A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood

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Figure 1.
Music practice during childhood is associated with more robust neural responses to sound in adulthood. For adults with no past musical experience (black), the brainstem frequency-following response is diminished in amplitude (smaller SNRs) relative to adults who started playing a musical instrument around age 9 years and continued to play for either 1–5 (blue) or 6–11 (red) years. A, Frequency-following responses to eight sounds of varying frequency. B, Average SNR across the eight sounds for each group (mean ± 1 SEM). **p < 0.01. C, In the musically trained subjects, there is no correlation between the average SNR and years of music training (r = 0.21, p = 0.26). D, Average SNR did correlate with how recently training occurred (r = −0.41, p = 0.02).

Table 1.

Group characteristics

Group	Age (in years)	IQ (standard score)	Starting age (in years)	Stopping age^* (in years)	Total^* (in years)	Years since music lessons^*
0 years	21.67 (3.87)	121.47 (9.03)
1–5 years	20.20 (1.47)	125.73 (8.55)	9.73 (2.09)	13.00 (2.07)	3.26 (1.16)	7.20 (2.73)
6–11 years	20.53 (1.06)	127.07 (2.16)	8.53 (2.10)	17.20 (2.81)	8.67 (1.88)	3.33 (2.92)

Subjects were divided into three groups based on the number of years they played a musical instrument. The mean (SD) age and IQ are reported, in addition to the age at which music lessons started and stopped, the duration of music lessons, and how many years ago music practice ceased.
↵*p < 0.01.

Table 2.

Subjects' musical history

Group	Years of training	Starting age (years)	Years since	Instrument
1–5 years	1	13	8	Saxophone
	2	10	10	Saxophone
	2	10	7	Piano
	2	12	7	Cello
	3	7	8	Piano
	3	7	11	Piano
	3	10	8	Piano
	3	11	6	Clarinet
	4	6	13	Piano
	4	8	6	Piano
	4	8	8	Piano
	4	11	4	Viola
	4	12	3	Piano
	5	10	5	Cello
	5	11	4	Clarinet
6–11 years	6	6	9	Piano, viola
	6	8	5	Piano, guitar
	7	6	7	Piano
	7	6	8	Piano
	7	11	4	Harp
	7	13	0	Drums, guitar, voice
	8	10	1	Trumpet
	9	10	2	Flute
	10	8	2	Cello
	10	8	3	Piano, voice
	10	8	1	Piano, guitar
	10	11	0	Saxophone, voice
	11	7	4	Piano, clarinet, saxophone
	11	7	4	Piano, saxophone
	11	9	0	Saxophone

For each of the musically-trained subjects, the number of years of musical training, the age at which training started, the number of years since training occurred, and the instrument(s) are reported. In cases where multiple instruments are reported, instruments are listed in order of acquisition.