Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Oct 22:7:693.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00693. eCollection 2013.

Neural implementation of musical expertise and cognitive transfers: could they be promising in the framework of normal cognitive aging?

Baptiste Fauvel  1 , Mathilde Groussard, Francis Eustache, Béatrice Desgranges, Hervé Platel
Affiliations
Review

Neural implementation of musical expertise and cognitive transfers: could they be promising in the framework of normal cognitive aging?

Baptiste Fauvel et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .

Abstract

Brain plasticity allows the central nervous system of a given organism to cope with environmental demands. Therefore, the quality of mental processes relies partly on the interaction between the brain's physiological maturation and individual daily experiences. In this review, we focus on the neural implementation of musical expertise at both an anatomical and a functional level. We then discuss how this neural implementation can explain transfers from musical learning to a broad range of non-musical cognitive functions, including language, especially during child development. Finally, given that brain plasticity is still present in aging, we gather arguments to propose that musical practice could be a good environmental enrichment to promote cerebral and cognitive reserves, thereby reducing the deleterious effect of aging on cognitive functions.

Keywords: aging; brain plasticity; brain reserve; cognitive transfer; expertise; musical training.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Bangert M., Peschel T., Schlaug G., Rotte M., Drescher D., Hinrichs H., et al. (2006). Shared networks for auditory and motor processing in professional pianists: evidence from fMRI conjunction. Neuroimage 30 917–926 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.10.044 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bangert M., Schlaug G. (2006). Specialization of the specialized in features of external human brain morphology. Eur. J. Neurosci. 24 1832–1834 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.05031.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bengtsson S. L., Nagy Z., Skare S., Forsman L., Forssberg H, Ullén F. (2005). Extensive piano practicing has regionally specific effects on white matter development. Nat. Neurosci. 8 1148–1150 10.1038/nn1516 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bermudez P., Zatorre R. J. (2005). Differences in gray matter between musicians and nonmusicians. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1060 395–399 10.1196/annals.1360.057 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Besson M., Chobert J., Marie C. (2011). Transfer of training between music and speech: common processing, attention, and memory. Front. Psychol. 2:94. 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00094 - DOI - PMC - PubMed