Group Music Practice Enhances Development

Cognitive Change Clinical Trial

— OC  

Official title:

Formal String Instrument Training in a Class Setting Enhances Cognitive and Sensorimotor Development of Primary School Children

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04200794
• Other study ID #: James62Ra&D
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: June 1, 2016
• Est. completion date: February 1, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: December 2019
• Source: School of Health Sciences Geneva
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 70
• Est. completion date: February 1, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: September 15, 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 9 Years to 13 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• The experimental group will include students from 2 classes 7P HarmoS (1st year of research) and 8P HarmoS (2nd year of research) who participate in the "Orchestre en classe" program in a public primary school in the vicinity of Geneva.

• The Control group will include students from 2 classes 7P (1st year of research) and 8P (2nd year of research) who do NOT participate in the "Orchestre en classe" program, in the same and a nearby public primary school in the vicinity of Geneva.

HarmoS: primary school education system in French-speaking Switzerland

Exclusion Criteria (both groups)

• hearing deficits;

• development disorders

• epilepsy

• other severe health or neurological problems

• non-consent of the parents or the child

• children who have taken music lessons outside the school curriculum before or during the study will be excluded from the study

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Cognitive Change
• Motor Activity

Intervention

Behavioral:
• musical instrumental training
Learning to play a string instrument in a group setting (school class)
• sensitization to music
sensitization to music via listening, theory, moderate practice on small percussive instruments and choir singing in a group setting (school class)

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Switzerland	School of Health Sciences Geneva; HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland	Geneva

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
School of Health Sciences Geneva	Swiss National Science Foundation

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Switzerland, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Working memory change	Changed scores at a backward digit span task (WISC-R; Wechsler, 2005).	24 months
Primary	Executive function change	Changed scores at attention tasks, cognitive flexibility tasks and speed of information processing tasks (D2 Test of Attention; Brickenkamp and Zillmer, 1998);Children's Color Trails Test (CCTT; Llorente, 2003) Higher scores at attention tasks, cognitive flexibility tasks and speed of information tasks processing (D2 Test of Attention; Brickenkamp and Zillmer, 1998); Children's Color Trails Test (CCTT; Llorente, 2003) .	24 months
Primary	Change in abstract thinking (Matrices subtest of the WISC-IV (Wechsler, 2003))	Changed scores at a matrix reasoning task	24 months
Secondary	Changed sensorimotor functioning	Changed scores atall 4 subtests of the Purdue Pegboard task (Lafayette, 1999), involving manual dexterity and bimanual coordination	24 months