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Controlled Clinical Trial
. 2008;3(10):e3566.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003566. Epub 2008 Oct 29.

Practicing a musical instrument in childhood is associated with enhanced verbal ability and nonverbal reasoning

Marie Forgeard  1 , Ellen Winner, Andrea Norton, Gottfried Schlaug
Affiliations
Controlled Clinical Trial

Practicing a musical instrument in childhood is associated with enhanced verbal ability and nonverbal reasoning

Marie Forgeard et al. PLoS One. 2008.

Abstract

Background: In this study we investigated the association between instrumental music training in childhood and outcomes closely related to music training as well as those more distantly related.

Methodology/principal findings: Children who received at least three years (M = 4.6 years) of instrumental music training outperformed their control counterparts on two outcomes closely related to music (auditory discrimination abilities and fine motor skills) and on two outcomes distantly related to music (vocabulary and nonverbal reasoning skills). Duration of training also predicted these outcomes. Contrary to previous research, instrumental music training was not associated with heightened spatial skills, phonemic awareness, or mathematical abilities.

Conclusions/significance: While these results are correlational only, the strong predictive effect of training duration suggests that instrumental music training may enhance auditory discrimination, fine motor skills, vocabulary, and nonverbal reasoning. Alternative explanations for these results are discussed.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Significant partial correlations (controlling age) between training duration (in weeks) and motor learning left/right hand, Melodic Discrimination, the IMMA tonal subtest, Vocabulary and Raven's Progressive Matrices.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Nonsignificant partial correlations (controlling age) between training duration (in weeks) and Block Design, Object Assembly, Rhythmic Discrimination, the IMMA rhythm subtest, Auditory Analysis, and the Keymath-R Basic Concepts, Operations and Applications.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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