Do older professional musicians have cognitive advantages?
The current study investigates whether long-term music training and practice are associated with enhancement of general cognitive abilities in late middle-aged to older adults. Professional musicians and non-musicians who were matched on age, education, vocabulary, and general health were compared on a near-transfer task involving auditory processing and on far-transfer tasks that measured spatial span and aspects of cognitive control. Musicians outperformed non-musicians on the near-transfer task, on most but not all of the far-transfer tasks, and on a composite measure of cognitive control. The results suggest that sustained music training or involvement is associated with improved aspects of cognitive functioning in older adults.
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. tarek.amer@utoronto.ca
Tarek
T
Amer
Beste
B
Kalender
Lynn
L
Hasher
Sandra E
SE
Trehub
Yukwal
Y
Wong
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D009790:Occupations; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D011931:Reactive Inhibition; D011932:Reading; D014163:Transfer, Psychology