Investigating the relationships between music, rhythm, and executive functions in italian preschoolers

Several studies have focused on the relationship between music, especially rhythmicity, and executive functions in adulthood, while this is less explored in preschoolers. The present study analyses the connection between musical training, music home experience, parents’ music sophistication, and executive functions in Italian 4-year-olds. Participants were 53 (25 females). Each child was tested using the Stroop Day/Night task (Usai et al., 2017) for inhibitory control and the Keep in Mind task (Usai et al., 2017) for working memory before an 8-week music training. Additionally, parents completed two questionnaires about music activities at home (Music@Home, Politimou et al., 2018) and musical sophistication (Goldsmith, Müllensiefen et al., 2014). The Spearman correlation analysis showed that, controlling for parents' education level, children's rhythmic abilities are partially correlated with: parents' ability to perceive musical aspects, as reported in Goldsmith (ρ=0.374); the children's speed of completing the Stroop control phase (ρ=0.374) and the test phase (ρ=0.405); and children's ability to memorize the target picture in the Keep in Mind test (ρ=0.35). Moreover, the latter correlates with the active engagement (ρ=0.319), the musical training (ρ=0.348), and the singing abilities (ρ=0.315) of parents reported in the Goldsmith questionnaire. Finally, the children's capacity to inhibit confusing information and nominalize the right target correlates with the Goldsmith parental musical training subscale (ρ=0.386). Otherwise, correlations between executive functions and Music@Home did not appear. These results suggest that children’s rhythmicity, and parents' musical skills and interests influence preschoolers’ executive function performances.