ReviewFrontiers in neuroscience2021
How Musical Training Shapes the Adult Brain: Predispositions and Neuroplasticity.
Review in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive enhancement through music therapy: meta-analytic evidence across clinical population.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Functional Neural Architecture of Working Memory in Musicians: An ALE Meta-Analysis and Review.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive sciencePooled it
- An RCT study showing few weeks of music lessons enhance audio-visual temporal processing.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- A Randomized Controlled Trial of Dual Upper-Extremity Training [DUET]: Combining Neurologic Music Therapy® with Noninvasive Brain Stimulation for Upper-Limb Performance in Corticobasal Syndrome.Movement disorders clinical practice · 2026Article
- The associations between playing a musical instrument and grey matter in older adults at risk for dementia: a whole-brain VBM analysis.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Cross-modal plasticity in a blind jazz pianist and prodigy.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- Comparison of Auditory Stream Segregation Abilities and Cerebral Asymmetry in Processing Speech in Noise in Carnatic Musicians, Bharatanatyam Dancers, and Non-Trained Individuals.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Polygenic Associations Between Motor Behavior, Neuromotor Traits, and Active Music Engagement in Four Cohorts.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Cognitive Enhancement Through Music Education: Affective Pathways to Executive Function Improvement in Musicians.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Neural Efficiency and Sensorimotor Adaptations in Swimming Athletes: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging and Cognitive-Behavioral Evidence for Performance and Wellbeing.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Article
- Temporal-oscillatory entrainment: a multi-timescale framework for rhythmic coordination from neural to social frequencies.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Alterations in brain structure-function coupling associated with musical training.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Optimizing cognitive load in Guzheng learning: a narrative review of demonstration, segmented practice, and feedback scaffolding.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Safety and feasibility of a multimodal approach for orchestra musicians with playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs).Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2026Article
- Art, neuroplasticity, and tradition: a narrative review and conceptual perspective of Chinese woodblock printing in global art practices and Parkinson's disease neuroscience.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Expertise-Dependent Brain Network Organization During Music Perception.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Reconstructing music perception from brain activity using a prior guided diffusion model.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Influence of Music on Mental Health Through Neuroplasticity: Mechanisms, Clinical Implications, and Contextual Perspectives.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Sketching a Space of Brain States.Neuroinformatics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Learning to play a musical instrument is a complex task that integrates multiple sensory modalities and higher-order cognitive functions. Therefore, musical training is considered a useful framework for the research on training-induced neuroplasticity. However, the classical nature-or-nurture question remains, whether the differences observed between musicians and non-musicians are due to predispositions or result from the training itself. Here we present a review of recent publications with strong focus on experimental designs to better understand both brain reorganization and the neuronal markers of predispositions when learning to play a musical instrument. Cross-sectional studies identified structural and functional differences between the brains of musicians and non-musicians, especially in regions related to motor control and auditory processing. A few longitudinal studies showed functional changes related to training while listening to and producing music, in the motor network and its connectivity with the auditory system, in line with the outcomes of cross-sectional studies. Parallel changes within the motor system and between the motor and auditory systems were revealed for structural connectivity. In addition, potential predictors of musical learning success were found including increased brain activation in the auditory and motor systems during listening, the microstructure of the arcuate fasciculus, and the functional connectivity between the auditory and the motor systems. We show that "the musical brain" is a product of both the natural human neurodiversity and the training practice.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.