Visual-spatial sequence learning and memory in trained musicians

Effects of musical expertise on line section and line extension

Background

This study investigated whether music training led to better length estimation and/or rightward bias by comparing the performance of musicians (pianists) and non-musicians on performance of line sections and line extensions.

Methods

One hundred and sixteen participants, among them 62 musicians and 54 non-musicians, participated in the present study, completed line section and line extension task under three conditions: 1/2, 1/3 and 2/3.

Results

The mixed repeated measures ANOVA analysis revealed a significant group × condition interaction, that the musicians were more accurate than non-musicians in all the line section tasks and showed no obvious pseudoneglect, while their overall performance on the line extension tasks was comparable to the non-musicians, and only performed more accurately in the 1/2 line extension condition.

Conclusion

These findings indicated that there was a dissociation between the effects of music training on line section and line extension. This dissociation does not support the view that music training has a general beneficial effect on line estimation, and provides insight into a potentially important limit on the effects of music training on spatial cognition.

M, Jagtap T, Issac TG. Music and the aging brain - Exploring the role of long-term Carnatic music training on cognition and gray matter volumes

Objectives

Aging is a natural process and is often associated with an increased incidence of cognitive impairment. Physical exercise, diet, and leisure activities (music, dance, and art) are some of the lifestyle factors that contribute to healthy aging. The present study aims to explore the differences in cognitive functioning between aging individuals involved in musical activity throughout their lifetime and the ones who were not.

Materials and Methods

Fifty-one healthy elderly individuals (50-80 years of age) residing in an urban locality were selected for the study from the Tata Longitudinal Study of Aging cohort. Participants were divided into two groups: Active musicians trained in Carnatic music for more than five years (n = 18) and age-matched non-musicians (n = 33). Addenbrooke cognitive examination-III, Hindi mental status examination, and trail-making test-B (TMT-B) were used to assess cognitive functioning. A Generalized Linear Regression Model was performed including covariates such as gender, age, and years of education. We also looked at the available brain magnetic resonance imaging data of a subset of our study population to inspect the volumetric differences between musicians and non-musicians.

Results

Our results showed that musicians had significantly better visuospatial abilities as compared to non-musicians (P = 0.043). Musicians (130.89 ± 45.16 s) also took less time to complete the TMT-B task than non-musicians (148.73 ± 39.65 s), although it was not a statistically significant difference (P =0.150). In addition, brain imaging data suggested that musicians had increased gray matter volumes in the right precuneus, right post-central gyrus, right medial and superior frontal gyrus, right orbital gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left cuneus, left fusiform gyrus, and bilateral cingulate gyrus.

Conclusion

Our findings are indicative of music being an important attribute in improving cognitive reserve and predicting cognitive resilience. These findings pave the way to explore the utility of non-pharmacological interventions, such as Music Therapy (especially Carnatic music in the Indian context), as a potential factor for improving cognitive reserve in elderly individuals.

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.

Successful aging of musicians: Preservation of sensorimotor regions aids audiovisual speech-in-noise perception

Musicianship can mitigate age-related declines in audiovisual speech-in-noise perception. We tested whether this benefit originates from functional preservation or functional compensation by comparing fMRI responses of older musicians, older nonmusicians, and young nonmusicians identifying noise-masked audiovisual syllables. Older musicians outperformed older nonmusicians and showed comparable performance to young nonmusicians. Notably, older musicians retained similar neural specificity of speech representations in sensorimotor areas to young nonmusicians, while older nonmusicians showed degraded neural representations. In the same region, older musicians showed higher neural alignment to young nonmusicians than older nonmusicians, which was associated with their training intensity. In older nonmusicians, the degree of neural alignment predicted better performance. In addition, older musicians showed greater activation in frontal-parietal, speech motor, and visual motion regions and greater deactivation in the angular gyrus than older nonmusicians, which predicted higher neural alignment in sensorimotor areas. Together, these findings suggest that musicianship-related benefit in audiovisual speech-in-noise processing is rooted in preserving youth-like representations in sensorimotor regions.

Task-irrelevant auditory metre shapes visuomotor sequential learning

The ability to learn and reproduce sequences is fundamental to every-day life, and deficits in sequential learning are associated with developmental disorders such as specific language impairment. Individual differences in sequential learning are usually investigated using the serial reaction time task (SRTT), wherein a participant responds to a series of regularly timed, seemingly random visual cues that in fact follow a repeating deterministic structure. Although manipulating inter-cue interval timing has been shown to adversely affect sequential learning, the role of metre (the patterning of salience across time) remains unexplored within the regularly timed, visual SRTT. The current experiment consists of an SRTT adapted to include task-irrelevant auditory rhythms conferring a sense of metre. We predicted that (1) participants' (n = 41) reaction times would reflect the auditory metric structure; (2) that disrupting the correspondence between the learned visual sequence and auditory metre would impede performance; and (3) that individual differences in sensitivity to rhythm would predict the magnitude of these effects. Altering the relationship via a phase shift between the trained visual sequence and auditory metre slowed reaction times. Sensitivity to rhythm was predictive of reaction times over all. In an exploratory analysis, we, moreover, found that approximately half of participants made systematically different responses to visual cues on the basis of the cues' position within the auditory metre. We demonstrate the influence of auditory temporal structures on visuomotor sequential learning in a widely used task where metre and timing are rarely considered. The current results indicate sensitivity to metre as a possible latent factor underpinning individual differences in SRTT performance.

The Interlinking of Alpha Waves and Visuospatial Cognition in Motor-Based Domains

The manner in which we perceive and respond in accordance to the world is encompassed by our ability to process multimodal input stimuli. In other words, in order to perform any task, especially at a high degree of proficiency, high dependence is placed upon our ability to interact with, interpret, and visualize input stimuli from our environment, known as visuospatial cognition (Chueh et al., 2017). This article will explore and encapsulate the importance of visuospatial cognition, in terms of the link it has with the performance of tasks in various fields, such as artistry, musical performance, and athleticism. Alpha wave investigation will be discussed as a means of both identifying and characterizing the degree of performance within these domains. Findings from this investigation may be used as a modality to optimize performance in the explored domains (e.g., with Neurofeedback techniques). The limitations of using Electroencephalography (EEG) to support the enhancement of this task performance and the recommendations to elicit further research, will also be explored.

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.

The Jack and Jill Adaptive Working Memory Task: Construction, Calibration and Validation

Visuospatial working memory (VSWM) is essential to human cognitive abilities and is associated with important life outcomes such as academic performance. Recently, a number of reliable measures of VSWM have been developed to help understand psychological processes and for practical use in education. We sought to extend this work using Item Response Theory (IRT) and Computerised Adaptive Testing (CAT) frameworks to construct, calibrate and validate a new adaptive, computerised, and open-source VSWM test. We aimed to overcome the limitations of previous instruments and provide researchers with a valid and freely available VSWM measurement tool. The Jack and Jill (JaJ) VSWM task was constructed using explanatory item response modelling of data from a sample of the general adult population (Study 1, N = 244) in the UK and US. Subsequently, a static version of the task was tested for validity and reliability using a sample of adults from the UK and Australia (Study 2, N = 148) and a sample of Russian adolescents (Study 3, N = 263). Finally, the adaptive version of the JaJ task was implemented on the basis of the underlying IRT model and evaluated with another sample of Russian adolescents (Study 4, N = 239). JaJ showed sufficient internal consistency and concurrent validity as indicated by significant and substantial correlations with established measures of working memory, spatial ability, non-verbal intelligence, and academic achievement. The findings suggest that JaJ is an efficient and reliable measure of VSWM from adolescent to adult age.

Long term effects of cueing procedural memory reactivation during NREM sleep

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A single night of TMR benefits procedural memories up to 10 days later.

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Spindle density and SO-spindle coupling strength increase immediately upon cue onset.

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Time spent in N2 but not N3 predicts cueing benefit.

Targeted memory reactivation (TMR) has recently emerged as a promising tool to manipulate and study the sleeping brain. Although the technique is developing rapidly, only a few studies have examined how the effects of TMR develop over time. Here, we use a bimanual serial reaction time task (SRTT) to investigate whether the difference between the cued and un-cued sequence of button presses persists long-term. We further explore the relationship between the TMR benefit and sleep spindles, as well as their coupling with slow oscillations. Our behavioural analysis shows better performance for the dominant hand. Importantly, there was a strong effect of TMR, with improved performance on the cued sequence after sleep. Closer examination revealed a significant benefit of TMR at 10 days post-encoding, but not 24 h or 6 weeks post-encoding. Time spent in stage 2, but not stage 3, of NREM sleep predicted cueing benefit. We also found a significant increase in spindle density and SO-spindle coupling during the cue period, when compared to the no-cue period. Together, our results demonstrate that TMR effects evolve over several weeks post-cueing, as well as emphasising the importance of stage 2, spindles and the SO-spindle coupling in procedural memory consolidation.

The benefit of assessing implicit sequence learning in pianists with an eye-tracked serial reaction time task

Playing piano professionally has been shown to benefit implicit motor sequence learning. The aim of the current study was to determine whether this advantage reflects generally enhanced implicit sequence learning unrelated to pianists' higher motor and/or visual-motor coordination abilities. We examined implicit sequence learning using the ocular serial reaction time (O-SRT) task, a manual-free eye-tracked version of the standard SRT, in 29 pianists and 31 controls. Reaction times (RT) and correct anticipations (CA) of several phases describing implicit sequence learning were analyzed. Furthermore, explicit sequence knowledge was compared between the groups, and relationships between implicit sequence learning with explicit sequence knowledge or demographic measures were evaluated. Pianists demonstrated superiority in all critical phases of implicit sequence learning (RT and CA). Moreover, pianists acquired higher explicit sequence knowledge, and only in pianists was explicit sequence knowledge related to implicit sequence learning. Our results demonstrate that pianists' superiority in implicit sequence learning is due to a higher general implicit sequence learning ability. Hence, we can exclude that higher motor and/or visual-motor coordination abilities are related to pianists' higher implicit sequence learning. Furthermore, the significant relationship of implicit sequence learning and explicit sequence knowledge suggests that pianists either used explicit strategies to support implicit sequence learning, had better explicit access to sequence knowledge, or both.

Musical Competence is Predicted by Music Training, Cognitive Abilities, and Personality

Individuals differ in musical competence, which we defined as the ability to perceive, remember, and discriminate sequences of tones or beats. We asked whether such differences could be explained by variables other than music training, including socioeconomic status (SES), short-term memory, general cognitive ability, and personality. In a sample of undergraduates, musical competence had positive simple associations with duration of music training, SES, short-term memory, general cognitive ability, and openness-to-experience. When these predictors were considered jointly, musical competence had positive partial associations with music training, general cognitive ability, and openness. Nevertheless, moderation analyses revealed that the partial association between musical competence and music training was evident only among participants who scored below the mean on our measure of general cognitive ability. Moreover, general cognitive ability and openness had indirect associations with musical competence by predicting music training, which in turn predicted musical competence. Musical competence appears to be the result of multiple factors, including but not limited to music training.

Musicians' Online Performance during Auditory and Visual Statistical Learning Tasks

Musicians' brains are considered to be a functional model of neuroplasticity due to the structural and functional changes associated with long-term musical training. In this study, we examined implicit extraction of statistical regularities from a continuous stream of stimuli-statistical learning (SL). We investigated whether long-term musical training is associated with better extraction of statistical cues in an auditory SL (aSL) task and a visual SL (vSL) task-both using the embedded triplet paradigm. Online measures, characterized by event related potentials (ERPs), were recorded during a familiarization phase while participants were exposed to a continuous stream of individually presented pure tones in the aSL task or individually presented cartoon figures in the vSL task. Unbeknown to participants, the stream was composed of triplets. Musicians showed advantages when compared to non-musicians in the online measure (early N1 and N400 triplet onset effects) during the aSL task. However, there were no differences between musicians and non-musicians for the vSL task. Results from the current study show that musical training is associated with enhancements in extraction of statistical cues only in the auditory domain.