Music

Does Music Training Enhance Literacy Skills? A Meta-Analysis

Reyna L. Gordon, Hilda M. Fehd, Bruce D. McCandliss · Frontiers in Psychology · 2015 · 240 citations

Music training produces a small but reliable improvement in phonological awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words) in children, equivalent to about a 0.2 standard deviation gain, but does not reliably improve reading fluency; the effect on rhyming skills grows stronger with more hours of practice.

Music Training Increases Phonological Awareness and Reading Skills in Developmental Dyslexia: A Randomized Control Trial

Elena Flaugnacco, Luisa Lopez, Chiara Terribili +3 more · PLoS ONE · 2015 · 329 citations

A 7-month music training program improved phonological awareness (by ~1.5 standard deviations) and reading accuracy (by ~0.8 standard deviations) in children with developmental dyslexia compared to a control group receiving painting training, suggesting that rhythm and temporal processing exercises can transfer to language skills.

Effect of music-based multitask training on cognition and mood in older adults

Mélany Hars, François R. Herrmann, Gabriel Gold +2 more · Age and Ageing · 2013 · 123 citations

Six months of weekly group classes combining piano music with multitask exercises improved a specific aspect of frontal lobe function related to interference sensitivity and reduced anxiety in older adults, suggesting a potential strategy for maintaining cognitive and emotional well-being.

Music interventions in 132 healthy older adults enhance cerebellar grey matter and auditory working memory, despite general brain atrophy

Damien Marié, Cécile A. H. Müller, Eckart Altenmüller +8 more · Neuroimage Reports · 2023 · 40 citations

Six months of either piano practice or active music listening increased grey matter volume in the cerebellum and improved auditory working memory in healthy older adults, even though participants experienced the normal age-related brain shrinkage expected over that period.

Beneficial Effects of Listening to Classical Music in Patients With Heart Failure: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Francesco Burrai, Giuseppe D. Sanna, Eleonora Moccia +6 more · Journal of Cardiac Failure · 2019 · 54 citations

The Musicality of Non-Musicians: An Index for Assessing Musical Sophistication in the General Population

Daniel Müllensiefen, Bruno Gingras, Jason Musil +1 more · PLoS ONE · 2014 · 1,173 citations

Musical skills and expertise vary greatly in Western societies. Individuals can differ in their repertoire of musical behaviours as well as in the level of skill they display for any single musical behaviour. The types of musical behaviours we refer to here are broad, ranging from performance on an instrument and listening expertise, to the ability to employ music in functional settings or to communicate about music. In this paper, we first describe the concept of 'musical sophistication' which can be used to describe the multi-faceted nature of musical expertise. Next, we develop a novel measurement instrument, the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) to assess self-reported musical skills and behaviours on multiple dimensions in the general population using a large Internet sample (n = 147,636). Thirdly, we report results from several lab studies, demonstrating that the Gold-MSI possesses good psychometric properties, and that self-reported musical sophistication is associated with performance on two listening tasks. Finally, we identify occupation, occupational status, age, gender, and wealth as the main socio-demographic factors associated with musical sophistication. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical accounts of implicit and statistical music learning and with regard to social conditions of sophisticated musical engagement.

Musical Training Shapes Structural Brain Development

Krista L. Hyde, Jason P. Lerch, Andrea Norton +4 more · Journal of Neuroscience · 2009 · 963 citations

The human brain has the remarkable capacity to alter in response to environmental demands. Training-induced structural brain changes have been demonstrated in the healthy adult human brain. However, no study has yet directly related structural brain changes to behavioral changes in the developing brain, addressing the question of whether structural brain differences seen in adults (comparing experts with matched controls) are a product of "nature" (via biological brain predispositions) or "nurture" (via early training). Long-term instrumental music training is an intense, multisensory, and motor experience and offers an ideal opportunity to study structural brain plasticity in the developing brain in correlation with behavioral changes induced by training. Here we demonstrate structural brain changes after only 15 months of musical training in early childhood, which were correlated with improvements in musically relevant motor and auditory skills. These findings shed light on brain plasticity and suggest that structural brain differences in adult experts (whether musicians or experts in other areas) are likely due to training-induced brain plasticity.

Music listening enhances cognitive recovery and mood after middle cerebral artery stroke

Teppo Särkämö, Mari Tervaniemi, S. Laitinen +9 more · Brain · 2008 · 886 citations

We know from animal studies that a stimulating and enriched environment can enhance recovery after stroke, but little is known about the effects of an enriched sound environment on recovery from neural damage in humans. In humans, music listening activates a wide-spread bilateral network of brain regions related to attention, semantic processing, memory, motor functions, and emotional processing. Music exposure also enhances emotional and cognitive functioning in healthy subjects and in various clinical patient groups. The potential role of music in neurological rehabilitation, however, has not been systematically investigated. This single-blind, randomized, and controlled trial was designed to determine whether everyday music listening can facilitate the recovery of cognitive functions and mood after stroke. In the acute recovery phase, 60 patients with a left or right hemisphere middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke were randomly assigned to a music group, a language group, or a control group. During the following two months, the music and language groups listened daily to self-selected music or audio books, respectively, while the control group received no listening material. In addition, all patients received standard medical care and rehabilitation. All patients underwent an extensive neuropsychological assessment, which included a wide range of cognitive tests as well as mood and quality of life questionnaires, one week (baseline), 3 months, and 6 months after the stroke. Fifty-four patients completed the study. Results showed that recovery in the domains of verbal memory and focused attention improved significantly more in the music group than in the language and control groups. The music group also experienced less depressed and confused mood than the control group. These findings demonstrate for the first time that music listening during the early post-stroke stage can enhance cognitive recovery and prevent negative mood. The neural mechanisms potentially underlying these effects are discussed.

A Case of Aphasia

Hubert L. Gerstman · Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders · 1964 · 47 citations

This 1964 paper is not a meta-analysis but a single case report of a patient with aphasia who recovered speech through a novel therapy called Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), and the subsequent citation history shows this approach has been replicated and refined over decades, with modern meta-analyses finding that MIT produces moderate improvements in speech output for chronic nonfluent aphasia patients.

Self-efficacy and music performance: A meta-analysis

Michael S. Zelenak · Psychology of Music · 2024 · 16 citations

Believing you can perform well (self-efficacy) has a medium-sized positive effect on actual music achievement and a medium-sized negative effect on music performance anxiety, and targeted interventions can substantially boost self-efficacy — but the effects vary by age group and the evidence is weaker for vocalists than instrumentalists.

Syncopation, Body-Movement and Pleasure in Groove Music

Maria A. G. Witek, Eric Clarke, Mikkel Wallentin +2 more · PLoS ONE · 2014 · 411 citations

Moving to music is an essential human pleasure particularly related to musical groove. Structurally, music associated with groove is often characterised by rhythmic complexity in the form of syncopation, frequently observed in musical styles such as funk, hip-hop and electronic dance music. Structural complexity has been related to positive affect in music more broadly, but the function of syncopation in eliciting pleasure and body-movement in groove is unknown. Here we report results from a web-based survey which investigated the relationship between syncopation and ratings of wanting to move and experienced pleasure. Participants heard funk drum-breaks with varying degrees of syncopation and audio entropy, and rated the extent to which the drum-breaks made them want to move and how much pleasure they experienced. While entropy was found to be a poor predictor of wanting to move and pleasure, the results showed that medium degrees of syncopation elicited the most desire to move and the most pleasure, particularly for participants who enjoy dancing to music. Hence, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between syncopation, body-movement and pleasure, and syncopation seems to be an important structural factor in embodied and affective responses to groove.

Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians

Christian Gaser, Gottfried Schlaug · Journal of Neuroscience · 2003 · 1,630 citations

From an early age, musicians learn complex motor and auditory skills (e.g., the translation of visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands with simultaneous auditory monitoring of output), which they practice extensively from childhood throughout their entire careers. Using a voxel-by-voxel morphometric technique, we found gray matter volume differences in motor, auditory, and visual-spatial brain regions when comparing professional musicians (keyboard players) with a matched group of amateur musicians and non-musicians. Although some of these multiregional differences could be attributable to innate predisposition, we believe they may represent structural adaptations in response to long-term skill acquisition and the repetitive rehearsal of those skills. This hypothesis is supported by the strong association we found between structural differences, musician status, and practice intensity, as well as the wealth of supporting animal data showing structural changes in response to long-term motor training. However, only future experiments can determine the relative contribution of predisposition and practice.

Listening to Musical Rhythms Recruits Motor Regions of the Brain

Jerry L. Chen, Virginia B. Penhune, Robert J. Zatorre · Cerebral Cortex · 2008 · 785 citations

Perception and actions can be tightly coupled; but does a perceptual event dissociated from action processes still engage the motor system? We conducted 2 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies involving rhythm perception and production to address this question. In experiment 1, on each trial subjects 1st listened in anticipation of tapping, and then tapped along with musical rhythms. Recruitment of the supplementary motor area, mid-premotor cortex (PMC), and cerebellum was observed during listen with anticipation. To test whether this activation was related to motor planning or rehearsal, in experiment 2 subjects naively listened to rhythms without foreknowledge that they would later tap along with them. Yet, the same motor regions were engaged despite no action-perception connection. In contrast, the ventral PMC was only recruited during action and action-coupled perceptual processes, whereas the dorsal part was only sensitive to the selection of actions based on higher-order rules of temporal organization. These functional dissociations shed light on the nature of action-perception processes and suggest an inherent link between auditory and motor systems in the context of rhythm.

Emotion recognition based on physiological changes in music listening

Jonghwa Kim, Elisabeth André · IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence · 2008 · 1,065 citations

Little attention has been paid so far to physiological signals for emotion recognition compared to audiovisual emotion channels such as facial expression or speech. This paper investigates the potential of physiological signals as reliable channels for emotion recognition. All essential stages of an automatic recognition system are discussed, from the recording of a physiological dataset to a feature-based multiclass classification. In order to collect a physiological dataset from multiple subjects over many weeks, we used a musical induction method which spontaneously leads subjects to real emotional states, without any deliberate lab setting. Four-channel biosensors were used to measure electromyogram, electrocardiogram, skin conductivity and respiration changes. A wide range of physiological features from various analysis domains, including time/frequency, entropy, geometric analysis, subband spectra, multiscale entropy, etc., is proposed in order to find the best emotion-relevant features and to correlate them with emotional states. The best features extracted are specified in detail and their effectiveness is proven by classification results. Classification of four musical emotions (positive/high arousal, negative/high arousal, negative/low arousal, positive/low arousal) is performed by using an extended linear discriminant analysis (pLDA). Furthermore, by exploiting a dichotomic property of the 2D emotion model, we develop a novel scheme of emotion-specific multilevel dichotomous classification (EMDC) and compare its performance with direct multiclass classification using the pLDA. Improved recognition accuracy of 95\% and 70\% for subject-dependent and subject-independent classification, respectively, is achieved by using the EMDC scheme.

Why would Musical Training Benefit the Neural Encoding of Speech? The OPERA Hypothesis

Aniruddh D. Patel · Frontiers in Psychology · 2011 · 657 citations

Mounting evidence suggests that musical training benefits the neural encoding of speech. This paper offers a hypothesis specifying why such benefits occur. The "OPERA" hypothesis proposes that such benefits are driven by adaptive plasticity in speech-processing networks, and that this plasticity occurs when five conditions are met. These are: (1) Overlap: there is anatomical overlap in the brain networks that process an acoustic feature used in both music and speech (e.g., waveform periodicity, amplitude envelope), (2) Precision: music places higher demands on these shared networks than does speech, in terms of the precision of processing, (3) Emotion: the musical activities that engage this network elicit strong positive emotion, (4) Repetition: the musical activities that engage this network are frequently repeated, and (5) Attention: the musical activities that engage this network are associated with focused attention. According to the OPERA hypothesis, when these conditions are met neural plasticity drives the networks in question to function with higher precision than needed for ordinary speech communication. Yet since speech shares these networks with music, speech processing benefits. The OPERA hypothesis is used to account for the observed superior subcortical encoding of speech in musically trained individuals, and to suggest mechanisms by which musical training might improve linguistic reading abilities.

Effectiveness of Music Therapy and Emotional Freedom Technique on Test Anxiety in Turkish Nursing Students: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Demet İnangil, Pınar İrmak Vural, Sibel Doğan +1 more · European Journal of Integrative Medicine · 2019 · 25 citations

Early Musical Training and White-Matter Plasticity in the Corpus Callosum: Evidence for a Sensitive Period

Christopher J. Steele, Jennifer A. Bailey, Robert J. Zatorre +1 more · Journal of Neuroscience · 2013 · 391 citations

Training during a sensitive period in development may have greater effects on brain structure and behavior than training later in life. Musicians are an excellent model for investigating sensitive periods because training starts early and can be quantified. Previous studies suggested that early training might be related to greater amounts of white matter in the corpus callosum, but did not control for length of training or identify behavioral correlates of structural change. The current study compared white-matter organization using diffusion tensor imaging in early- and late-trained musicians matched for years of training and experience. We found that early-trained musicians had greater connectivity in the posterior midbody/isthmus of the corpus callosum and that fractional anisotropy in this region was related to age of onset of training and sensorimotor synchronization performance. We propose that training before the age of 7 years results in changes in white-matter connectivity that may serve as a scaffold upon which ongoing experience can build.

Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation

Charles J. Limb, Allen R. Braun · PLoS ONE · 2008 · 770 citations

To investigate the neural substrates that underlie spontaneous musical performance, we examined improvisation in professional jazz pianists using functional MRI. By employing two paradigms that differed widely in musical complexity, we found that improvisation (compared to production of over-learned musical sequences) was consistently characterized by a dissociated pattern of activity in the prefrontal cortex: extensive deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral orbital regions with focal activation of the medial prefrontal (frontal polar) cortex. Such a pattern may reflect a combination of psychological processes required for spontaneous improvisation, in which internally motivated, stimulus-independent behaviors unfold in the absence of central processes that typically mediate self-monitoring and conscious volitional control of ongoing performance. Changes in prefrontal activity during improvisation were accompanied by widespread activation of neocortical sensorimotor areas (that mediate the organization and execution of musical performance) as well as deactivation of limbic structures (that regulate motivation and emotional tone). This distributed neural pattern may provide a cognitive context that enables the emergence of spontaneous creative activity.

Transfer of Training between Music and Speech: Common Processing, Attention, and Memory

Mireille Besson, Julie Chobert, Céline Marie · Frontiers in Psychology · 2011 · 364 citations

After a brief historical perspective of the relationship between language and music, we review our work on transfer of training from music to speech that aimed at testing the general hypothesis that musicians should be more sensitive than non-musicians to speech sounds. In light of recent results in the literature, we argue that when long-term experience in one domain influences acoustic processing in the other domain, results can be interpreted as common acoustic processing. But when long-term experience in one domain influences the building-up of abstract and specific percepts in another domain, results are taken as evidence for transfer of training effects. Moreover, we also discuss the influence of attention and working memory on transfer effects and we highlight the usefulness of the event-related potentials method to disentangle the different processes that unfold in the course of music and speech perception. Finally, we give an overview of an on-going longitudinal project with children aimed at testing transfer effects from music to different levels and aspects of speech processing.

Music Training, Cognition, and Personality

Kathleen A. Corrigall, E. Glenn Schellenberg, Nicole M. Misura · Frontiers in Psychology · 2013 · 362 citations

Although most studies that examined associations between music training and cognitive abilities had correlational designs, the prevailing bias is that music training causes improvements in cognition. It is also possible, however, that high-functioning children are more likely than other children to take music lessons, and that they also differ in personality. We asked whether individual differences in cognition and personality predict who takes music lessons and for how long. The participants were 118 adults (Study 1) and 167 10- to 12-year-old children (Study 2). We collected demographic information and measured cognitive ability and the Big Five personality dimensions. As in previous research, cognitive ability was associated with musical involvement even when demographic variables were controlled statistically. Novel findings indicated that personality was associated with musical involvement when demographics and cognitive ability were held constant, and that openness-to-experience was the personality dimension with the best predictive power. These findings reveal that: (1) individual differences influence who takes music lessons and for how long, (2) personality variables are at least as good as cognitive variables at predicting music training, and (3) future correlational studies of links between music training and non-musical ability should account for individual differences in personality.

Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Executive Functioning in Musicians and Non-Musicians

Jennifer Zuk, Christopher Benjamin, Arnold Kenyon +1 more · PLoS ONE · 2014 · 328 citations

Executive functions (EF) are cognitive capacities that allow for planned, controlled behavior and strongly correlate with academic abilities. Several extracurricular activities have been shown to improve EF, however, the relationship between musical training and EF remains unclear due to methodological limitations in previous studies. To explore this further, two experiments were performed; one with 30 adults with and without musical training and one with 27 musically trained and untrained children (matched for general cognitive abilities and socioeconomic variables) with a standardized EF battery. Furthermore, the neural correlates of EF skills in musically trained and untrained children were investigated using fMRI. Adult musicians compared to non-musicians showed enhanced performance on measures of cognitive flexibility, working memory, and verbal fluency. Musically trained children showed enhanced performance on measures of verbal fluency and processing speed, and significantly greater activation in pre-SMA/SMA and right VLPFC during rule representation and task-switching compared to musically untrained children. Overall, musicians show enhanced performance on several constructs of EF, and musically trained children further show heightened brain activation in traditional EF regions during task-switching. These results support the working hypothesis that musical training may promote the development and maintenance of certain EF skills, which could mediate the previously reported links between musical training and enhanced cognitive skills and academic achievement.

Twelve Months of Active Musical Training in 8- to 10-Year-Old Children Enhances the Preattentive Processing of Syllabic Duration and Voice Onset Time

Julie Chobert, C. Francois, Jean‐Luc Velay +1 more · Cerebral Cortex · 2012 · 303 citations

Musical training has been shown to positively influence linguistic abilities. To follow the developmental dynamics of this transfer effect at the preattentive level, we conducted a longitudinal study over 2 school years with nonmusician children randomly assigned to music or to painting training. We recorded the mismatch negativity (MMN), a cortical correlate of preattentive mismatch detection, to syllables that differed in vowel frequency, vowel duration, and voice onset time (VOT), using a test-training-retest procedure and 3 times of testing: before training, after 6 months and after 12 months of training. While no between-group differences were found before training, enhanced preattentive processing of syllabic duration and VOT, as reflected by greater MMN amplitude, but not of frequency, was found after 12 months of training in the music group only. These results demonstrate neuroplasticity in the child brain and suggest that active musical training rather than innate predispositions for music yielded the improvements in musically trained children. These results also highlight the influence of musical training for duration perception in speech and for the development of phonological representations in normally developing children. They support the importance of music-based training programs for children's education and open new remediation strategies for children with language-based learning impairments.

Feeling the Beat: Premotor and Striatal Interactions in Musicians and Nonmusicians during Beat Perception

Jessica A. Grahn, James B. Rowe · Journal of Neuroscience · 2009 · 604 citations

Little is known about the underlying neurobiology of rhythm and beat perception, despite its universal cultural importance. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study rhythm perception in musicians and nonmusicians. Three conditions varied in the degree to which external reinforcement versus internal generation of the beat was required. The "volume" condition strongly externally marked the beat with volume changes, the "duration" condition marked the beat with weaker accents arising from duration changes, and the "unaccented" condition required the beat to be entirely internally generated. In all conditions, beat rhythms compared with nonbeat control rhythms revealed putamen activity. The presence of a beat was also associated with greater connectivity between the putamen and the supplementary motor area (SMA), the premotor cortex (PMC), and auditory cortex. In contrast, the type of accent within the beat conditions modulated the coupling between premotor and auditory cortex, with greater modulation for musicians than nonmusicians. Importantly, the response of the putamen to beat conditions was not attributable to differences in temporal complexity between the three rhythm conditions. We propose that a cortico-subcortical network including the putamen, SMA, and PMC is engaged for the analysis of temporal sequences and prediction or generation of putative beats, especially under conditions that may require internal generation of the beat. The importance of this system for auditory-motor interaction and development of precisely timed movement is suggested here by its facilitation in musicians.

Musical Experience Limits the Degradative Effects of Background Noise on the Neural Processing of Sound

Alexandra Parbery‐Clark, Erika Skoe, Nina Kraus · Journal of Neuroscience · 2009 · 438 citations

Musicians have lifelong experience parsing melodies from background harmonies, which can be considered a process analogous to speech perception in noise. To investigate the effect of musical experience on the neural representation of speech-in-noise, we compared subcortical neurophysiological responses to speech in quiet and noise in a group of highly trained musicians and nonmusician controls. Musicians were found to have a more robust subcortical representation of the acoustic stimulus in the presence of noise. Specifically, musicians demonstrated faster neural timing, enhanced representation of speech harmonics, and less degraded response morphology in noise. Neural measures were associated with better behavioral performance on the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) for which musicians outperformed the nonmusician controls. These findings suggest that musical experience limits the negative effects of competing background noise, thereby providing the first biological evidence for musicians' perceptual advantage for speech-in-noise.

The Musical Ear Test, a new reliable test for measuring musical competence

Mikkel Wallentin, Andreas Højlund, Morten Friis-Olivarius +2 more · Learning and Individual Differences · 2010 · 308 citations

This paper reports results from three experiments using the Musical Ear Test (MET), a new test designed for measuring musical abilities in both musicians and non-musicians in an objective way with a relatively short duration (< 20 min.). In the first experiment we show how the MET is capable of clearly distinguishing between a group of professional musicians and a group of non-musicians. In the second experiment we demonstrate that results from the MET are strongly correlated with measures of musical expertise obtained using an imitation test. In the third experiment we show that the MET also clearly distinguishes groups of non-musicians, amateurs and professional musicians. The test is found to have a large internal consistency (Cronbach alpha: 0.87). We further show a correlation with amount of practice within the group of professionals as well as a correlation with a forward digit span test.

Being Together in Time: Musical Experience and the Mirror Neuron System

Katie Overy, Istvan Molnar-Szakacs · Music Perception An Interdisciplinary Journal · 2009 · 496 citations

THE DISCOVERY OF INDIVIDUAL "MIRROR NEURONS" in the macaque brain that fire both when an action is executed and when that same action is observed or heard, and of a homologous system in humans, is leading to an extraordinary conceptual shift in our understanding of perception-action mechanisms, human communication, and empathy. In a recent model of emotional responses to music (Molnar-Szakacs &amp; Overy, 2006), we proposed that music is perceived not only as an auditory signal, but also as intentional, hierarchically organized sequences of expressive motor acts behind the signal; and that the human mirror neuron system allows for corepresentation and sharing of a musical experience between agent and listener. Here, we expand upon this model of Shared Affective Motion Experience (SAME) and discuss its implications for music therapy and special education.We hypothesize that imitation, synchronization, and shared experience may be key elements of successful work in these areas.

Music and Dyslexia: A New Musical Training Method to Improve Reading and Related Disorders

Michel Habib, Chloé Lardy, Tristan Desiles +3 more · Frontiers in Psychology · 2016 · 160 citations

Numerous arguments in the recent neuroscientific literature support the use of musical training as a therapeutic tool among the arsenal already available to therapists and educators for treating children with dyslexia. In the present study, we tested the efficacy of a specially-designed Cognitivo-Musical Training (CMT) method based upon three principles: (1) music-language analogies: training dyslexics with music could contribute to improve brain circuits which are common to music and language processes; (2) the temporal and rhythmic features of music, which could exert a positive effect on the multiple dimensions of the "temporal deficit" characteristic of some types of dyslexia; and (3) cross-modal integration, based on converging evidence of impaired connectivity between brain regions in dyslexia and related disorders. Accordingly, we developed a series of musical exercises involving jointly and simultaneously sensory (visual, auditory, somatosensory) and motor systems, with special emphasis on rhythmic perception and production in addition to intensive training of various features of the musical auditory signal. Two separate studies were carried out, one in which dyslexic children received intensive musical exercises concentrated over 18 h during 3 consecutive days, and the other in which the 18 h of musical training were spread over 6 weeks. Both studies showed significant improvements in some untrained, linguistic and non-linguistic variables. The first one yielded significant improvement in categorical perception and auditory perception of temporal components of speech. The second study revealed additional improvements in auditory attention, phonological awareness (syllable fusion), reading abilities, and repetition of pseudo-words. Importantly, most improvements persisted after an untrained period of 6 weeks. These results provide new additional arguments for using music as part of systematic therapeutic and instructional practice for dyslexic children.

Broca's Area Supports Enhanced Visuospatial Cognition in Orchestral Musicians

Vanessa Sluming, J.C. Brooks, Matthew A. Howard +2 more · Journal of Neuroscience · 2007 · 217 citations

We provide neurobehavioral evidence supporting the transferable benefit of music training to alter brain function and enhance cognitive performance in a nonmusical visuospatial task in professional orchestral musicians. In particular, orchestral musicians' performance on a three-dimensional mental rotation (3DMR) task exhibited the behavioral profile normally only attained after significant practice, supporting the suggestion that these musicians already possessed well developed neural circuits to support 3DMR. Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that only orchestral musicians showed significantly increased activation in Broca's area, in addition to the well known visuospatial network, which was activated in both musicians and nonmusicians who were matched on age, sex, and verbal intelligence. We interpret these functional neuroimaging findings to reflect preferential recruitment of Broca's area, part of the neural substrate supporting sight reading and motor-sequence organization underpinning musical performance, to subserve 3DMR in musicians. Our data, therefore, provide convergent behavioral and neurofunctional evidence supporting the suggestion that development of the sight-reading skills of musical performance alters brain circuit organization which, in turn, confers a wider cognitive benefit, in particular, to nonmusical visuospatial cognition in professional orchestral musicians.

Mapping perception to action in piano practice: a longitudinal DC-EEG study

Marc Bangert, Eckart Altenmüller · BMC Neuroscience · 2003 · 390 citations

BACKGROUND: Performing music requires fast auditory and motor processing. Regarding professional musicians, recent brain imaging studies have demonstrated that auditory stimulation produces a co-activation of motor areas, whereas silent tapping of musical phrases evokes a co-activation in auditory regions. Whether this is obtained via a specific cerebral relay station is unclear. Furthermore, the time course of plasticity has not yet been addressed. RESULTS: Changes in cortical activation patterns (DC-EEG potentials) induced by short (20 minute) and long term (5 week) piano learning were investigated during auditory and motoric tasks. Two beginner groups were trained. The 'map' group was allowed to learn the standard piano key-to-pitch map. For the 'no-map' group, random assignment of keys to tones prevented such a map. Auditory-sensorimotor EEG co-activity occurred within only 20 minutes. The effect was enhanced after 5-week training, contributing elements of both perception and action to the mental representation of the instrument. The 'map' group demonstrated significant additional activity of right anterior regions. CONCLUSION: We conclude that musical training triggers instant plasticity in the cortex, and that right-hemispheric anterior areas provide an audio-motor interface for the mental representation of the keyboard.

Singing can facilitate foreign language learning

Karen M. Ludke, Fernanda Ferreira, Katie Overy · Memory & Cognition · 2013 · 185 citations

One year of musical training affects development of auditory cortical-evoked fields in young children

Takako Fujioka · Brain · 2006 · 356 citations

Auditory evoked responses to a violin tone and a noise-burst stimulus were recorded from 4- to 6-year-old children in four repeated measurements over a 1-year period using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Half of the subjects participated in musical lessons throughout the year; the other half had no music lessons. Auditory evoked magnetic fields showed prominent bilateral P100m, N250m, P320m and N450m peaks. Significant change in the peak latencies of all components except P100m was observed over time. Larger P100m and N450m amplitude as well as more rapid change of N250m amplitude and latency was associated with the violin rather than the noise stimuli. Larger P100m and P320m peak amplitudes in the left hemisphere than in the right are consistent with left-lateralized cortical development in this age group. A clear musical training effect was expressed in a larger and earlier N250m peak in the left hemisphere in response to the violin sound in musically trained children compared with untrained children. This difference coincided with pronounced morphological change in a time window between 100 and 400 ms, which was observed in musically trained children in response to violin stimuli only, whereas in untrained children a similar change was present regardless of stimulus type. This transition could be related to establishing a neural network associated with sound categorization and/or involuntary attention, which can be altered by music learning experience.

Degree of Musical Expertise Modulates Higher Order Brain Functioning

Mathias S. Oechslin, Dimitri Van De Ville, François Lazeyras +2 more · Cerebral Cortex · 2012 · 127 citations

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show for the first time that levels of musical expertise stepwise modulate higher order brain functioning. This suggests that degree of training intensity drives such cerebral plasticity. Participants (non-musicians, amateurs, and expert musicians) listened to a comprehensive set of specifically composed string quartets with hierarchically manipulated endings. In particular, we implemented 2 irregularities at musical closure that differed in salience but were both within the tonality of the piece (in-key). Behavioral sensitivity scores (d') of both transgressions perfectly separated participants according to their level of musical expertise. By contrasting brain responses to harmonic transgressions against regular endings, functional brain imaging data showed compelling evidence for stepwise modulation of brain responses by both violation strength and expertise level in a fronto-temporal network hosting universal functions of working memory and attention. Additional independent testing evidenced an advantage in visual working memory for the professionals, which could be predicted by musical training intensity. The here introduced findings of brain plasticity demonstrate the progressive impact of musical training on cognitive brain functions that may manifest well beyond the field of music processing.

Effects of educational music training on music performance anxiety and stress response among first-year undergraduate music education students

Edith Nwakaego Nwokenna, Abatihun Alehegn Sewagegn, Temitope Ayodeji Falade · Medicine · 2022 · 9 citations

BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of educational music training in lowering stress and performance anxiety among first-year undergraduate music education students is an understudied area. The goal of this study was to determine if educational music training affects first-year undergraduate music education students' stress and anxiety associated with musical performance. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial design was used in this study. A waiting list group of 35 students and an educational music training intervention group of 35 first-year undergraduate music education students were randomized for the study to commence. The Kenny music performance anxiety (MPA) scale and perceived stress scale (PSS) were used as outcome measures. RESULTS: The findings show that, among first-year undergraduate music education students, educational music training decreased their stress level associated with music performance [F(1, 68) = 390.751; P = .001, ηp2 = 0.270]. It was also found that after the educational music training, the students reported decreased anxiety level associated with music performance [F(1, 68) = 1375.495; P = .001, ηp2 = 0.344]. Significant interaction effects of educational music training and time on students' stress [F(2, 68) = 127.301; P = .001] and anxiety levels [F(2, 68) = 260.535; P = .001] were also found. CONCLUSION: Educational music intervention can be successful as a means of reducing anxiety and stress in undergraduate music education students during the first year of study.

Searching for Roots of Entrainment and Joint Action in Early Musical Interactions

Jessica Phillips-Silver, Peter E. Keller · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · 2012 · 198 citations

When people play music and dance together, they engage in forms of musical joint action that are often characterized by a shared sense of rhythmic timing and affective state (i.e., temporal and affective entrainment). In order to understand the origins of musical joint action, we propose a model in which entrainment is linked to dual mechanisms (motor resonance and action simulation), which in turn support musical behavior (imitation and complementary joint action). To illustrate this model, we consider two generic forms of joint musical behavior: chorusing and turn-taking. We explore how these common behaviors can be founded on entrainment capacities established early in human development, specifically during musical interactions between infants and their caregivers. If the roots of entrainment are found in early musical interactions which are practiced from childhood into adulthood, then we propose that the rehearsal of advanced musical ensemble skills can be considered to be a refined, mimetic form of temporal and affective entrainment whose evolution begins in infancy.

Enriched childhood experiences moderate age-related motor and cognitive decline

Megan J. Metzler, Deborah M. Saucier, Gerlinde A. S. Metz · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · 2013 · 345 citations

Aging is associated with deterioration of skilled manual movement. Specifically, aging corresponds with increased reaction time, greater movement duration, segmentation of movement, increased movement variability, and reduced ability to adapt to external forces and inhibit previously learned sequences. Moreover, it is thought that decreased lateralization of neural function in older adults may point to increased neural recruitment as a compensatory response to deterioration of key frontal and intra-hemispheric networks, particularly of callosal structures. However, factors that mediate age-related motor decline are not well understood. Here we show that music training in childhood is associated with reduced age-related decline of bimanual and unimanual motor skills in a MIDI keyboard motor learning task. Compared to older adults without music training, older adults with more than a year of music training demonstrated proficient bimanual and unimanual movement, evidenced by enhanced speed and decreased movement errors. Further, this group demonstrated significantly better implicit learning in the weather prediction task, a non-motor task. The performance of older adults with music training in those tasks was comparable to young adults. Older adults, however, displayed greater verbal ability compared to young adults irrespective of a past history of music training. Our results indicate that music training early in life may reduce age-associated decline of neural motor and cognitive networks.

Yoga Ameliorates Performance Anxiety and Mood Disturbance in Young Professional Musicians

Sat Bir S. Khalsa, Stephanie Shorter, Stephen Cope +2 more · Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback · 2009 · 155 citations

“Moving to the beat” improves timing perception

Fiona C. Manning, Michael Schutz · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · 2013 · 177 citations

Time discrimination in a monotonic, isochronous sequence

Anders Friberg, Johan Sundberg · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1995 · 245 citations

In acoustic communication timing seems to be an exceedingly important aspect. The just noticeable difference (jnd) for small perturbations of an isochronous sequence of sounds is particularly important in music, in which such sequences frequently occur. This article reviews the literature in the area and presents an experiment designed to resolve some conflicting results in the literature regarding the tempo dependence for quick tempi and relevance of music experience. The jnd for a perturbation of the timing of a tone appearing in an isochronous sequence was examined by the method of adjustment. Thirty listeners of varied musical background were asked to adjust the position of the fourth tone in a sequence of six, such that they heard the sequence as perfectly isochronous. The tones were presented at a constant interonset time that was varied between 100 and 1000 ms. The absolute jnd was found to be approximately constant at 6 ms for tone interonset intervals shorter than about 240 ms and the relative jnd constant at 2.5% of the tone interonsets above 240 ms. Subjects’ musical training did not affect these values. Comparison with previous work showed that a constant absolute jnd below 250 ms and constant relative jnd above 250 ms tend to appear regardless of the perturbation type, at least if the sequence is relatively short.

Mindfulness for Singers: A Mixed Methods Replication Study

Anne-Marie Czajkowski, Alinka Greasley, Michael Allis · Music & Science · 2021 · 7 citations

Objectives: Mindfulness has been explored in the clinical and educational fields but has rarely been studied in the music domain. This study investigated the effects of teaching eight-week Mindfulness for Singers courses on vocalists’ music education and performance. Methods: A mixed methods approach was utilized, which included controlled and randomized controlled trials using standardized and novel mindfulness measures pre- and post-intervention, interviews post-intervention and three months later, concurrent diaries, and a blinded teacher study. Participants included singing students (total n=52) and their teachers ( n=11) from a university and a music college over a period of two years. Results: Levels of mindfulness increased over the intervention for experimental participants in comparison to controls. Considering their total student cohort, teachers identified 61% of eligible mindfulness singing participants as having completed the mindfulness intervention. Experimental participants reported that learning mindfulness had positive effects in lessons, solo and group instrumental practices, and when performing on stage. They described more focus and attention, positive effects of increased body awareness on singing technique, enhanced socio-collaborative relationships, reductions in performance anxiety, and beneficial effects whilst performing, such as more expressivity and enjoyment. Conclusions: Learning mindfulness had positive holistic effects on vocal students and was well received by their mindfulness-naïve singing teachers. Findings suggest that it would be highly beneficial for mindfulness to be made available in music conservatoires and university music departments alongside singing lessons for singers to enhance their present experience as vocal students and their futures as performers and teachers.

The efficacy of music therapy in alleviating anxiety among college students: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Li S, Gong Z, Wang R +4 more · Front Psychol · 2025 · 0 citations

Music therapy — whether listening to music, making music, or a combination — reduces anxiety in college students by a large amount (SMD = –1.54), but the evidence comes from small, poorly blinded studies with very high variability, so the true effect for any individual could be much smaller or larger.

Effects of Relaxing and Arousing Music during Imagery Training on Dart-Throwing Performance, Physiological Arousal Indices, and Competitive State Anxiety

Garry Kuan, Tony Morris, Yee Cheng Kueh +1 more · Frontiers in Psychology · 2018 · 73 citations

Researchers have suggested that music can be carefully selected to match the requirements of activities and characteristics of both individuals and groups, in order to produce significant impacts on performance enhancement (Priest, Karageorghis, & Sharp, 2004). Although there is also evidence that music can affect imagery (e.g., Grocke & Wigram, 2007), research examining the impact of the characteristics of music on imagery is still limited. Thus, the effect of relaxing and arousing music during imagery on dart-throwing performance, physiological arousal indices, and competitive state anxiety, were investigated among 63 novice dart throwers with moderate-to-high imagery ability, randomly assigned to unfamiliar relaxing music (URM), unfamiliar arousing music (UAM), or no music (NM) groups. Performance was assessed by 40 dart throws at a concentric circles dartboard before and after 12 imagery sessions over 4 weeks. Measures of galvanic skin response (GSR), peripheral temperature (PT), and heart rate (HR) were taken during imagery sessions 1 and 12, and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised (CSAI-2R) was administered prior to the pre- and post-intervention performance task. Dart-throwing gain scores were significantly higher for URM than for UAM and NM, with no significant difference between UAM and NM (URM = 37.24 ± 5.66, UAM = 17.57 ± 5.30, and NM = 13.19 ± 6.14, F2,62 = 5.03, p = .01, eta2 = .14). GSR, PT, and HR reflected lower arousal for URM than for UAM or NM. Significant decreases in somatic anxiety were evident for URM and UAM but not NM. Significant decreases in cognitive anxiety were evident for URM and NM but not UAM. Significant increases in self-confidence were evident for URM but not UAM or NM. Performance improved in all three conditions but unfamiliar relaxing music was associated with the largest performance gain, the lowest physiological indices of arousal, and the most positive CSAI-2R profiles. Listening to relaxing music during imagery may have benefits for performance in other fine motor skills.

Music Performance Anxiety: Can Expressive Writing Intervention Help?

Yiqing Tang, Lee Ryan · Frontiers in Psychology · 2020 · 25 citations

Performance is an essential part of music education; however, many music professionals and students suffer from music performance anxiety (MPA). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a 10-min expressive writing intervention (EWI) can effectively reduce performance anxiety and improve overall performance outcomes in college-level piano students. Two groups of music students (16 piano major students and 19 group/secondary piano students) participated in the study. Piano major students performed a solo work from memory, while group/secondary piano students took a sight-reading exam of an eight-measure piano musical selection. All students performed twice, at baseline and post-EWI, with 2 or 3 days between performances. During the EWI phase, students were randomly divided into two groups: an expressive writing group and a control group. Students in the expressive writing group wrote down feelings and thoughts about their upcoming performances, while students in the control group wrote about a topic unrelated to performing. Each student's pulse was recorded immediately before performing, and each performance was videotaped. Three independent judges evaluated the recordings using a modified version of the Observational Scale for Piano Practicing (OSPP) by Gruson (1988). The results revealed that, by simply writing out their thoughts and feelings right before performing, students who had high MPA improved their performance quality significantly and reduced their MPA significantly. Our findings suggest that EWI may be a viable tool to alleviate music performance anxiety.

Silent illumination: a study on Chan (Zen) meditation, anxiety, and musical performance quality

Peter Lin, Joanne Chang, Vance Zemon +1 more · Psychology of Music · 2007 · 94 citations

This study investigated the effects of Chan (Zen) meditation on musical performance anxiety and musical performance quality. Nineteen participants were recruited from music conservatories and randomly assigned to either an eight-week meditation group or a wait-list control group. After the intervention, all participants performed in a public concert. Outcome measures were performance anxiety and musical performance quality. Meditation practiced over a short term did not significantly improve musical performance quality. The control group demonstrated a significant decrease in performance quality with increases in performance anxiety. The meditation group demonstrated the opposite effect — a positive linear relation between performance quality and performance anxiety. This finding indicates that enhanced concentration and mindfulness (silent illumination), cultivated by Chan practice, might enable one to channel performance anxiety to improve musical performance.

Effectiveness of five-element music therapy in cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Yang T, Wang S, Wang R +4 more · Complement Ther Clin Pract · 2021 · 66 citations

The effectiveness of music interventions on psychological, physiological and academic outcomes in health sciences students: a meta-analysis.

Dalli ÖE, Pehli̇van S · BMC Med Educ · 2026 · 0 citations

Common and distinct neural correlates of music and food-induced pleasure: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.

Mas-Herrero E, Maini L, Sescousse G +1 more · Neurosci Biobehav Rev · 2021 · 104 citations

The effect of music therapy on cognitive functions in patients with dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Fusar-Poli L, Bieleninik Ł, Brondino N +2 more · Aging Ment Health · 2018 · 145 citations

The effects of musical instrument training on fluid intelligence and executive functions in healthy older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Rogers F, Metzler-Baddeley C · Brain Cogn · 2024 · 14 citations

Therapeutic Interventions for Music Performance Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.

Kinney C, Saville P, Heiderscheit A +1 more · Behav Sci (Basel) · 2025 · 18 citations

Recent developments in coping strategies focusing on music performance anxiety: a systematic review.

Bakhtiari P, Nikanmajd N, Ghasemi Shayan R · Front Psychol · 2025 · 2 citations