Brain development and musical skills: A longitudinal twin study on brain developmental trajectories and sensorimotor synchronization

There are individual differences in brain developmental patterns, yet it is unknown to what extent these may be driven by enriched experiences. Moreover, it is not well known whether enriched experiences may result in attenuated or accelerated brain development. Studying the relation between music performance and the brain using a large longitudinal twin study provides a framework for better understanding the genetic and environmental effects on brain development in childhood. The present region-of-interest study tested whether individual differences in sensorimotor synchronization with an auditorily cued finger tapping task are related to individual differences in developmental brain trajectories and if this relation was genetically or environmentally driven. The present study included a longitudinal twin design with up to 3 MRI waves of data (7–14 years old; Nt1 = 418, NT2 = 367, NT3 = 228). In line with our preregistered hypotheses, results showed that attenuated patterns of brain development in 27 % of motor and affective ROIs were associated with SMS performance independent of socio-economic status effects. Furthermore, brain-behavior associations were at least partly driven by shared and unique environmental/measurement error effects, in addition to genetic influences. Possibly, attenuated brain development may be indicative of prolonged brain plasticity related to enriched environmental experiences, such as musical training, in addition to predisposing genetic factors.