Music training correlates with plastic changes in auditory, motor, and sensorimotor integration areas. However, the extent to which the intensity and duration of instrumental training or other factors such as family background, extracurricular activities, attention, motivation, or instructional methods contribute to the benefits for brain development is still not clear. Studies in the domain of auditory cognitive neuroscience have begun revealing the functional and structural brain plasticity underlying these effects. Psychological and neuroscientific research demonstrates that musical training in children is associated with heightening of sound sensitivity as well as enhancement in verbal abilities and general reasoning skills. We conclude that musical training uniquely engenders near and far transfer effects, preparing a foundation for a range of skills, and thus fostering cognitive development. It also hones temporal processing and orienting of attention in time that may underlie enhancements observed in reading and verbal memory. Further, we introduce the notion of rhythmic entrainment and suggest that it may represent a mechanism supporting learning and development of executive functions. Notably, we point to motivation, reward and social context of musical education, which are important yet neglected factors affecting the long-term benefits of musical training. Importantly, the effects on cognitive development depend on the timing of musical initiation due to sensitive periods during development, as well as on several other modulating variables. The degree of observed structural and functional adaptation in the brain correlates with intensity and duration of practice. Learning to play an instrument as a child may even predict academic performance and IQ in young adulthood. For example, children who undergo musical training have better verbal memory, second language pronunciation accuracy, reading ability and executive functions. In this review, we synthesize a large body of studies demonstrating that benefits of musical training extend beyond the skills it directly aims to train and last well into adulthood. Neuroimaging revealed plastic changes in the brains of adult musicians but it is still unclear to what extent they are the product of intensive music training rather than of other factors, such as preexisting biological markers of musicality. Musical training has recently gained additional interest in education as increasing neuroscientific research demonstrates its positive effects on brain development. 2Swiss Centre of Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.1Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, (CMU), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
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