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Background: Older adults can acquire new skills across different domains. Practicing a musical instrument has been identified as a promising activity for improving cognition, promoting well-being, and inducing brain plasticity in older individuals. However, the mechanisms of these changes are still poorly understood. This study aims to assess musical skill acquisition in musically naïve older adults over one year of practice, focusing on individual factors influencing this process and the relations between musical skills., Methods: One hundred fifty-six healthy older adults (age = 69.5 years ± 3.2) from Hannover and Geneva with no prior musical training participated in weekly piano practice (PP) or 'music culture' (MC) sessions over a one-year period. Baseline assessments included the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq) and Cognitive Telephone Screening Instrument (CogTel). Musical abilities were measured using piano performance ratings (PP group), music quizzes (MC group), and aptitude tests such as the Beat Alignment Test (BAT), Melodic Discrimination Test (MDT) and Midi Scale Analysis (MSA) at baseline and six-, twelve and 18-month timepoints. The interrelationship between musical abilities was investigated through correlational analyses, and changes impacted through individual characteristics were modeled using Bayesian statistics., Results: The PP group demonstrated moderate improvements in piano articulation and dynamics, while the MC group achieved higher scores in the music quiz. Modest improvements in MDT and MSA were observed in both groups, with the PP group showing greater progress is MSA. Higher global cognitive functioning and musical sophistication was associated with greater performance in MDT for both groups. We did not identify any links between individual characteristics, like age, CogTel, CRIq, and musical sophistication, and improvement in musical aptitude tests. Changes in different musical aptitude test scores were not correlated, and neither the development of piano skills nor the music quiz correlated with initial performances on the musical aptitude tests., Conclusion: Musically naïve older adults can acquire diverse musical abilities, which progress independently, suggesting a broad spectrum of musical abilities rather than a single general musical aptitude. Future research should also explore genetic and psychosocial factors influencing musical development., Trial Registration: The Ethikkomission of the Leibniz Universität Hannover approved the protocol on 14.08.17 (no. 3604-2017), the neuroimaging part and blood sampling was approved by the Hannover Medical School on 07.03.18. The full protocol was approved by the Commission cantonale d'éthique de la recherche de Genève (no. 2016-02224) on 27.02.18 and registered at clinicaltrials.gov on 17.09.18 (NCT03674931, no. 81185)., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was approved by the Research Ethics Review Committee of Leibniz University Hannover and the Ethics Committee of Hannover Medical School (number 3604–2017) as well as the Cantonal Ethics Committee of Geneva (number 2016–02224). Participants provided written informed consent and were free to withdraw from the study at any time. Consent for publication: All participants signed a declaration of informed consent to participate in the study and accepted by their signature that the obtained data could be used for publication, under the condition that data will remain anonymous. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Musicians' dystonia (MD) is a movement disorder with several established risk factors, but the exact pathophysiology remains unknown. Recent research suggests dysfunction in sensory-motor, basal ganglia, cerebellar, and limbic loops as potential causes. Adverse childhood experiences are also considered risk factors., Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether MD patients have experienced more childhood trauma, leading to increased stress reactivity and neural vulnerability to movement disorders., Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and the Montreal Imaging Stress Task, 40 MD patients were compared with 39 healthy musicians (HMs). Whole-brain analysis and regions of interest analysis were performed. Parameter estimates and subjective stress levels were compared between groups and correlated with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire., Results: MD patients reported significantly higher childhood trauma scores than healthy control subjects, but they did not differ in their subjective stress experiences. Stress-related activity of limbic areas was neither found in the whole sample nor between the two groups. Instead, increased activity of visual association and temporal areas was observed, but this activation did not differ between patients and HMs. However, patients showed a tendency toward reduced precuneus activity under stress. Adverse childhood experiences were negatively correlated with precuneus, thalamus, and substantia nigra activity across all participants., Conclusions: Overall, MD patients and HMs had similar subjective and neurological reactions to stress but differed in childhood trauma experiences and precuneus activity under stress. Further research about the functional connectivity between precuneus, cerebellum, thalamus, and basal ganglia in musicians is needed. © 2024 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society., (© 2024 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.)

Learning to play an instrument at an advanced age may help to counteract or slow down age-related cognitive decline. However, studies investigating the neural underpinnings of these effects are still scarce. One way to investigate the effects of brain plasticity is using resting-state functional connectivity (FC). The current study compared the effects of learning to play the piano (PP) against participating in music listening/musical culture (MC) lessons on FC in 109 healthy older adults. Participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging at three time points: at baseline, and after 6 and 12 months of interventions. Analyses revealed piano training-specific FC changes after 12 months of training. These include FC increase between right Heschl's gyrus (HG), and other right dorsal auditory stream regions. In addition, PP showed an increased anticorrelation between right HG and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex and FC increase between the right motor hand area and a bilateral network of predominantly motor-related brain regions, which positively correlated with fine motor dexterity improvements. We suggest to interpret those results as increased network efficiency for auditory-motor integration. The fact that functional neuroplasticity can be induced by piano training in healthy older adults opens new pathways to countervail age related decline., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Musical training can improve fine motor skills and cognitive abilities and induce macrostructural brain changes. However, it is not clear whether the changes in motor skills occur simultaneously with changes in cognitive and neurophysiological parameters. In this study, 156 healthy, musically naïve and right-handed older adults were recruited and randomly assigned to a piano training or a music listening group. Before, after 6 and 12 months, participants were scanned using MRI and assessed for fine motor skills, auditory working memory and processing speed. A Bayesian multilevel modelling approach was used to examine behavioural and neurophysiological group differences. The relationships between motor and cognitive and between motor and neurophysiological parameters were determined using latent change score models. Compared with music listening, practicing piano resulted in greater improvement in fine motor skills and probably working memory. Only in the piano group, unimanual fine motor skills and grey matter volume of the contralateral M1 changed together during the 6-12-month period. Additionally, M1 co-developed with ipsilateral putamen and thalamus. Playing piano induced more prevalent coupling between the motor and cognitive domains. However, there is little evidence that fine motor control develops concurrently with cognitive functions. Playing an instrument promotes motor, cognitive and neural development into older age. During the learning process, the consolidation of piano skills appears to take place in sensorimotor networks, enabling musicians to perform untrained motor tasks with higher acuity. Relationships between the development of motor acuity and cognition were bidirectional and can be explained by a common cause as well as by shared resources with compensatory mechanisms., (© 2023 The Authors. European Journal of Neuroscience published by Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Morphological differences in the auditory brain of musicians compared to nonmusicians are often associated with life-long musical activity. Cross-sectional studies, however, do not allow for any causal inferences, and most experimental studies testing music-driven adaptations investigated children. Although the importance of the age at which musical training begins is widely recognized to impact neuroplasticity, there have been few longitudinal studies examining music-related changes in the brains of older adults. Using magnetic resonance imaging, we measured cortical thickness (CT) of 12 auditory-related regions of interest before and after 6 months of musical instruction in 134 healthy, right-handed, normal-hearing, musically-naive older adults (64-76 years old). Prior to the study, all participants were randomly assigned to either piano training or to a musical culture/music listening group. In five regions-left Heschl's gyrus, left planum polare, bilateral superior temporal sulcus, and right Heschl's sulcus-we found an increase in CT in the piano training group compared with the musical culture group. Furthermore, CT of the right Heschl's gyrus could be identified as a morphological substrate supporting speech in noise perception. The results support the conclusion that playing an instrument is an effective stimulator for cortical plasticity, even in older adults., (© 2022 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of New York Academy of Sciences.)

Background: Recent data suggest that musical practice prevents age-related cognitive decline. But experimental evidence remains sparse and no concise information on the neurophysiological bases exists, although cognitive decline represents a major impediment to healthy aging. A challenge in the field of aging is developing training regimens that stimulate neuroplasticity and delay or reverse symptoms of cognitive and cerebral decline. To be successful, these regimens should be easily integrated in daily life and intrinsically motivating. This study combines for the first-time protocolled music practice in elderly with cutting-edge neuroimaging and behavioral approaches, comparing two types of musical education., Methods: We conduct a two-site Hannover-Geneva randomized intervention study in altogether 155 retired healthy elderly (64-78) years, (63 in Geneva, 92 in Hannover), offering either piano instruction (experimental group) or musical listening awareness (control group). Over 12 months all participants receive weekly training for 1 hour, and exercise at home for ~ 30 min daily. Both groups study different music styles. Participants are tested at 4 time points (0, 6, and 12 months & post-training (18 months)) on cognitive and perceptual-motor aptitudes as well as via wide-ranging functional and structural neuroimaging and blood sampling., Discussion: We aim to demonstrate positive transfer effects for faculties traditionally described to decline with age, particularly in the piano group: executive functions, working memory, processing speed, abstract thinking and fine motor skills. Benefits in both groups may show for verbal memory, hearing in noise and subjective well-being. In association with these behavioral benefits we anticipate functional and structural brain plasticity in temporal (medial and lateral), prefrontal and parietal areas and the basal ganglia. We intend exhibiting for the first time that musical activities can provoke important societal impacts by diminishing cognitive and perceptual-motor decline supported by functional and structural brain plasticity., Trial Registration: The Ethikkomission of the Leibniz Universität Hannover approved the protocol on 14.08.17 (no. 3604-2017), the neuroimaging part and blood sampling was approved by the Hannover Medical School on 07.03.18. The full protocol was approved by the Commission cantonale d'éthique de la recherche de Genève (no. 2016-02224) on 27.02.18 and registered at clinicaltrials.gov on 17.09.18 ( NCT03674931 , no. 81185).