The theory of event coding in musicians - Investigating the neurophysiological mechanisms of music training on stimulus response mappings in executive functions

• Applicant: Dr. Vanessa Petruo-Zink
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience ; Musicology
• Term: from 2021 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 466163888

Investigating how music training improves other cognitive functions can give important insights to how making music may preserve and improve cognitive functions in the face of cognitive decline during aging and in neurological rehabilitation. Music training has been strongly associated with highly developed sensory processes and sensorimotor integration processes. Yet, it is unclear how these improved sensorimotor integration processes may foster other cognitive functions. In this context, it has been proposed that music training can also improve executive functions such as inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility. Empirical results have not yet shown to be conclusive regarding clear effects of musical training on executive functioning in general. Importantly, many studies investigating the relationship between music training and executive functions have only assessed executive functions either behaviorally using global task performance measures (e.g., reaction times or accuracy) or questionnaire ratings. This strategy, however, does not allow to get a more differentiated view on which neurophysiological subprocesses of executive functions in musicians may be improved, which may be altered, and which may not differ to non-musicians. Therefore, what seems to be needed are systematic studies that allow for a differentiated view of how the well-documented improved lower-level sensorimotor integration processes in musicians foster performance in different subprocesses of higher-level executive functions such as cognitive flexibility. The main goals of this application are therefore to investigate:1. how improved basic sensorimotor integration processes in musicians alter performance in executive functions by applying the concept of cognitive representations from cognitive neuroscience2. how musical training affects neurophysiological mechanisms of executive functions using electroencephalography which enables to analyze neurophysiological subprocesses of executive functions at a high temporal resolution.3. whether the age at which music training is started can predict the extent to which music training can improve sensorimotor integration processes and executive function performance later in life

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Assal Habibi, Ph.D.