Individual differences in musical ability are stable over time in childhood

Gene-environment interaction in expertise acquisition: Practice effects on musical expertise vary by polygenic scores for cognitive performance

Expert performance is associated with practice, partly because of causal effects of practice on skill (i.e., learning). However, the practice-expertise association is also influenced by a complex interplay between genes and environment including partly overlapping genetic influences. The importance of cognitive ability in the practice-expertise association is less well understood. Therefore, we first examined whether genetic predisposition for cognitive performance, operationalized as a polygenic score, is associated with music practice and expertise. Next, we tested whether there is evidence for gene × environment interaction, i.e., whether effects of practice on expertise differ depending on an individual's genetic predisposition for cognitive performance. Polygenic scores for cognitive performance (PGScp) and multi-trait cognitive performances, including educational attainment and mathematical performances (PGScps) were calculated for approximately 3800 genotyped Swedish individuals with information available on their cumulative amount of music practice, musical achievement, and musical auditory discrimination. We found that higher PGScp and PGScps were associated with higher levels of achievement, musical auditory discrimination, and more practice, although the association with practice weakened when controlling for education. Music practice was linked to both expertise outcomes, and the effect sizes of these associations varied depending on an individual's PGScp and PGScps (with the exception of PGScp for musical auditory discrimination). These results suggest genetic pleiotropy between cognitive performance and musical expertise. Additionally, they reveal the presence of G × E interaction in skill acquisition, as effects of practice on musical expertise are stronger for individuals with a higher genetic predisposition for cognitive performance.

Individual differences in musical ability among adults with no music training

Good musical abilities are typically considered to be a consequence of music training, such that they are studied in samples of formally trained individuals. Here, we asked what predicts musical abilities in the absence of music training. Participants with no formal music training (N = 190) completed the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index, measures of personality and cognitive ability, and the Musical Ear Test (MET). The MET is an objective test of musical abilities that provides a Total score and separate scores for its two subtests (Melody and Rhythm), which require listeners to determine whether standard and comparison auditory sequences are identical. MET scores had no associations with personality traits. They correlated positively, however, with informal musical experience and cognitive abilities. Informal musical experience was a better predictor of Melody than of Rhythm scores. Some participants (12%) had Total scores higher than the mean from a sample of musically trained individuals (⩾6 years of formal training), tested previously by Correia et al. Untrained participants with particularly good musical abilities (top 25%, n = 51) scored higher than trained participants on the Rhythm subtest and similarly on the Melody subtest. High-ability untrained participants were also similar to trained ones in cognitive ability, but lower in the personality trait openness-to-experience. These results imply that formal music training is not required to achieve musician-like performance on tests of musical and cognitive abilities. They also suggest that informal music practice and music-related predispositions should be considered in studies of musical expertise.

What Makes a Foreign Language Intelligible? An Examination of the Impact of Musical Ability and Individual Differences on Language Perception and How Intelligible Foreign Languages Appear

Previous research suggests that musical ability is associated with language processing and foreign language pronunciation. Whether musical ability is associated with the ability to generate intelligible unfamiliar utterances has not been investigated. Furthermore, how unfamiliar languages are perceived has rarely been related to musical ability. We tested 80 healthy adults, with a mean age of 34.05 and a combination of 41 women and 39 men. We used batteries of perceptual and generational music and language measures to assess foreign language intelligibility and musical capacity. Regression analysis revealed that five measures explained the variance in the intelligibility of unfamiliar foreign utterances. These were short-term memory capacity, melodic singing ability, speech perception ability, and how melodic and memorable the utterances sounded to the participants. Correlational analyses revealed that musical aptitude measures are related to melodic perception and how memorable unfamiliar utterances sound, whereas singing aptitude is related to the perceived difficulty level of the language material. These findings provide novel evidence of the link between musical and speech abilities. In particular, intelligibility measures are associated with singing aptitude and how melodic languages appear to be. As impressions on how foreign languages are perceived are also related to musical capacities, perceptual language parameters address a new perspective that facilitates the understanding of the link between music and language in general.

Sensorimotor and working memory systems jointly support development of perceptual rhythm processing

We studied the role of sensorimotor and working memory systems in supporting development of perceptual rhythm processing with 119 participants aged 7-12 years. Children were assessed for their abilities in sensorimotor synchronization (SMS; beat tapping), auditory working memory (AWM; digit span), and rhythm discrimination (RD; same/different judgment on a pair of musical rhythm sequences). Multiple regression analysis revealed that children's RD performance was independently predicted by higher beat tapping consistency and greater digit span score, with all other demographic variables (age, sex, socioeconomic status, music training) controlled. The association between RD and SMS was more robust in the slower tempos (60 and 100 beats-per-minute (BPM)) than faster ones (120 and 180 BPM). Critically, the relation of SMS to RD was moderated by age in that RD performance was predicted by beat tapping consistency in younger children (age: 7-9 years), but not in older children (age: 10-12 years). AWM was the only predictor of RD in older children. Together, the current findings demonstrate that the sensorimotor and working memory systems jointly support RD processing during middle-to-late childhood and that the degree of association between the two systems and perceptual rhythm processing is shifted before entering into early adolescence.

Learning to play a musical instrument in the middle school is associated with superior audiovisual working memory and fluid intelligence: A cross-sectional behavioral study

Music training, in all its forms, is known to have an impact on behavior both in childhood and even in aging. In the delicate life period of transition from childhood to adulthood, music training might have a special role for behavioral and cognitive maturation. Among the several kinds of music training programs implemented in the educational communities, we focused on instrumental training incorporated in the public middle school curriculum in Italy that includes both individual, group and collective (orchestral) lessons several times a week. At three middle schools, we tested 285 preadolescent children (aged 10–14 years) with a test and questionnaire battery including adaptive tests for visuo-spatial working memory skills (with the Jack and Jill test), fluid intelligence (with a matrix reasoning test) and music-related perceptual and memory abilities (with listening tests). Of these children, 163 belonged to a music curriculum within the school and 122 to a standard curriculum. Significant differences between students of the music and standard curricula were found in both perceptual and cognitive domains, even when controlling for pre-existing individual differences in musical sophistication. The music children attending the third and last grade of middle school had better performance and showed the largest advantage compared to the control group on both audiovisual working memory and fluid intelligence. Furthermore, some gender differences were found for several tests and across groups in favor of females. The present results indicate that learning to play a musical instrument as part of the middle school curriculum represents a resource for preadolescent education. Even though the current evidence is not sufficient to establish the causality of the found effects, it can still guide future research evaluation with longitudinal data.

Does music training enhance auditory and linguistic processing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of behavioral and brain evidence

It is often claimed that music training improves auditory and linguistic skills. Results of individual studies are mixed, however, and most evidence is correlational, precluding inferences of causation. Here, we evaluated data from 62 longitudinal studies that examined whether music training programs affect behavioral and brain measures of auditory and linguistic processing (N = 3928). For the behavioral data, a multivariate meta-analysis revealed a small positive effect of music training on both auditory and linguistic measures, regardless of the type of assignment (random vs. non-random), training (instrumental vs. non-instrumental), and control group (active vs. passive). The trim-and-fill method provided suggestive evidence of publication bias, but meta-regression methods (PET-PEESE) did not. For the brain data, a narrative synthesis also documented benefits of music training, namely for measures of auditory processing and for measures of speech and prosody processing. Thus, the available literature provides evidence that music training produces small neurobehavioral enhancements in auditory and linguistic processing, although future studies are needed to confirm that such enhancements are not due to publication bias.

Inadequate pitch-difference sensitivity prevents half of all listeners from discriminating major vs minor tone sequences

Substantial evidence suggests that sensitivity to the difference between the major vs minor musical scales may be bimodally distributed. Much of this evidence comes from experiments using the "3-task." On each trial in the 3-task, the listener hears a rapid, random sequence of tones containing equal numbers of notes of either a G major or G minor triad and strives (with feedback) to judge which type of "tone-scramble" it was. This study asks whether the bimodal distribution in 3-task performance is due to variation (across listeners) in sensitivity to differences in pitch. On each trial in a "pitch-difference task," the listener hears two tones and judges whether the second tone is higher or lower than the first. When the first tone is roved (rather than fixed throughout the task), performance varies dramatically across listeners with median threshold approximately equal to a quarter-tone. Strikingly, nearly all listeners with thresholds higher than a quarter-tone performed near chance in the 3-task. Across listeners with thresholds below a quarter-tone, 3-task performance was uniformly distributed from chance to ceiling; thus, the large, lower mode of the distribution in 3-task performance is produced mainly by listeners with roved pitch-difference thresholds greater than a quarter-tone.

Can musical ability be tested online?

We sought to determine whether an objective test of musical ability could be successfully administered online. A sample of 754 participants was tested with an online version of the Musical Ear Test (MET), which had Melody and Rhythm subtests. Both subtests had 52 trials, each of which required participants to determine whether standard and comparison auditory sequences were identical. The testing session also included the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI), a test of general cognitive ability, and self-report questionnaires that measured basic demographics (age, education, gender), mind-wandering, and personality. Approximately 20% of the participants were excluded for incomplete responding or failing to finish the testing session. For the final sample (N = 608), findings were similar to those from in-person testing in many respects: (1) the internal reliability of the MET was maintained, (2) construct validity was confirmed by strong associations with Gold-MSI scores, (3) correlations with other measures (e.g., openness to experience, cognitive ability, mind-wandering) were as predicted, (4) mean levels of performance were similar for individuals with no music training, and (5) musical sophistication was a better predictor of performance on the Melody than on the Rhythm subtest. In sum, online administration of the MET proved to be a reliable and valid way to measure musical ability.

The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities

Research has shown that melody not only plays a crucial role in music but also in language acquisition processes. Evidence has been provided that melody helps in retrieving, remembering, and memorizing new language material, while relatively little is known about whether individuals who perceive speech as more melodic than others also benefit in the acquisition of oral languages. In this investigation, we wanted to show which impact the subjective melodic perception of speech has on the pronunciation of unfamiliar foreign languages. We tested 86 participants for how melodic they perceived five unfamiliar languages, for their ability to repeat and pronounce the respective five languages, for their musical abilities, and for their short-term memory (STM). The results revealed that 59 percent of the variance in the language pronunciation tasks could be explained by five predictors: the number of foreign languages spoken, short-term memory capacity, tonal aptitude, melodic singing ability, and how melodic the languages appeared to the participants. Group comparisons showed that individuals who perceived languages as more melodic performed significantly better in all language tasks than those who did not. However, even though we expected musical measures to be related to the melodic perception of foreign languages, we could only detect some correlations to rhythmical and tonal musical aptitude. Overall, the findings of this investigation add a new dimension to language research, which shows that individuals who perceive natural languages to be more melodic than others also retrieve and pronounce utterances more accurately.