Name:Juliette Fortier

School/Affiliation:University of Montreal

Co-Authors:Francesca Talamini, Massimo Grassi, Simone Dalla Bella & The Music Ensemble Group

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Abstract:

Music training is often associated with brain plasticity and improvement in cognitive functions (executive functions, general intelligence). Meta-analyses report an advantage in working memory (retention of a small amount of information) with years of musical training. However, this effect remains to be verified in a large sample of participants. The objective of the “Music Ensemble project” was to test differences in working memory and cognition in a large sample of musicians by capitalizing on a shared community of 33 research units. In total, 600 musicians having more than 10 years of musical training were compared with 600 non-musicians matched for sex, age, and education. Here we tested whether formal musical training (years) and daily practice time (hours) are linked with better working memory in musicians. First, we observed that musicians outperformed non-musicians mostly for melodic memory (vs. visuospatial, verbal). Moreover, when focussing on musicians’ performance, we found weak but significant positive correlations with melodic memory for both daily practice time (hours) and musical training (years). We found no significant correlations for visuospatial and verbal working memory. Overall, the results suggest that the amount musical training (years) and practice (hours) has effects on working memory that are music-specific, but which may not transfer to other domains (visuospatial, verbal).