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Effects of informal musical engagement on white matter integrity across development.

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 3:00 – 5:00 pm PST, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Joshua Timmins¹ (timmins.j@northeastern.edu), Kelsie L Lopez¹, Nicholas Kathios¹, Psyche Loui¹; ¹Northeastern University

Early engagement with enriching activities can have a profound impact on subsequent brain structure. For example, formal musical training in middle childhood (e.g., playing an instrument) is associated with greater integrity of white matter pathways within the arcuate fasciculus when compared to children without formal musical training. However, barriers exist that may restrict access to formal music training (e.g., cost) in childhood. Meanwhile, survey and in-home recording studies illustrate that a vast majority of individuals informally engage in musical experiences (e.g., being sung to or playing with musical toys) in development. Whether similar differences in white matter integrity can be attributed to such musical engagement remains to be investigated. The present study will use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in a sample of children, adolescents, and young adults (n = 129, age range = 5-24, mean age = 18.5) to investigate whether similar structural differences emerge among populations with informal music experiences across development. Informal exposure to music during childhood and formal musical training were measured via self-report on the Music@Home and Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index surveys, respectively. Planned analyses will leverage whole brain Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) as well as evaluate diffusion values for fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and mode of the arcuate fasciculus to test the unique contributions of formal musical training and informal musical exposure on white matter microstructure. This effort highlights the potential effects of an under-investigated but extremely common dimension of the early environment on brain development.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging