effect interaction in ANOVA, yet the completion time for music-trained children was faster. Comparably, 10 studies (three in preschoolers and seven in school-age children) did not identify a significant association between music training and performance in card-sorting tasks or NEPSY subtests (Degé et al, 2011 ; Schellenberg, 2011 ; Park et al, 2015 ; Sachs et al, 2017 ; Frischen et al, 2019 ; Kosokabe et al, 2021 ; Bayanova et al, 2022 ; Chen et al, 2022 ). Once again, the largest study in our review did not identify positive results in the cognitive flexibility tasks among 1,480 children who participated in a year-long, instrument-based education program (Alemán et al, 2017 ).…”

“…We identified 12 studies in school-age children, five case-control studies with prior instrumental music learning, three studies with an instrument-based music education program, and four orchestra-based interventions. Six studies observed significantly improved performance in inhibition tasks using the Go/No-Go, Stroop, Simon, and the NEPSY tests (Degé et al, 2011 ; Schellenberg, 2011 ; Zuk et al, 2014 ; Alemán et al, 2017 ; Holochwost et al, 2017 ; Joret et al, 2017 ; Sachs et al, 2017 ; Guo et al, 2018 ; Jaschke et al, 2018 ; Hennessy et al, 2019 ; Frischen et al, 2021 ; Chen et al, 2022 ). Table 4 contains detailed information for each article.…”

“…Failure to identify an effect of music training may be explained by the age-dependent effect that was previously hypothesized. In contrast, some case-control studies did identify an association between prior music training and EF performance (Degé et al, 2011 ; Bayanova et al, 2022 ; Chen et al, 2022 ). This raises the question of whether RCTs in school-age children are the ideal study design to evaluate an effect that is probably acquired early in life.…”

Difference in Executive Functions Development Level between Two Groups: Preschool Children Who Took Extra Music Classes in Art Schools and Children Who Took Only General Music and Dance Classes Offered by Preschools

“…The novelty of the current study lies in the fact that, at the moment, there are no Russian research works on this matter. In addition, the existing data on the interrelation of music classes and the development of different EF components are of an ambiguous nature [14]. There are even some works demonstrating the absence of such a connection [15], and they increase the significance of thorough investigation of this problem.…”