New research indicates that children with better rhythmic abilities tend to exhibit a slower, more prolonged rate of brain development in specific regions associated with motor control and emotion. This attenuated pace of maturation suggests that an enriched environment, such as one involving musical engagement, may extend the window of neural plasticity needed for learning.
The findings provide evidence that the relationship between brain structure and musical skill is driven not only by genetics but also by environmental factors like practice. The study was published in the journal Brain Research.
Scientists have established that human brain development follows a complex trajectory that varies significantly between individuals. The outer layer of the brain, known as the cortex, generally increases in thickness during early childhood before thinning out as the child matures. This thinning process is often a sign of the brain becoming more efficient by pruning away unused connections.
Previous studies have frequently focused on deprived environments, such as those characterized by low socioeconomic status. In those contexts, adversity is often linked to accelerated brain development, which can limit the time available for the brain to adapt and learn.
Less is understood regarding how enriched environments, such as those providing musical training, influence these developmental paths. Musical performance is a demanding activity that requires the simultaneous integration of motor planning, auditory processing, and emotional engagement.
The authors of this study sought to determine whether musical skills relate to the speed of brain maturation and to disentangle the extent to which this relationship is shaped by genetic predispositions versus environmental experiences.
“The knowledge gap was twofold. First, this study stands out for investigating brain development in a typical childhood sample of non-musicians who differ in instrumental exposure and practice duration, while using a twin design to disentangle genetic and environmental influences. Despite investigating a sample with diverse musical experience rather than a highly trained musician cohort, we observed measurable effects on brain development,” explained Lina van Drunen, a postdoctoral researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
“Second, research on sensitive periods has largely emphasized adverse experiences that accelerate brain maturation and reducing its possibility for long-term learning potential. In contrast, our study investigated a positive environmental enrichment, such as instrumental training, during these developmental windows, a topic that remains comparatively understudied.”
The research team utilized data from the Leiden Consortium on Individual Development, a large longitudinal project based in the Netherlands. The study followed same-sex twin pairs to allow for the analysis of genetic and environmental contributions. The final sample for the brain imaging analysis included data from waves of collection when the children were approximately 7 to 9 years old, 9 to 11 years old, and 11 to 14 years old.
In total, 418 participants contributed data at the first time point, with 367 and 228 participating in the subsequent MRI waves. The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to map changes in brain structure over time, specifically measuring cortical thickness, surface area, and the volume of subcortical regions.
When the participants were between the ages of 11 and 13, they completed a behavioral assessment to measure their musical aptitude. The researchers used a sensorimotor synchronization task, which is a standard method for evaluating rhythmic ability.
During this task, the children tapped their finger on a percussion pad in time with an auditory beat. The test included various conditions of increasing difficulty, such as tapping to a simple metronome and tapping along with pop songs that varied in rhythmic complexity.
The stability and accuracy of the tapping served as a proxy for the child’s musical skill. Additionally, parents provided information regarding their children’s history of music lessons and the number of years spent practicing an instrument.
“What struck me most were the substantial individual differences in children’s tapping accuracy when synchronizing to the beat of music songs,” van Drunen said. “These variations underscore that there is meaningful room for growth in youth: music lessons are not simply extracurricular, but an opportunity that alongside strengthening motor skills, timing, language, emotion, and coordination, may also support neural development.”
The researchers found that children who demonstrated superior rhythmic performance showed distinct patterns of brain development in approximately 27 percent of the examined brain regions. For the majority of these regions, high musical skill was associated with attenuated, or slower, development.
Specifically, children who were better at keeping the beat exhibited a slower rate of cortical thinning in the pars orbitalis and pars triangularis. These regions are located in the inferior frontal gyrus and are known to be involved in movement planning and the processing of structural hierarchies, such as those found in music and language.
A similar pattern of attenuated development was observed in the volume of the cerebellum and the amygdala. The cerebellum is critical for timing and coordination, while the amygdala processes emotional content. The authors propose that this slower maturation rate preserves neural plasticity, effectively keeping the window for learning open longer to allow for the refinement of complex sensorimotor and emotional skills.
“Kids completed a tapping task to the beat (metronome and music) and their rhythm accuracy served as a solid proxy musical ability,” van Drunen told PsyPost. “Furthermore, we asked the parents for their music experience. Kids who were better at keeping the beat had slower (attenuated) brain development in parts of the brain that control movement, coordination and emotional engagement with music. However, slower does not mean that it is worse for development, we hypothesize that these children likely have longer windows of plasticity and more time to adapt, learn, and refine skills.”
While the dominant trend was towards slower development, the study also identified two specific brain regions where better rhythmic performance corresponded with accelerated development. The fusiform gyrus and the postcentral gyrus showed faster reductions in cortical thickness and surface area in children with high rhythmic accuracy. The fusiform gyrus is often linked to the recognition of harmony and visual notation, while the postcentral gyrus integrates sensory and motor information.
The researchers suggest that rapid maturation in these specific sensory processing areas might support the ability to quickly decode and respond to complex rhythmic stimuli. This contrast indicates that musical engagement does not uniformly slow down or speed up the entire brain but rather modulates development in a region-specific manner to optimize performance.
“Two brain regions showed opposite effects,” van Drunen said. “Areas that help decode rhythm and coordination of movement showed faster brain development in relation to better rhythm performances. As such, most musical brain parts slowed down, while some sped up, all for better musical performance.”
A key component of this study was the use of twin modeling to estimate heritability. By comparing the similarity of traits between monozygotic twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, and dizygotic twins, who share approximately 50 percent, the researchers could calculate the relative influence of nature and nurture.
The modeling results indicated that the association between brain development and rhythmic skill is not driven solely by genetics. The analysis showed that shared environmental factors and unique individual experiences accounted for a significant portion of the variance.
For example, in the pars orbitalis, shared environmental factors explained about 13 percent of the relationship between brain change and rhythmic ability, with unique environmental factors explaining the rest. This suggests that while genetic potential plays a role, active engagement with the environment, such as practicing a musical instrument, contributes significantly to the observed brain changes.
As with all research, there are limitations. The researchers relied on three time points of MRI data, which provides a general view of developmental trajectories but may miss more subtle, non-linear growth patterns that occur in the years between scans. The sample consisted primarily of non-musicians or amateur players rather than intense professionals, meaning the effects might be more pronounced in children who undergo rigorous musical training.
Future research plans involve expanding this line of inquiry to examine broader social outcomes. The authors intend to investigate whether the musical training and skills linked to these brain development patterns also relate to prosocial behaviors, such as empathy and perspective-taking. By understanding how enriched environments shape the developing brain, scientists hope to uncover mechanisms that could inform educational strategies and therapies for cognitive and emotional development.
“Arts education, especially music, is often thought to influence development beyond instrumental skill,” van Drunen explained. “While most research has focused on cognitive academic outcomes, broader social abilities are equally important. The follow-up preregistered project (#220,243 | AsPredicted) will examine whether musical training and skill relate to prosocial behavior, empathy, and perspective taking.”
The study, “Brain development and musical skills: A longitudinal twin study on brain developmental trajectories and sensorimotor synchronization,” was authored by L. van Drunen, B.G. Schultz, A.I. Becht, R.S. Schaefer, and L.M. Wierenga.
