Group Music Practice Enhances Development
Condition: Cognitive Change; Motor Activity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This randomized controlled trial shows for the first time that focused musical instrumental
      practice as compared to traditional sensitization to music provokes multiple transfer effects
      in the cognitive and sensorimotor domain. Over the last two years of primary school
      (10-12-year-old children), sixty-nine children received biweekly musical instruction in a
      group setting by professional musicians within the regular school curriculum. The
      intervention group learned to play string instruments, whereas the control group, peers in
      parallel classes, was sensitized to music via listening, theory, and some practice. Broad
      benefits manifested in the intervention group as compared to the control group for working
      memory, attention, processing speed, cognitive flexibility, matrix reasoning, sensorimotor
      hand function and bimanual coordination Apparently, learning to play a complex instrument in
      a dynamic group setting impacts development much stronger than classical sensitization to
      music. Our results therefore highlight the added value of intensive musical instrumental
      training in a group setting, encouraging general implementation in public primary schools,
      better preparing children for secondary school and for daily living activities.
    

Detailed description: 
      This 2-year longitudinal study compared cognitive and sensorimotor development of two groups
      of children. Both groups received two music courses of 45 minutes per week in a class setting
      (maximum 20 children per class), given by professional musicians.

      The intervention groups (n=34) learned to play string instruments "Orchestra in Class", the
      control groups (n=35) followed the standard Swiss school curriculum, with "sensitization to
      music" lessons, lacking focused instrumental practice.

      Children who received protocolled extracurricular music lessons before or during the study,
      were excluded from the analyses.

      The groups were compared at baseline (T0) after one year (T1) and after two years (T2) using
      standardized psychometric tests, evaluating cognitive and sensorimotor functions as well as
      tests on musicality.

      Music practice, covering a wide and diverse field of skills and abilities, from sensorimotor
      to cognitive activities at the highest level, is a real driving force for development. Widely
      distributed regions in the brain, which support all these functions, are trained and better
      coordinated as a result of this practice. This provokes changes in the morphology and
      function of the brain. Consequently, practicing music regularly brings benefits that go far
      beyond musicality. The results of various studies indicate that children who practice music
      show increased verbal memory, verbal intelligence, reading, visual-spatial processing,
      executive functions, attention, logical reasoning, and according to some authors even better
      mathematics or even IQ and social skills.

      Available evidence of beneficial musical practice effects on cognitive child development
      predominantly concerns children of parents with a high socioeconomic and educational
      background [10] and typically results from private lessons. Additionally, most of the time,
      the child is interested to learn a musical instrument, inducing a motivational bias.
      Evaluation of beneficial transfer effects restrains in general to a limited number of
      capacities or skills and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with active control groups are
      scarce.

      Here, the investigators compared children who intensively practiced different string
      instruments in a class setting within a specific Orchestra in Class (OC) program, to peers in
      parallel classes that received the same amount of musical instruction, also within an entire
      class, but lacking focused training on a complex musical instrument. Entire existing classes
      were assigned randomly to the OC and the Control programs (cluster randomization). The study
      took place in public primary schools in popular neighborhoods in the Geneva area, avoiding
      confounding music effects with effects of socioeconomic background.

      The investigators anticipated that cognitive functions strongly involved in musical practice
      like working memory, attention, information processing, cognitive flexibility and abstract
      reasoning, as well as fine sensorimotor function would provoke enhanced positive transfer
      effects in the OC group as compared to the control group.
    

Intervention name(s): musical instrumental training; sensitization to music
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Learning to play a string instrument in a group setting (school class); sensitization to music via listening, theory, moderate practice on small percussive instruments and choir singing in a group setting (school class)
Other intervention name(s): Orchestre en Classe; Classical school music lessons according to the Swiss school system
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Longitudinal cluster RCT (randomized controlled trial) with an intervention group and an active control group
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: music-practice; group-setting; randomized-controlled-trial; multiple-transfer-effects; cognitive; sensorimotor; matrix-reasoning; string-instruments