Behavioral and electrophysiological findings of central auditory processing in children and adolescents undergoing musical training.

Only seven studies met the inclusion criteria and they could not be pooled, so the review gives no combined estimate of how much musical training changes auditory processing. The search deliberately excluded terms for central auditory processing, which the authors acknowledge may have kept relevant studies out of the review. Nearly all the studies compared children who were already learning music with children who were not, and nobody was assigned at random, so differences in schools, families or motivation could explain the results. Training programmes, durations, age groups, assessment tools and populations varied so much that the authors describe direct comparison between studies as difficult. Several studies reported only brain-response measures and did no behavioural testing, so it is unclear whether the neural changes made any difference to everyday listening. Sample sizes were small in places, as few as 11 adolescents in one study, and every study used a convenience sample. Two checklist items were marked 'not reported' for all seven studies: whether different amounts of musical training were compared against the outcome, and whether the people assessing outcomes were blinded to which group each child was in.

The authors state under funding and conflicts of interest that there is no financial support to declare.

Do not read this as proof that music lessons improve children's auditory processing. Most included studies compared children who were already learning music with children who were not, so their schools and families may differ in other ways too, and the review could not combine the results into a single estimate. Music may still help, but this paper does not show that it does.