Schedule of Events | Symposia

Cortical and Subcortical aging in the Attention System of Adults Engaged in Musical and Non-Musical Activities

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Alexandre Sicard^1,2 (alexandre.sicard.1@ulaval.ca), Pascale Tremblay^1,2; ¹Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada, ²CERVO Brain Research Center, Quebec City, Canada

Attention and inhibition are interrelated cognitive abilities that decline with aging. Musical activities have been proposed as a potential means of mitigating cognitive decline through brain reorganization. According to the Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition (STAC-r), positive life experiences, such as musical practice, can influence brain structure and expand functional networks to preserve cognitive performance. However, it remains unclear whether different types of musical activities, such as singing and playing instruments, have distinct effects on brain and cognition. The objective of this study was to investigate the aging of attention and inhibition in singers, instrumentalists and active non-musicians and its relationship with brain structure within attentional networks. We hypothesized that singers and instrumentalists would show reduced cognitive decline (attention and inhibition) and that these differences would be mediated by the structural properties of attentional networks. A total of 109 adults aged 20-88 were recruited: 34 singers, 38 instrumentalists, and 37 people engaged in non-musical activities. Participant completed attention and inhibition tasks, and T1-weighted MRI images were collected. Analyses examined associations between cortical thickness, subcortical volume, age, musical practice, and cognitive performance. Our results revealed that singers exhibited the least age-related decline in cortical thickness, employing with distinct mechanisms compared to instrumentalists for maintaining cognitive abilities. Both musical groups showed similar relationships between subcortical volume and inhibition. These findings highlight the unique and overlapping effects of different musical activities on brain plasticity and cognitive aging.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Auditory