Abstract
Magnetic resonance imaging has shown that the left planum temporale region of the brain is larger in musicians than in non-musicians1. If this results from a change in cortical organization2,3, the left temporal area in musicians might have a better developed cognitive function than the right temporal lobe. Because verbal memory is mediated mainly by the left temporal lobe, and visual memory by the right4,5, adults with music training should have better verbal, but not visual, memory than adults without such training. Here we show that adults who received music training before the age of 12 have a better memory for spoken words than those who did not. Music training in childhood may therefore have long-term positive effects on verbal memory.
Main
To determine the effect of neocortical development associated with music training, we studied the verbal and visual memories of a group of adults. We studied 60 female college students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, of whom 30 had had at least six years of training with a Western musical instrument before the age of 12, and 30 had received no music training. The two groups of participants were matched (p >0.01) in terms of age (music training, 19.9; no music training, 19.6; t =0.99), grade point average (music training, 3.0; no music training, 3.0; t =0.21) and years of education (music training, 14.7; no music training, 14.3; t =2.07).
We assessed the verbal memory of each subject by the number of words she could recall in a list-learning task in which a 16-word list was presented orally three times to each subject. After each presentation, the subject was required to recall as many words as she could. We evaluated each subject's visual memory by the proportion of ten simple figures that she could draw from memory in the Benton visual-retention test6.
We found that adults with music training learned significantly more words than those without any music training (F (1,58)=17.69, p <0.01); results were consistent across the three trials (F (2,116)=274.05, p <0.01; Fig. 1). However, the performances of adults with (score: 7.2 out of 10) and without (score: 6.9) music training were not significantly different in the visual memory task (t (58)=1.00, not significant). Both results were replicated when the subjects were tested again with another list-learning task (t (26.89)=3.07, p <0.01) and another visual-memory task (the Rey-Osterreith7 figure immediate recall task; t (26.88)=0.44, not significant).
Because most memory-training programmes are based on mnemonic and compensatory techniques8, the idea of using music training to improve verbal memory seems unusual. However, music training has advantages over other techniques. First, it may be easier to engage children in playing musical instruments, which is an enjoyable activity, than in mnemonic strategies. Second, musical training requires little verbal skill, so it may be more suitable as a memory-training technique for patients with language impairment.
Our results provide preliminary evidence that music training may have a long-term effect on the improvement of verbal memory. Investigation of the effects of the age at which music training begins, and of the duration of training, will provide corroboration and theoretical refinement of our results.
References
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Chan, A., Ho, YC. & Cheung, MC. Music training improves verbal memory. Nature 396, 128 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/24075
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/24075
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