Predicting who takes music lessons: parent and child characteristics

Voice actors show enhanced neural tracking of pitch, prosody perception, and music perception

Experiences with sound that make strong demands on the precision of perception, such as musical training and experience speaking a tone language, can enhance auditory neural encoding. Are high demands on the precision of perception necessary for training to drive auditory neural plasticity? Voice actors are an ideal subject population for answering this question. Voice acting requires exaggerating prosodic cues to convey emotion, character, and linguistic structure, drawing upon attention to sound, memory for sound features, and accurate sound production, but not fine perceptual precision. Here we assessed neural encoding of pitch using the frequency-following response (FFR), as well as prosody, music, and sound perception, in voice actors and a matched group of non-actors. We find that the consistency of neural sound encoding, prosody perception, and musical phrase perception are all enhanced in voice actors, suggesting that a range of neural and behavioural auditory processing enhancements can result from training which lacks fine perceptual precision. However, fine discrimination was not enhanced in voice actors but was linked to degree of musical experience, suggesting that low-level auditory processing can only be enhanced by demanding perceptual training. These findings suggest that training which taxes attention, memory, and production but is not perceptually taxing may be a way to boost neural encoding of sound and auditory pattern detection in individuals with poor auditory skills.

Cognitive enrichment through art: a randomized controlled trial on the effect of music or visual arts group practice on cognitive and brain development of young children

BACKGROUND

The optimal stimulation for brain development in the early academic years remains unclear. Current research suggests that musical training has a more profound impact on children's executive functions (EF) compared to other art forms. What is crucially lacking is a large-scale, long-term genuine randomized controlled trial (RCT) in cognitive neuroscience, comparing musical instrumental training (MIP) to another art form, and a control group (CG). This study aims to fill this gap by using machine learning to develop a multivariate model that tracks the interconnected brain and EF development during the academic years, with or without music or other art training.

METHODS

The study plans to enroll 150 children aged 6-8 years and randomly assign them to three groups: Orchestra in Class (OC), Visual Arts (VA), and a control group (CG). Anticipating a 30% attrition rate, each group aims to retain at least 35 participants. The research consists of three analytical stages: 1) baseline analysis correlating EF, brain data, age, gender, and socioeconomic status, 2) comparison between groups and over time of EF brain and behavioral development and their interactions, including hypothesis testing, and 3) exploratory analysis combining behavioral and brain data. The intervention includes intensive art classes once a week, and incremental home training over two years, with the CG receiving six annual cultural outings.

DISCUSSION

This study examines the potential benefits of intensive group arts education, especially contrasting music with visual arts, on EF development in children. It will investigate how artistic enrichment potentially influences the presumed typical transition from a more unified to a more multifaceted EF structure around age eight, comparing these findings against a minimally enriched active control group. This research could significantly influence the incorporation of intensive art interventions in standard curricula.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

The project was accepted after peer-review by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF no. 100014_214977) on March 29, 2023. The study protocol received approval from the Cantonal Commission for Ethics in Human Research of Geneva (CCER, BASEC-ID 2023-01016), which is part of Swiss ethics, on October 25, 2023. The study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05912270).

Neurobiological predispositions for musicality: White matter in infancy predicts school-age music aptitude

Musical training has long been viewed as a model for experience-dependent brain plasticity. Reports of musical training-induced brain plasticity are largely based on cross-sectional studies comparing musicians to non-musicians, which cannot address whether musical training itself is sufficient to induce these neurobiological changes or whether pre-existing neuroarchitecture before training predisposes children to succeed in music. Here, in a longitudinal investigation of children from infancy to school age (n = 25), we find brain structure in infancy that predicts subsequent music aptitude skills at school-age. Building on prior evidence implicating white matter organization of the corticospinal tract as a neural predisposition for musical training in adults, here we find that structural organization of the right corticospinal tract in infancy is associated with school-age tonal and rhythmic musical aptitude skills. Moreover, within the corpus callosum, an inter-hemispheric white matter pathway traditionally linked with musical training, we find that structural organization of this pathway in infancy is associated with subsequent tonal music aptitude. Our findings suggest predispositions prior to the onset of musical training from as early as infancy may serve as a scaffold upon which ongoing musical experience can build. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Structural organization of the right corticospinal tract in infancy is associated with school-age musical aptitude skills. Longitudinal associations between the right corticospinal tract in infancy and school-age rhythmic music aptitude skills remain significant even when controlling for language ability. Findings support the notion of predispositions for success in music, and suggest that musical predispositions likely build upon a neural structural scaffold established in infancy. Findings support the working hypothesis that a dynamic interaction between predisposition and experience established in infancy shape the trajectory of long-term musical development.

The Relationship between Formal Music Training and Conflict Control: An ERP Study

Music training involves manifolds of sensorimotor processes that tie closely with executive functions, including conflict control. Past studies have found consistent evidence in children of the link between music learning and executive functions. However, the same relationship has not been found in adult populations, and conflict control has yet to be studied in a focused manner. Via the Stroop task and event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study examined the association between musical training and conflict control ability among Chinese college students. The findings exhibited that individuals with music training outperformed individuals without music training by demonstrating higher accuracy and faster reaction times on the Stroop task and exhibiting greater N2 and smaller P3 amplitudes compared to the control group. The results support our hypothesis that people who received music training demonstrate advantages in their capacity for conflict control. The findings also provide scope for future research.

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.

Experience of Playing a Musical Instrument and Lifetime Change in General Cognitive Ability: Evidence From the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

We tested whether experience of playing a musical instrument was associated with lifetime change in cognitive ability. Participants were 366 older adults from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 who had completed general cognitive-ability assessments at ages 11 and 70 and reported their lifetime experience of playing a musical instrument at age 82. This sample included 117 participants with musical-instrument experience, mostly at a beginner or an intermediate level. There was a small, statistically significant positive association between experience of playing a musical instrument and change in general cognitive ability between ages 11 and 70; specifically, individuals with more musical-instrument experience were likely to show greater gains in general cognitive ability. This association was reduced but remained statistically significant following adjustment for covariates (childhood and adulthood socioeconomic status, years of education, and disease history). These findings suggest that playing a musical instrument is associated with a long-term cognitive advantage.

Investigating the Relationship Between Childhood Music Practice and Pitch-Naming Ability in Professional Musicians and a Population-Based Twin Sample

The relationship between pitch-naming ability and childhood onset of music training is well established and thought to reflect both genetic predisposition and music training during a critical period. However, the importance of the amount of practice during this period has not been investigated. In a population sample of twins (N = 1447, 39% male, 367 complete twin pairs) and a sample of 290 professional musicians (51% male), we investigated the role of genes, age of onset of playing music and accumulated childhood practice on pitch-naming ability. A significant correlation between pitch-naming scores for monozygotic (r = .27, p < .001) but not dizygotic twin pairs (r = -.04, p = .63) supported the role of genetic factors. In professional musicians, the amount of practice accumulated between ages 6 and 11 predicted pitch-naming accuracy (p = .025). In twins, age of onset was no longer a significant predictor once practice was considered. Combined, these findings are in line with the notion that pitch-naming ability is associated with both genetic factors and amount of early practice, rather than just age of onset per se. This may reflect a dose-response relation between practice and pitch-naming ability in genetically predisposed individuals. Alternatively, children who excel at pitch-naming may have an increased tendency to practice.

The importance of the motor system in the development of music-based forms of auditory rehabilitation

Hearing abilities decline with age, and one of the most commonly reported hearing issues in older adults is a difficulty understanding speech when there is loud background noise. Understanding speech in noise relies on numerous cognitive processes, including working memory, and is supported by numerous brain regions, including the motor and motor planning systems. Indeed, many working memory processes are supported by motor and premotor cortical regions. Interestingly, lifelong musicians and nonmusicians given music training over the course of weeks or months show an improved ability to understand speech when there is loud background noise. These benefits are associated with enhanced working memory abilities, and enhanced activity in motor and premotor cortical regions. Accordingly, it is likely that music training improves the coupling between the auditory and motor systems and promotes plasticity in these regions and regions that feed into auditory/motor areas. This leads to an enhanced ability to dynamically process incoming acoustic information, and is likely the reason that musicians and those who receive laboratory-based music training are better able to understand speech when there is background noise. Critically, these findings suggest that music-based forms of auditory rehabilitation are possible and should focus on tasks that promote auditory-motor interactions.

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.

Survival of musical activities. When do young people stop making music?

Although making music is a popular leisure activity for children and adolescents, few stay musically engaged. Previous research has focused on finding reasons for quitting musical activities, pedagogical strategies to keep students engaged with music, and motivational factors of musical training. Nonetheless, we know very little about how the proportion of musically active children changes with age and what traits influence the survival of musical engagement. This study used longitudinal data from secondary school students in the UK and Germany aged between 10 and 17 years. A survival analysis was applied to investigate the trajectories of musical activities across this age span. Other factors like type of learned instrument, gender, personality and intelligence were taken into account for further analyses using generalized linear models. Results indicate that about 50% of all students drop out of music lessons and other musical activities by the time they turn 17 years old, with most students quitting between the ages of 15 and 17. Musical home environment is an important factor that is associated with lower drop out rates while conscientiousness and theory of musicality showed smaller significant associations.

Musical instrument engagement in adolescence predicts verbal ability 4 years later: A twin and adoption study

Individual differences in music traits are heritable and correlated with the development of cognitive and communication skills, but little is known about whether diverse modes of music engagement (e.g., playing instruments vs. singing) reflect similar underlying genetic/environmental influences. Moreover, the biological etiology underlying the relationship between musicality and childhood language development is poorly understood. Here we explored genetic and environmental associations between music engagement and verbal ability in the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development & cognitive aging (CATSLife). Adolescents (N = 1,684) completed measures of music engagement and intelligence at approximately age 12 and/or multiple tests of verbal ability at age 16. Structural equation models revealed that instrument engagement was highly heritable (a² = .78), with moderate heritability of singing (a² = .43) and dance engagement (a² = .66). Adolescent self-reported instrument engagement (but not singing or dance engagement) was genetically correlated with age 12 verbal intelligence and still was associated with age 16 verbal ability, even when controlling for age 12 full-scale intelligence, providing evidence for a longitudinal relationship between music engagement and language beyond shared general cognitive processes. Together, these novel findings suggest that shared genetic influences in part accounts for phenotypic associations between music engagement and language, but there may also be some (weak) direct benefits of music engagement on later language abilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Musical training mediates the relation between working memory capacity and preference for musical complexity

Previous research has examined the relationships among cognitive variables and musical training, but relatively less attention has addressed downstream effects of musical training on other psychological domains, such as aesthetic preference, and the potential impact of domain-general constructs, such as working memory. Accordingly, the present study sought to draw links between musical training, working memory capacity, and preference for musical complexity. Participants were assessed for their experience with musical training, their working-memory capacity, and their preference for musical complexity. Diverging from predictions based on vision research, our analyses revealed that musical training significantly mediated the association between working memory capacity and preference for music complexity. This significant mediation held even after a variety of sociodemographic variables (gender, education, socioeconomic status) were taken into account. Furthermore, the role of working memory capacity was domain general, such that the mediation was significant regardless of which measure of working memory capacity was used (tone, operation, or symmetry span). The current results develop a model of aesthetic preference that illuminates differences between vision and audition in terms of the multifaceted effects of complex skills training on cognition and affect. Moreover, they drive new work aimed at better understanding how domain-general constructs such as working memory capacity might interact with domain-specific cognition.

The Edinburgh Lifetime Musical Experience Questionnaire (ELMEQ): Responses and non-musical correlates in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

There is growing evidence of the potential effects of musical training on the human brain, as well as increasing interest in the potential contribution of musical experience to healthy ageing. Conducting research on these topics with older adults requires a comprehensive assessment of musical experience across the lifespan, as well as an understanding of which variables might correlate with musical training and experience (such as personality traits or years of education). The present study introduces a short questionnaire for assessing lifetime musical training and experience in older populations: the Edinburgh Lifetime Musical Experience Questionnaire (ELMEQ). 420 participants from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 completed the ELMEQ at a mean age of 82 years. We used their responses to the ELMEQ to address three objectives: 1) to report the prevalence of lifetime musical experience in a sample of older adults; 2) to demonstrate how certain item-level responses can be used to model latent variables quantifying experience in different musical domains (playing a musical instrument, singing, self-reported musical ability, and music listening); and 3) to examine non-musical (lifespan) correlates of these domains. In this cohort, 420 of 431 participants (97%) completed the questionnaire. 40% of participants reported some lifetime experience of playing a musical instrument, starting at a median age of 10 years and playing for a median of 5 years. 38% of participants reported some lifetime experience of singing in a group. Non-musical variables of childhood environment, years of education, childhood cognitive ability, female sex, extraversion, history of arthritis and fewer constraints on activities of daily living were found to be associated, variously, with the domains of playing a musical instrument, singing, self-reported musical ability, and music listening. The ELMEQ was found to be an effective research tool with older adults and is made freely available for future research.

Formal String Instrument Training in a Class Setting Enhances Cognitive and Sensorimotor Development of Primary School Children

This cluster randomized controlled trial provides evidence that focused musical instrumental practice, in comparison to traditional sensitization to music, provokes multiple transfer effects in the cognitive and sensorimotor domain. Over the last 2 years of primary school (10-12 years old), 69 children received group music instruction by professional musicians twice a week as part of the regular school curriculum. The intervention group learned to play string instruments, whereas the control group (i.e., peers in parallel classes) was sensitized to music via listening, theory and some practice. Broad benefits manifested in the intervention group as compared to the control group for working memory, attention, processing speed, cognitive flexibility, matrix reasoning, sensorimotor hand function, and bimanual coordination Apparently, learning to play a complex instrument in a dynamic group setting impacts development much stronger than classical sensitization to music. Our results therefore highlight the added value of intensive musical instrumental training in a group setting within the school curriculum. These results encourage general implementation of such training in public primary schools, thus better preparing children for secondary school and for daily living activities.

Beatboxers and Guitarists Engage Sensorimotor Regions Selectively When Listening to the Instruments They can Play

Studies of classical musicians have demonstrated that expertise modulates neural responses during auditory perception. However, it remains unclear whether such expertise-dependent plasticity is modulated by the instrument that a musician plays. To examine whether the recruitment of sensorimotor regions during music perception is modulated by instrument-specific experience, we studied nonclassical musicians-beatboxers, who predominantly use their vocal apparatus to produce sound, and guitarists, who use their hands. We contrast fMRI activity in 20 beatboxers, 20 guitarists, and 20 nonmusicians as they listen to novel beatboxing and guitar pieces. All musicians show enhanced activity in sensorimotor regions (IFG, IPC, and SMA), but only when listening to the musical instrument they can play. Using independent component analysis, we find expertise-selective enhancement in sensorimotor networks, which are distinct from changes in attentional networks. These findings suggest that long-term sensorimotor experience facilitates access to the posterodorsal "how" pathway during auditory processing.

On the Association Between Musical Training, Intelligence and Executive Functions in Adulthood

Converging evidence has demonstrated that musical training is associated with improved perceptual and cognitive skills, including executive functions and general intelligence, particularly in childhood. In contrast, in adults the relationship between cognitive performance and musicianship is less clear and seems to be modulated by a number of background factors, such as personality and socio-economic status. Aiming to shed new light on this topic, we administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS-III), the Wechsler Memory Scale III (WMS-III), and the Stroop Test to 101 Finnish healthy adults grouped according to their musical expertise (non-musicians, amateurs, and musicians). After being matched for socio-economic status, personality traits and other demographic variables, adult musicians exhibited higher cognitive performance than non-musicians in all the mentioned measures. Moreover, linear regression models showed significant positive relationships between executive functions (working memory and attention) and the duration of musical practice, even after controlling for intelligence and background variables, such as personality traits. Hence, our study offers further support for the association between cognitive abilities and musical training, even in adulthood.

HIGHLIGHTS

- Musicians show higher general intelligence (FSIQ), verbal intelligence (VIQ), working memory (WMI) and attention skills than non-musicians. Amateurs score in between.- Significant positive correlations between years of musical playing and cognitive abilities support the hypothesis that long-term musical practice is associated with intelligence and executive functions.

Music training is neuroprotective for verbal cognition in focal epilepsy

Focal epilepsy is a unilateral brain network disorder, providing an ideal neuropathological model with which to study the effects of focal neural disruption on a range of cognitive processes. While language and memory functions have been extensively investigated in focal epilepsy, music cognition has received less attention, particularly in patients with music training or expertise. This represents a critical gap in the literature. A better understanding of the effects of epilepsy on music cognition may provide greater insight into the mechanisms behind disease- and training-related neuroplasticity, which may have implications for clinical practice. In this cross-sectional study, we comprehensively profiled music and non-music cognition in 107 participants; musicians with focal epilepsy (n = 35), non-musicians with focal epilepsy (n = 39), and healthy control musicians and non-musicians (n = 33). Parametric group comparisons revealed a specific impairment in verbal cognition in non-musicians with epilepsy but not musicians with epilepsy, compared to healthy musicians and non-musicians (P = 0.029). This suggests a possible neuroprotective effect of music training against the cognitive sequelae of focal epilepsy, and implicates potential training-related cognitive transfer that may be underpinned by enhancement of auditory processes primarily supported by temporo-frontal networks. Furthermore, our results showed that musicians with an earlier age of onset of music training performed better on a composite score of melodic learning and memory compared to non-musicians (P = 0.037), while late-onset musicians did not differ from non-musicians. For most composite scores of music cognition, although no significant group differences were observed, a similar trend was apparent. We discuss these key findings in the context of a proposed model of three interacting dimensions (disease status, music expertise, and cognitive domain), and their implications for clinical practice, music education, and music neuroscience research.

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.

Musical competence and phoneme perception in a foreign language

We investigated whether musical competence was associated with the perception of foreign-language phonemes. The sample comprised adult native-speakers of English who varied in music training. The measures included tests of general cognitive abilities, melody and rhythm perception, and the perception of consonantal contrasts that were phonemic in Zulu but not in English. Music training was associated positively with performance on the tests of melody and rhythm perception, but not with performance on the phoneme-perception task. In other words, we found no evidence for transfer of music training to foreign-language speech perception. Rhythm perception was not associated with the perception of Zulu clicks, but such an association was evident when the phonemes sounded more similar to English consonants. Moreover, it persisted after controlling for general cognitive abilities and music training. By contrast, there was no association between melody perception and phoneme perception. The findings are consistent with proposals that music- and speech-perception rely on similar mechanisms of auditory temporal processing, and that this overlap is independent of general cognitive functioning. They provide no support, however, for the idea that music training improves speech perception.

Evaluating predisposition and training in shaping the musician's brain: the need for a developmental perspective

The study of music training as a model for structural plasticity has evolved significantly over the past 15 years. Neuroimaging studies have identified characteristic structural brain alterations in musicians compared to nonmusicians in school-age children and adults, using primarily cross-sectional designs. Despite this emerging evidence and advances in pediatric neuroimaging techniques, hardly any studies have examined brain development in early childhood (before age 8) in association with musical training, and longitudinal studies starting in infancy or preschool are particularly scarce. Consequently, it remains unclear whether the characteristic "musician brain" is solely the result of musical training, or whether certain predispositions may have an impact on its development. Moving toward a developmental perspective, the present review considers various factors that may contribute to early brain structure prior to the onset of formal musical training. This review introduces a model for potential neurobiological pathways leading to the characteristic "musician brain," which involves a developmental interaction between predisposition and its temporal dynamics, environmental experience, and training-induced plasticity. This perspective illuminates the importance of studying the brain structure associated with musical training through a developmental lens, and the need for longitudinal studies in early childhood to advance our understanding of music training-induced structural plasticity.

Rhythm and Melody Tasks for School-Aged Children With and Without Musical Training: Age-Equivalent Scores and Reliability

Measuring musical abilities in childhood can be challenging. When music training and maturation occur simultaneously, it is difficult to separate the effects of specific experience from age-based changes in cognitive and motor abilities. The goal of this study was to develop age-equivalent scores for two measures of musical ability that could be reliably used with school-aged children (7–13) with and without musical training. The children's Rhythm Synchronization Task (c-RST) and the children's Melody Discrimination Task (c-MDT) were adapted from adult tasks developed and used in our laboratories. The c-RST is a motor task in which children listen and then try to synchronize their taps with the notes of a woodblock rhythm while it plays twice in a row. The c-MDT is a perceptual task in which the child listens to two melodies and decides if the second was the same or different. We administered these tasks to 213 children in music camps (musicians, n = 130) and science camps (non-musicians, n = 83). We also measured children's paced tapping, non-paced tapping, and phonemic discrimination as baseline motor and auditory abilities We estimated internal-consistency reliability for both tasks, and compared children's performance to results from studies with adults. As expected, musically trained children outperformed those without music lessons, scores decreased as difficulty increased, and older children performed the best. Using non-musicians as a reference group, we generated a set of age-based z-scores, and used them to predict task performance with additional years of training. Years of lessons significantly predicted performance on both tasks, over and above the effect of age. We also assessed the relation between musician's scores on music tasks, baseline tasks, auditory working memory, and non-verbal reasoning. Unexpectedly, musician children outperformed non-musicians in two of three baseline tasks. The c-RST and c-MDT fill an important need for researchers interested in evaluating the impact of musical training in longitudinal studies, those interested in comparing the efficacy of different training methods, and for those assessing the impact of training on non-musical cognitive abilities such as language processing.

Preschoolers' conformity (and its motivation) is linked to own and parents' personalities

Previous studies on conformity have primarily focused on factors that moderate conformity rates overall and paid little attention to explaining the individual differences. In this study, we investigate five-factor model personality traits of both parents and children and experimentally elicited conformity in 3.5-year-olds (N = 59) using an Asch-like paradigm with which we measure both overt conformity (public responses) and covert opinions (private beliefs after conformist responses): A correct covert opinion after an incorrect conformist response results from a socially normative motivation, whereas an incorrect covert opinion results from an informational motivation. Our data show (1) low parental extroversion is associated with participants' overall rate of conformity, (2) and low participant extroversion and high openness are associated with an informational instead of a normative motivation to conform. This suggests that sensitivity to the social context or social engagement level, as manifested through extroversion, could be an important factor in conformist behaviour. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? We all conform, from early in life - and even when we should know better We can conform for normative and informational motivations Some are more prone to conform than others What does this study add? This is the first study to take an individual differences approach to developmental conformity Social engagement (extroversion) is an important factor in conformity.

Does Music Matter? A Look at the Issues and the Evidence

Does music matter? Judging from the ever-diminishing support for music education in public funding, the message is that it is just a frill to be cast aside for more pressing needs. The pleasure of listening to music is worthy in itself and reason enough for support, but what happens when people are more deeply engaged, such as when they learn to read music and play an instrument? Can more material rewards follow for cognition, language, and emotion, and for social and physical well-being? This essay presents an overview of issues and evidence from a broad range of disciplines and age groups.

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

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.

Group Music Training and Children's Prosocial Skills

We investigated if group music training in childhood is associated with prosocial skills. Children in 3^rd or 4^th grade who attended 10 months of music lessons taught in groups were compared to a control group of children matched for socio-economic status. All children were administered tests of prosocial skills near the beginning and end of the 10-month period. Compared to the control group, children in the music group had larger increases in sympathy and prosocial behavior, but this effect was limited to children who had poor prosocial skills before the lessons began. The effect was evident even when the lessons were compulsory, which minimized the role of self-selection. The results suggest that group music training facilitates the development of prosocial skills.