Abstract
Learning to play a musical instrument is commonly recommended to avoid cognitive decline and dementia, but experimental evidence is lacking. In this Keys to Staying Sharp study, we investigated the efficacy of piano training as compared to music listening instruction to improve auditory processing, cognition, and everyday function among older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Older adult participants with and without MCI (n=268) included 58% females; 16% identified as Black race and 8.2% reported Hispanic ethnicity. Education ranged from 11 to 20 years. Participants were randomly assigned to either piano training (n=133) or an active control group of music listening instruction (n=135). Group training sessions were led by an instructor for 90 min twice a week for 20 sessions. Measures of auditory processing (time compressed speech, words-in-noise, dichotic digits test, dichotic sentence identification, adaptive tests of temporal resolution), cognition (trail making test, digit coding, verbal fluency), and everyday function (timed instrumental activities of daily living, test of everyday attention) were administered at baseline and immediately post the intervention phase. Analyses were registered at Open Science Framework https://osf.io/sh27y/ on April 25, 2018. Relative to music listening, no significant effects of piano training on auditory processing, cognition, or everyday function were found (ps>0.265). Future research should continue to examine the connection of impaired auditory processing with subsequent dementia and investigate whether effectively enhancing auditory processing by intervention may reduce dementia risk.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available upon request to Principal Investigator Edwards via our website: https://health.usf.edu/medicine/labs/cna-lab or by emailing usfcognitiveagelab@usf.edu and with completion of a data use agreement. Supplemental data including raincloud plots of individual assessment and composite variables are available at https://osf.io/fcphq.
Change history
01 July 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-023-00268-9
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the contributions of Drs. Jennifer Bugos and Ming Ji who were Co-Investigators of the grant and helped to plan the study protocol. Dr. Bugos also administered piano training intervention classes and contributed to prior versions of a manuscript. Thanks to Trieva Pelonero, who helped to compile data and check tables for the manuscript. We would like to thank the staff, students, and volunteers of the USF Cognitive Aging Lab and the Music Research and Testing Lab for their contributions to data collection. Thank you also to our study participants.
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Research reported in this manuscript was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (R01 AG056428, PI Edwards). The study was supported 100% by NIH funding, which included $2,157,954 total project costs. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The sponsor did not play a role in the design, methods, subject recruitment, data collection, analysis, or preparation of this manuscript.
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Funding was acquired and the study protocol was designed by JDE, JJL, EH, and RA. EH handled randomization and coordinated data collection. JDE and RA analyzed the data. JDE, JJL, EH, and RA drafted and edited this manuscript.
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All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. Data will be made available through completion of requests online (https://health.usf.edu/medicine/labs/cna-lab) and analytic methods will be made available to other researchers upon request to usfcognitiveaginglab@gmail.com.
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Lister, J.J., Hudak, E.M., Andel, R. et al. The Effects of Piano Training on Auditory Processing, Cognition, and Everyday Function. J Cogn Enhanc 7, 97–111 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-023-00256-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-023-00256-z