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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Bottom line: music training has limited effects on nonmusical abilities. It appears to improve fine-motor skills and auditory memory, but not emotion recognition, other cognitive abilities, or socioemotional functioning.

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Our findings suggest that the impact of music training on cognitive and emotional abilities may not be as broad as often claimed. Most effects were absent, and observed links with emotion recognition may reflect preexisting factors.

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

In contrast, musical ability was linked to better emotion recognition in prosody and faces, even after accounting for music training and other factors. This suggests these associations emerge independently of formal training.

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

In a second, correlational study, music training was linked to better emotion recognition in speech prosody (tone of voice). But this association disappeared after controlling for socioeconomic status or other confounding factors.

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Improvements were limited to fine-motor skills and auditory memory. For gross-motor skills, both music and basketball training had similar benefits, outperforming the no-training group.

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Music training also did not improve nonverbal reasoning, executive functions, music perception, or broader socioemotional skills like social behavior, empathy, and emotion comprehension.

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

New paper out in Cognition: sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Does music training enhance emotion recognition and cognitive abilities in children? A 2-year longitudinal study found no effect on emotion recognition in voices and faces compared to basketball training or no training.

sciencedirect.com

Does music training improve emotion recognition and cognitive abilities? Longitudinal and correlational evidence from children

Music training is widely claimed to enhance nonmusical abilities, yet causal evidence remains inconclusive. Moreover, research tends to focus on cogni…

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Improvements were limited to fine-motor skills and auditory memory. For gross-motor skills, both music and basketball training had similar benefits, outperforming the no-training group.

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César Lima @cesarflima.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Music training also did not improve nonverbal reasoning, executive functions, music perception, or broader socioemotional skills like social behavior, empathy, and emotion comprehension.

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Reposted by César Lima

Adam Tierney @adamtierney.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

One of my strongest opinions as a scientist--as a person--is that every acronym you use is a step away from understanding. Using an acronym is bad enough, but inventing one is a sin. Stop making me flip back to the beginning of your paper to understand what BPPMPPS means

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