Does Music Training Improve Emotion Recognition? Longitudinal and Correlational Evidence from Children

Despite widespread claims that music training enhances nonmusical abilities, causal evidence remains inconclusive. Moreover, much research has focused on potential benefits for perception and cognition, but socioemotional skills are often overlooked. Here, we used longitudinal and correlational approaches to ask whether music training improves emotion recognition in voices and faces among school-aged children. We also assessed musical abilities, fine- and gross-motor skills, broader socioemotional functioning, and cognitive abilities including nonverbal reasoning, executive functions, and auditory short-term and working memory. Study 1 (N = 110) was a two-year longitudinal intervention conducted in a naturalistic school environment with three groups: music training, basketball training (active control), and no training (passive control). Compared to both control groups, music training improved fine-motor skills and auditory short-term and working memory, but it had no effect on emotion recognition or other cognitive and socioemotional abilities. Study 2 (N = 192) compared musically untrained children with those attending a music school. Music training correlated with improved emotion recognition in speech prosody (tone of voice), but this association disappeared after accounting for musical abilities, short-term memory, or socioeconomic status. In contrast, musical abilities correlated with improved emotion recognition in prosody and faces independently of music training and other confounding variables. These findings suggest that while music training may enhance fine-motor skills and auditory memory, observed advantages in emotion recognition likely stem from preexisting musical abilities.