Older Adults Benefit from Music Training Early in Life: Biological Evidence for Long-Term Training-Driven Plasticity

Travis White-Schwoch; Kali Woodruff Carr; Samira Anderson; Dana L. Strait; Nina Kraus

doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2560-13.2013

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Figure 1.
Grand average response from all subjects to the speech sound [da] presented in quiet. The CV transition (/d/) and vowel (/a/) regions are marked.
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Figure 2.
Neural response timing to the [da] presented in quiet. The Moderate training group (blue) has the fastest neural timing. a, Group average responses in the CV transition region. b, The transition peak at 43 ms is highlighted. c, Latency relative to the expected peak timing. Lower relative latency values are faster. Shaded regions represent ± 1 SEM. *p < 0.05.
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Figure 3.
Neural response timing to the [da] presented in noise. The Moderate training group (blue) has the fastest neural timing. a, Group average responses in the CV transition region. b, The transition peak at 43 ms is highlighted. c, Latency relative to the expected peak timing. Lower relative latency values are faster. Shaded regions represent ± 1 SEM. ***p = 0.001.
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Figure 4.
A correlation is observed between years of music training and neural timing. For illustrative purposes, latencies for peaks 23 and 33 in response to the [da] presented in noise were averaged. Faster timing is associated with more years of training. ρ₍₂₆₎ = −0.539, p = 0.005.

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Table 1.

Groups are matched on a wide array of demographic criteria, including: sex, age, intelligence, hearing, educational attainment, and levels of current exercise (RM-ANOVAs, all p > 0.15)^{^a}

Criterion	None (0 years; N = 15)	Little (1–3 years; N = 14)	Moderate (4–14 years; N = 13)
Number of females	6	9	9
Age (years)	63.56 (3.76)	65.46 (4.54)	65.15 (5.46)
IQ (standard score)	120.40 (8.09)	118.69 (8.44)	122.38 (5.37)
IQ-verbal (t-score)	63.13 (7.18)	63.42 (6.13)	62.41 (5.07)
IQ-nonverbal (t-score)	58.13 (10.25)	58.91 (6.77)	62.75 (4.69)
PTA (dB HL; average hearing 0.5–4 kHz)	20.61 (11.51)	17.19 (11.39)	24.95 (8.90)
Click V latency (ms)	6.25 (0.32)	5.98 (0.49)	5.97 (0.33)
Education	3.47 (0.64)	3.23 (0.56)	3.77 (0.44)
Exercise levels	2.62 (1.39)	2.81 (0.98)	2.90 (1.19)
Years of music training		1.71 (0.61)	8.14 (3.68)
Years since music training		52.01 (4.10)	47.46 (6.92)

↵^aMeans are reported with SDs. PTA, Pure-tone average hearing threshold (dB HL) measured bilaterally from 0.5 to 4 kHz. Refer to Materials and Methods for information on how education and exercise were rated.

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Table 2.

Music practice histories, based on self-report, for individuals from the two relevant groups^{^a}

Group; instruments	Years of Training	Years since Training
Little (1–3 years; N = 14)
Piano	1	49
Piano	1	55
Piano	1	53
Piano	1	^{^b}
Piano	2	49
Piano	2	58
Piano	2	53
Trumpet	2	52
Accordion, organ	3	49
Clarinet	3	51
Piano	3	53
Piano, French horn	3	46
Piano, guitar	3	51
Violin, piano	3	61
Moderate (4–14 years; N = 13)
Clarinet	4	43
Viola, clarinet	4	50
Piano, trumpet	5	59
Trumpet	5	51
Guitar	5	50
Clarinet, guitar, piano	6	54
Piano	7	42
Piano	8	51
Piano	9	58
Piano	11	47
Piano, guitar	12	45
Piano, flute	14	40
Trombone	14	37

↵^aFor each subject, the training instrument(s), total years of training, and years since training stopped are reported.
↵^bThis individual only reported that training stopped at a “very young” age.

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Table 3.

Peak latencies in response to the [da] presented in quiet^{^a}

Peak	None	Little	Moderate
23	24.15 (0.97)	24.49 (0.74)	23.37 (0.87)
33	33.75 (1.04)	33.87 (1.28)	33.13 (0.52)
43	43.69 (0.44)	43.39 (0.58)	43.17 (0.54)
53	53.72 (0.63)	53.36 (0.63)	53.08 (0.47)
63	63.51 (0.43)	63.37 (0.37)	63.15 (0.40)
73	73.69 (0.85	73.44 (0.46)	73.20 (0.44)
83	83.85 (1.27	83.38 (0.48)	83.23 (0.41)
93	93.76 (1.03)	93.60 (1.15)	93.24 (0.43)
103	103.92 (1.54)	103.43 (0.46)	103.43 (1.08)
113	113.87 (1.14)	113.58 (0.89)	113.14 (0.33)
123	123.63 (0.68)	123.49 (0.54)	123.25 (0.37)
133	134.00 (1.45)	133.56 (0.63)	133.29 (0.39)
143	143.10 (1.61)	143.44 (0.55)	143.25 (0.37)
153	153.90 (1.29)	153.42 (0.50)	153.42 (0.74)
163	164.04 (1.72)	163.52 (0.58)	163.21 (0.42)

↵^aFirst five rows (peaks 23, 33, 43, 53, 63) refer to the CV transition region of the response where timing differs as a function of group. The group with the most training (Moderate) exhibits the fastest timing in response to the CV transition. Means are reported with SDs.

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Table 4.

Peak latencies in response to the [da] presented in noise^{^a}

Peak	None	Little	Moderate
23	24.95 (1.17)	24.40 (0.84)	23.54 (0.91)
33	34.15 (1.03)	33.88 (0.87)	33.11 (0.55)
43	43.74 (0.79)	43.60 (0.74)	43.15 (0.54)
53	53.75 (0.77)	52.26 (0.83)	53.13 (0.56)
63	63.71 (0.52)	63.56 (1.15)	63.13 (0.41)
73	73.56 (0.37)	73.40 (0.49)	73.27 (0.54)
83	83.63 (0.36)	83.78 (1.38)	83.13 (0.70)
93	93.64 (0.35)	93.46 (0.50)	93.18 (0.35)
103	103.70 (0.63)	103.25 (0.51)	103.50 (0.83)
113	113.65 (0.27)	113.45 (0.42)	113.32 (0.39)
123	123.59 (0.34)	123.43 (0.42)	123.31 (0.43)
133	133.66 (0.33)	133.27 (0.91)	133.29 (0.45)
143	143.58 (0.37)	143.40 (0.32)	143.26 (0.42)
153	153.70 (0.74)	153.28 (0.40)	153.28 (0.39)
163	163.58 (0.30)	163.46 (0.31)	163.30 (0.40)

↵^aFirst five rows (peaks 23, 33, 43, 53, 63) refer to the CV transition region of the response where timing differs as a function of group. The group with the most training (Moderate) exhibits the fastest timing in response to the CV transition. Means are reported with SDs.