Musical practice and cognitive aging: two cross-sectional studies point to phonemic fluency as a potential candidate for a use-dependent adaptation

Fauvel, Baptiste; Groussard, Mathilde; Mutlu, Justine; Arenaza-Urquijo, Eider M.; Eustache, Francis; Desgranges, Béatrice; Platel, Hervé · 2014 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2014.00227

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Summary

This study investigates whether lifelong musical practice influences cognitive aging, specifically examining if musicians exhibit better cognitive performance and reduced age-related decline compared to non-musicians. The research addresses the hypothesis that musical training induces use-dependent brain plasticity, potentially creating a cognitive reserve that mitigates aging effects. The authors aim to determine if these benefits are specific to certain cognitive domains and whether they depend on the age at which training began or the current frequency of practice. The research comprises two cross-sectional studies. Study 1 compared 34 amateur musicians (who began training in childhood) and 34 non-musician controls, divided into middle-aged (approx. 40 years) and older (approx. 67 years) groups. Participants were matched for gender, education, and occupation. Cognitive assessments included tests for verbal and visual long-term memory, auditory-verbal short-term memory, processing speed, non-verbal reasoning, and verbal fluency (phonemic and semantic). Study 2 expanded the sample to include older musicians who began training in adulthood (mean onset age 42.7 years) to isolate the effect of training onset age. It also analyzed the correlation between current training frequency and cognitive scores in older musicians. In Study 1, musicians outperformed non-musicians in processing speed (d2 test) and auditory-verbal short-term memory (digit span), but both groups showed similar age-related declines. Crucially, musicians scored higher on verbal fluency tasks and displayed different age effects. Specifically, for phonemic fluency, older musicians performed significantly better than older non-musicians, while middle-aged groups showed no difference. A similar pattern emerged for semantic fluency, though the interaction effect was driven by older controls performing worse than their middle-aged counterparts, whereas older musicians maintained performance levels comparable to middle-aged musicians. Study 2 revealed that musicians who started training in adulthood did not perform better on phonemic fluency than non-musicians, unlike those who started in childhood. Current training frequency did not correlate with fluency scores. The findings suggest that musical practice has a transformative effect on specific cognitive functions, particularly phonemic fluency, which appears to be a candidate for use-dependent adaptation. The benefit is contingent on early onset of training (childhood), as late-onset musicians did not show the same advantage. This implies that the critical period for developing this specific cognitive reserve through musical practice occurs during childhood, rather than through current engagement or adult acquisition. The results support the view that lifelong musical experience can alter the trajectory of cognitive aging for certain verbal functions.

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• cognitive aging