How is musical expertise related to executive functions? A systematic review and meta-analysis

A person’s lifetime involvement with musical expertise has been hypothesized to be positively associated with executive functions, including inhibition, shifting, and working memory. However, results of past research have been inconclusive. This preregistered systematic review and three-level meta-analysis of 47 studies encompassing 235 effect sizes from 4,651 healthy adult participants investigated how strongly musical expertise relates to each of the three executive functions. The results showed significant medium associations between musical expertise and executive functions (g = 0.43), with small to medium associations between musical expertise and each of the functions: inhibition (g = 0.31), shifting (g = 0.22), and working memory (g = 0.49). Risk of bias moderated the relationship between musical expertise and inhibition, and the paradigm used to assess executive functions moderated the association between musical expertise and working memory. The results suggest that individuals who engage in musical activities have higher levels of executive function, with a particularly critical role of working memory in musical expertise. The literature review further identified several methodological issues, including predominant reliance on dichotomizing continuous variables and the use of small samples yielding low statistical power. The review offers methodological recommendations and directions for further investigating the relationship between working memory and musical expertise.