Engagement in community music classes sparks neuroplasticity and language development in children from disadvantaged backgrounds

Nina Kraus, Jane Hornickel, Dana L Strait, Jessica Slater, Elaine Thompson, Nina Kraus, Jane Hornickel, Dana L Strait, Jessica Slater, Elaine Thompson

Abstract

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds often face impoverished auditory environments, such as greater exposure to ambient noise and fewer opportunities to participate in complex language interactions during development. These circumstances increase their risk for academic failure and dropout. Given the academic and neural benefits associated with musicianship, music training may be one method for providing auditory enrichment to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. We followed a group of primary-school students from gang reduction zones in Los Angeles, CA, USA for 2 years as they participated in Harmony Project. By providing free community music instruction for disadvantaged children, Harmony Project promotes the healthy development of children as learners, the development of children as ambassadors of peace and understanding, and the development of stronger communities. Children who were more engaged in the music program-as defined by better attendance and classroom participation-developed stronger brain encoding of speech after 2 years than their less-engaged peers in the program. Additionally, children who were more engaged in the program showed increases in reading scores, while those less engaged did not show improvements. The neural gains accompanying music engagement were seen in the very measures of neural speech processing that are weaker in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our results suggest that community music programs such as Harmony Project provide a form of auditory enrichment that counteracts some of the biological adversities of growing up in poverty, and can further support community-based interventions aimed at improving child health and wellness.

Keywords: auditory training; community music training; electrophysiology; low socioeconomic status/poverty; reading; speech.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Children who regularly attended instrumental classes had stronger neural encoding of speech after 2 years, particularly for measures of speech harmonics and response consistency. Neural measures before music training began did not predict attendance or level of class participation, suggesting greater engagement in music classes may lead to stronger neural encoding of speech and not vice versa. Speech Harmonics is measured as the average amplitude of harmonic encoding in the frequency following response (μV), Response Consistency is measured as the Pearson’s correlation coefficient between response replications (r), and Spontaneous Neural Activity is measured as the root-mean-square magnitude of the pre-stimulus (μV).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Children who were most engaged during instrument classes had more consistent neural responses to speech after 2 years. (A) (red/maroon), a representative subject who had “complete” participation as rated by multiple teachers. The [da] stimulus is plotted in black in top panel of A for reference, shifted in time to account for neural delay. (B) (black/gray), a representative subject who had “moderate” participation as rated by multiple teachers. Both students completed four instrumental classes over the course of 2 years. Before music training, (top) the participants do not differ greatly in the consistency of their neural response to speech. After 2 years of music training (bottom), however, the child who participated more in class has a more consistent response to speech than the child who participated less. The two traces in each panel represent the two replications of the response, collected as the recording procedure dictates. The time region of the analysis is marked with vertical hashed lines in each panel.

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