Life-long music practice and executive control in older adults: An event-related potential study

• Music practice is known to have a positive impact on the cognition of older adults.
• We examined the brain correlates of lifelong music practice in older musicians.
• Musicians and non-musicians underwent a go/nogo task while ERPs were recorded.
• We found group differences in behavioral accuracy as well as N2 and P3 amplitudes.
• Therefore, music practice may increase resistance to cognitive aging.

Recent research has indicated that music practice can influence cognitive processing across the lifespan. Although extensive musical experience may have a mitigating effect on cognitive decline in older adults, the nature of changes to brain functions underlying performance benefits remains underexplored. The present study was designed to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms that may support apparent beneficial effects of life-long musical practice on cognition. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in older musicians (N=17; average age=69.2) and non-musicians (N=17; average age=69.9), matched for age and education, while they completed an executive control task (visual go/no-go). Whereas both groups showed similar response speed and accuracy on go trials, older musicians showed fewer no-go errors. ERP recordings revealed the typical N2/P3 complex, but the nature of these responses differed between groups in that (1) older musicians showed larger N2 and P3 effects (‘no-go minus go’ amplitude), with the N2 amplitude being correlated with behavioral accuracy for no-go trials and (2) the topography of the P3 response was more anterior in musicians. Moreover, P3 amplitude was correlated with measures of musical experience in musicians. In our discussion of these results, we propose that music practice may have conferred an executive control advantage for musicians in later life.