The effect of intensive music practice on musical abilities and cognition: a study with professional musicians from Spanish Conservatories

UNDER REVIEWVázquez-Fragua, L., Esteban-Rodríguez, L. & Ruiz-Sánchez de León, J.M. (2024). The effect of intensive music practice on musical abilities and cognition: a study with professional musicians from Spanish Conservatories. Music Education Research (sent)ABSTRACTThis study aims to provide new evidence on whether intensive and continuous musical practice from childhood is associated with better cognitive performance in young adults. Most research on music cognition has focused on children or beginners, often with heterogeneous inclusion criteria. When research has been conducted with adult musicians, inconsistent results have been reported as a consequence, again, of creating heterogeneous groups of musicians. In this study we attempt to solve these sample selection problems by comparing 121 young professional musicians from Spanish Conservatories with 109 controls who are university students from non-music related disciplines which are mostly non-musicians or, at most, music amateurs. The results show that young professional musicians outperform university students in most cognitive variables, except for intelligence (IQ). Correlations were found between the intensity and duration of amateur music practice and cognitive variables in the control group. It is discussed whether there is an optimal window for music practice to improve cognitive skills, which occurs in the early years of music practice long before reaching the professional stage.