Rhythm synchronization performance and auditory working memory in early and late-trained musicians

Previous work from our laboratory has shown that adult musicians who began training before the age of 7 (Early-Trained; ET) performed better on a visual-motor tapping task than Chose who began after the age of 7 (Late-Trained; LT), even when matched on total years of musical training and experience. This supports the idea of a "sensitive" period in childhood development during which musical training results in long-lasting benefits for sensorimotor integration. Two questions were raised regarding the findings from this experiment. Firstly, would this group performance difference be observed using a more familiar, musically relevant task such as auditory rhythms? Secondly, how would cognitive abilities contribute to task performance? To address these questions, ET and LT musicians, matched on years of musical training, hours of current practice and experience, were tested on an auditory rhythm synchronization task. The task consisted of six woodblock rhythms of varying levels of metrical complexity. In addition, participants were tested on cognitive subtests measuring vocabulary, working memory, and pattern recognition. The two groups of musicians differed in their task performance, such that the ET musicians were better at reproducing the temporal structure of the rhythms. There were no group differences on the cognitive measures. However, across both groups, individual task performance correlated with auditory working memory abilities and years of formal training. These results support the idea of a sensitive period during the early years of childhood for developing sensorimotor synchronization abilities