title: Musical practice and cognitive aging: two cross-sectional studies point to phonemic fluency as a potential candidate for a use-dependent adaptation.
abstract: Because of permanent use-dependent brain plasticity, all lifelong individuals' experiences are believed to influence the cognitive aging quality. In older individuals, both former and current musical practices have been associated with better verbal skills, visual memory, processing speed, and planning function. This work sought for an interaction between musical practice and cognitive aging by comparing musician and non-musician individuals for two lifetime periods (middle and late adulthood). Long-term memory, auditory-verbal short-term memory, processing speed, non-verbal reasoning, and verbal fluencies were assessed. In Study 1, measures of processing speed and auditory-verbal short-term memory were significantly better performed by musicians compared with controls, but both groups displayed the same age-related differences. For verbal fluencies, musicians scored higher than controls and displayed different age effects. In Study 2, we found that lifetime period at training onset (childhood vs. adulthood) was associated with phonemic, but not semantic, fluency performances (musicians who had started to practice in adulthood did not perform better on phonemic fluency than non-musicians). Current frequency of training did not account for musicians' scores on either of these two measures. These patterns of results are discussed by setting the hypothesis of a transformative effect of musical practice against a non-causal explanation.
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1077 Caen, France ; Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, U1077 Caen, France.
authors.forename: Baptiste
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fauvel
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1077 Caen, France ; Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, U1077 Caen, France.
authors.forename: Mathilde
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Groussard
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1077 Caen, France ; Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, U1077 Caen, France.
authors.forename: Justine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mutlu
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1077 Caen, France ; Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, U1077 Caen, France.
authors.forename: Eider M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Arenaza-Urquijo
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1077 Caen, France ; Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, U1077 Caen, France.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Eustache
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1077 Caen, France ; Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, U1077 Caen, France.
authors.forename: Béatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Desgranges
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U1077 Caen, France ; Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Unité Mixte de Recherche-S1077 Caen, France ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, U1077 Caen, France.
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Platel
keywords: brain reserve; cognitive aging; cognitive transfer; musical practice; verbal functions