Long-term musical training can protect against age-related upregulation of neural activity in speech-in-noise perception.

ABSTRACT: During cognitive tasks, older adults often show increased frontoparietal neural activity and functional connectivity. Cognitive reserve accrued from positive life choices like long-term musical training can provide additional neural resources to help cope with the effect of aging. However, the relationship between cognitive reserve and upregulated neural activity in older adults remains poorly understood. In this study, we measured brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a speech-in-noise task and assessed whether cognitive reserve accumulated from long-term musical training bolsters or holds back age-related increase in neural activity. Older musicians exhibited less upregulation of task-induced functional connectivity than older non-musicians in auditory dorsal

SUBMITTER: Zhang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12262870 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature