Longitudinal Effects of Continuous Music Training on Cognitive Development: Evidence From the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study

Music training has been associated with the development of cognitive and language skills, yet large-scale longitudinal studies exploring these relationships are still limited. Drawing on data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, we examined the long-term associations between continuous music engagement and cognitive abilities, including the moderating role of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation. We also applied classification models to distinguish musicians from non-musicians on the basis of their performance on cognitive tasks. Our findings revealed that children who are consistently engaged in music training for 2 years scored higher on multiple cognitive and language-based tasks, with greater gains in picture vocabulary over time compared to non-musicians. Socioeconomic factors moderated these effects, with non-musicians from high-deprivation neighborhoods demonstrating smaller improvements in picture vocabulary than their low-deprivation counterparts, whereas musicians across socioeconomic backgrounds exhibited similar improvements over time. Additionally, classification models identified a distinct profile in musicians, with cognitive performance serving as a key predictor of music engagement, distinguishing musicians from non-musicians. These findings reinforce the role of music training in supporting cognitive and language development and highlight its potential as a cognitive enrichment tool, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.