Wang Xueyan, Yamashita Masatoshi, Guo Xia, Stiernman Lars, Kakihara Marcelo, Abe Nobuhito, Sekiyama Kaoru
Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, China.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2025 Jun 17;3. doi: 10.1162/IMAG.a.48. eCollection 2025.
Studies have shown the beneficial effects of musical instrument on memory and executive function in healthy aging. However, few studies investigated these long-term benefits. In this regard, the current study tracked a cohort of older adults (n = 53) over 4 years after they have initially participated in a musical instrument training program. Out of the initial sample, 13 of them voluntarily continued participating in the musical instrument training (continue group: 77.85 ± 4.30 years, 10 female, 3 male), while 19 of them discontinued their participation in the music program and instead engaged in other forms of leisure activities (stop group: age: 76.00 ± 5.44 years, 13 female, 6 male). At baseline, behavioral measures of verbal working memory (WM), verbal memory, and executive control were collected. In addition, participants completed a visual WM task (face n-back task) during fMRI scanning. Four years later, the same battery of tests was administered, with the addition of a digit n-back task to examine changes in verbal WM. Region-of-interest structural analyses focused on the striatum and cerebellum, based on previously reported intervention effects and the advantages observed in musicians. The continue group demonstrated better preservation of verbal WM performance (a composite score of Digit Span and Verbal Fluency tasks) and right putamen gray matter volume (GMV) over 4 years. During verbal WM processing, this group exhibited lower cerebellum-pons functional connectivity (FC), which significantly correlated with improved verbal WM performance. Moreover, the continue group also showed greater cerebellar activation during the digit task, increased intra-cerebellar FC, and decreased cerebellar-cortical FC during the face task. The combined evidence suggested enhanced cerebellar function and thus reduced reliance on other brain regions such as the cortical areas and brainstem for compensation. Taken together, these results suggested the musical instrument training effects in mitigating age-related decline in verbal WM and subcortical structure (putamen) and function (cerebellum). This study provides longitudinal evidence that initiating musical instrument training in older adulthood can counteract age-related cognitive and brain decline.
研究表明，乐器对健康老龄化人群的记忆力和执行功能具有有益影响。然而，很少有研究调查这些长期益处。在这方面，当前的研究对一组老年人（n = 53）进行了为期4年的跟踪，这些老年人最初参加了一个乐器训练项目。在最初的样本中，其中13人自愿继续参加乐器训练（继续组：年龄77.85±4.30岁，女性10名，男性3名），而其中19人停止参加音乐项目，转而参与其他形式的休闲活动（停止组：年龄76.00±5.44岁，女性13名，男性6名）。在基线时，收集了言语工作记忆（WM）、言语记忆和执行控制的行为测量数据。此外，参与者在功能磁共振成像扫描期间完成了一项视觉WM任务（面孔n-back任务）。四年后，进行了相同的一系列测试，并增加了一项数字n-back任务以检查言语WM的变化。基于先前报道的干预效果以及在音乐家身上观察到的优势，感兴趣区域的结构分析集中在纹状体和小脑。继续组在4年中表现出更好地保持言语WM表现（数字广度和言语流畅性任务的综合得分）以及右侧壳核灰质体积（GMV）。在言语WM处理过程中，该组表现出较低的小脑-脑桥功能连接（FC），这与言语WM表现的改善显著相关。此外，继续组在数字任务期间还表现出更大的小脑激活、小脑内FC增加以及在面孔任务期间小脑-皮质FC减少。综合证据表明小脑功能增强，从而减少了对其他脑区（如皮质区域和脑干）进行补偿的依赖。综上所述，这些结果表明乐器训练对减轻与年龄相关的言语WM以及皮质下结构（壳核）和功能（小脑）衰退具有作用。这项研究提供了纵向证据，表明在成年后期开始乐器训练可以抵消与年龄相关的认知和大脑衰退。
