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Neural Dynamics of Improved Bimodal Attention and Working Memory in Musically Trained Children

Attention and working memory (WM) are core components of executive functions, and they can be enhanced by training. One activity that has shown to improve executive functions is musical training, but the brain networks underlying these improvements are not well known. We aimed to identify, using fun...

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Autores principales: Kausel, Leonie, Zamorano, Francisco, Billeke, Pablo, Sutherland, Mary E., Larrain-Valenzuela, Josefina, Stecher, Ximena, Schlaug, Gottfried, Aboitiz, Francisco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7578432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33132820
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.554731
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author Kausel, Leonie
Zamorano, Francisco
Billeke, Pablo
Sutherland, Mary E.
Larrain-Valenzuela, Josefina
Stecher, Ximena
Schlaug, Gottfried
Aboitiz, Francisco
author_facet Kausel, Leonie
Zamorano, Francisco
Billeke, Pablo
Sutherland, Mary E.
Larrain-Valenzuela, Josefina
Stecher, Ximena
Schlaug, Gottfried
Aboitiz, Francisco
author_sort Kausel, Leonie
collection PubMed
description Attention and working memory (WM) are core components of executive functions, and they can be enhanced by training. One activity that has shown to improve executive functions is musical training, but the brain networks underlying these improvements are not well known. We aimed to identify, using functional MRI (fMRI), these networks in children who regularly learn and play a musical instrument. Girls and boys aged 10–13 with and without musical training completed an attention and WM task while their brain activity was measured with fMRI. Participants were presented with a pair of bimodal stimuli (auditory and visual) and were asked to pay attention only to the auditory, only to the visual, or to both at the same time. The stimuli were afterward tested with a memory task in order to confirm attention allocation. Both groups had higher accuracy on items that they were instructed to attend, but musicians had an overall better performance on both memory tasks across attention conditions. In line with this, musicians showed higher activation than controls in cognitive control regions such as the fronto-parietal control network during all encoding phases. In addition, facilitated encoding of auditory stimuli in musicians was positively correlated with years of training and higher activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left supramarginal gyrus, structures that support the phonological loop. Taken together, our results elucidate the neural dynamics that underlie improved bimodal attention and WM of musically trained children and contribute new knowledge to this model of brain plasticity.
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spelling pubmed-75784322020-10-30 Neural Dynamics of Improved Bimodal Attention and Working Memory in Musically Trained Children Kausel, Leonie Zamorano, Francisco Billeke, Pablo Sutherland, Mary E. Larrain-Valenzuela, Josefina Stecher, Ximena Schlaug, Gottfried Aboitiz, Francisco Front Neurosci Neuroscience Attention and working memory (WM) are core components of executive functions, and they can be enhanced by training. One activity that has shown to improve executive functions is musical training, but the brain networks underlying these improvements are not well known. We aimed to identify, using functional MRI (fMRI), these networks in children who regularly learn and play a musical instrument. Girls and boys aged 10–13 with and without musical training completed an attention and WM task while their brain activity was measured with fMRI. Participants were presented with a pair of bimodal stimuli (auditory and visual) and were asked to pay attention only to the auditory, only to the visual, or to both at the same time. The stimuli were afterward tested with a memory task in order to confirm attention allocation. Both groups had higher accuracy on items that they were instructed to attend, but musicians had an overall better performance on both memory tasks across attention conditions. In line with this, musicians showed higher activation than controls in cognitive control regions such as the fronto-parietal control network during all encoding phases. In addition, facilitated encoding of auditory stimuli in musicians was positively correlated with years of training and higher activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left supramarginal gyrus, structures that support the phonological loop. Taken together, our results elucidate the neural dynamics that underlie improved bimodal attention and WM of musically trained children and contribute new knowledge to this model of brain plasticity. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-10-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7578432/ /pubmed/33132820 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.554731 Text en Copyright © 2020 Kausel, Zamorano, Billeke, Sutherland, Larrain-Valenzuela, Stecher, Schlaug and Aboitiz. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Kausel, Leonie
Zamorano, Francisco
Billeke, Pablo
Sutherland, Mary E.
Larrain-Valenzuela, Josefina
Stecher, Ximena
Schlaug, Gottfried
Aboitiz, Francisco
Neural Dynamics of Improved Bimodal Attention and Working Memory in Musically Trained Children
title Neural Dynamics of Improved Bimodal Attention and Working Memory in Musically Trained Children
title_full Neural Dynamics of Improved Bimodal Attention and Working Memory in Musically Trained Children
title_fullStr Neural Dynamics of Improved Bimodal Attention and Working Memory in Musically Trained Children
title_full_unstemmed Neural Dynamics of Improved Bimodal Attention and Working Memory in Musically Trained Children
title_short Neural Dynamics of Improved Bimodal Attention and Working Memory in Musically Trained Children
title_sort neural dynamics of improved bimodal attention and working memory in musically trained children
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7578432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33132820
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.554731
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