Source note · R058
Fine motor control improves in older adults after 1 year of piano lessons: Analysis of individual development and its coupling with cognition and brain structure
A year of piano instruction is examined through motor performance and its relationship to cognition and brain structure.
- Setting
- Related music & arts
- Kind of evidence
- Intervention studies
- Review extent
- Selected sections reviewed
What was studied
Behavioral analyses from a trial of 156 older adults, with 136 contributing MRI data, comparing piano and music-culture programs.
What it contributes
Some fine-motor performance improved, with associations between motor development and other measures.
Where the evidence stops
An association between changes does not establish the mechanism causing them. Pandemic disruption affected the study, and the participants overlap with other papers from the same trial.
One piano and music-culture trial, several outcomes
These papers report different outcomes or subsets from the Swiss-German trial registered as NCT03674931. Sample sizes change with the measure and follow-up. They must not be counted as five independent trials.
About this review
This is a targeted review of selected sections. The record should not be read as an appraisal of the entire work.
Source note updated September 7, 2026. Read our approach to evidence.