Musical Training Amplifies Food Cue-Related Interference in Working Memory

Background: Musical training has been widely associated with enhanced cognitive abilities, yet its influence on food-related cognitive processing remains largely unexplored. Food craving is known to interfere with working memory (WM), particularly in the presence of highly salient food cues. This study investigated how musical training interacts with food craving to shape WM performance in food-related contexts. Methods: Thirty-eight university students with or without musical training completed a food cue 2-back task involving high- and low-calorie food images while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Behavioral performance (reaction time and accuracy), event-related potentials (ERPs), and self-reported food craving were assessed. Mediation and moderation analyses were conducted to examine the role of craving-related dimensions in task performance. Results: Participants with musical training showed longer reaction times than non-musically trained participants, while accuracy did not differ between groups. EEG results revealed larger N2 amplitudes in musically trained individuals in response to high-calorie food cues, indicating increased cognitive conflict. Mediation analyses showed that food craving-related intentions and plans indirectly linked musical training to slower task performance, and moderation analyses indicated that this effect was stronger with longer training duration. Conclusions: These findings suggest that musical training does not uniformly facilitate working memory in food-related contexts but may heighten sensitivity to motivationally salient food cues, thereby increasing cognitive interference. The study highlights the importance of individual experience and internal states in shaping cognitive responses to food cues and provides new insights into how expertise may influence food-related cognition and decision-making.