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Two randomized trials provide no consistent evidence for nonmusical cognitive benefits of brief preschool music enrichment.

ABSTRACT: Young children regularly engage in musical activities, but the effects of early music education on children's cognitive development are unknown. While some studies have found associations between musical training in childhood and later nonmusical cognitive outcomes, few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been employed to assess causal effects of music lessons on child cognition and no clear pattern of results has emerged. We conducted two RCTs with preschool children investigating the cognitive effects of a brief series of music classes, as compared to a similar but non-musical form of arts instruction (visual arts classes, Experiment 1) or to a no-treatment control (Experiment 2). Consistent with typical preschool arts enrichment programs, parents attended classes with their children, participating in a variety of developmentally appropriate arts activities. After six weeks of class, we assessed children's skills in four distinct cognitive areas in which older arts-trained students have been reported to excel: spatial-navigational reasoning, visual form analysis, numerical discrimination, and receptive vocabulary. We initially found that children from the music class showed greater spatial-navigational ability than did children from the visual arts class, while children from the visual arts class showed greater visual form analysis ability than children from the music class (Experiment 1). However, a partial replication attempt comparing music training to a no-treatment control failed to confirm these findings (Experiment 2), and the combined results of the two experiments were negative: overall, children provided with music classes performed no better than those with visual arts or no classes on any assessment. Our findings underscore the need for replication in RCTs, and suggest caution in interpreting the positive findings from past studies of cognitive effects of music instruction.

SUBMITTER: Mehr SA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3859544 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Two randomized trials provide no consistent evidence for nonmusical cognitive benefits of brief preschool music enrichment.

Mehr Samuel A SA Schachner Adena A Katz Rachel C RC Spelke Elizabeth S ES

PloS one 20131211 12

Young children regularly engage in musical activities, but the effects of early music education on children's cognitive development are unknown. While some studies have found associations between musical training in childhood and later nonmusical cognitive outcomes, few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been employed to assess causal effects of music lessons on child cognition and no clear pattern of results has emerged. We conducted two RCTs with preschool children investigating the cogn ...[more]

PMID: 24349171

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Project description:Rationale: Event-driven primary endpoints are increasingly used in pulmonary arterial hypertension clinical trials, substantially increasing required sample sizes and trial lengths. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advocates the use of prognostic enrichment of clinical trials by preselecting a patient population with increased likelihood of experiencing the trial's primary endpoint.Objectives: This study compares validated clinical scales of risk (Comparative, Prospective Registry of Newly Initiated Therapies for Pulmonary Hypertension, the French score, and Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Disease Management [REVEAL] 2.0) to identify patients who are likely to experience a clinical worsening event for trial enrichment.Methods: Baseline data from three pulmonary arterial hypertension clinical trials (AMBITION [a Study of First-Line Ambrisentan and Tadalafil Combination Therapy in Subjects with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension], SERAPHIN [Study of Macitentan on Morbidity and Mortality in Patients with Symptomatic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension], and GRIPHON [Selexipag in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension]) were pooled and standardized. Receiver operating curves were used to measure each algorithm's performance in predicting clinical worsening within the pooled placebo cohort. Power simulations were conducted to determine sample size and treatment time reductions for multiple enrichment strategies. A cost analysis was performed to illustrate potential financial savings by applying enrichment to GRIPHON.Measurements and Main Results: All risk algorithms were compared using area under the receiver operating curve and substantially outperformed prediction per New York Heart Association Functional Class. The REVEAL 2.0's risk grouping provided the greatest time and sample size savings in AMBITION and GRIPHON for all enrichment strategies but lacked appropriate inputs (i.e., N-terminal-proB-type natriuretic peptide) to perform as well in SERAPHIN. Cost analysis applied to GRIPHON demonstrated the greatest financial benefit by enrolling patients with a REVEAL score ≥8.Conclusions: This preliminary study demonstrates the feasibility of risk algorithms for pulmonary arterial hypertension trial enrichment and a need for further investigation.

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Two randomized trials provide no consistent evidence for nonmusical cognitive benefits of brief preschool music enrichment.

Publications

Two randomized trials provide no consistent evidence for nonmusical cognitive benefits of brief preschool music enrichment.

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