Learning to play music changes brain structure and function, and there is much interest in the idea that these changes might transfer to skills beyond music. Many studies examined if music training improves abilities such as speech and intelligence. However, remarkably little is known about potential transfer effects to social skills, notably the ability to process emotional voices and faces. This effect could be hypothesized from the fundamental link between music and social and emotion processes, and is of central theoretical and applied importance: for understanding brain plasticity, the neurocognitive links between music and socio-emotional abilities, and the potential of music as a therapeutic tool. This project asks if music training improves socio-emotional processing, focusing on three unresolved questions. First, we determine if adult musicians reliably outperform non-musicians at recognizing emotions, and establish the scope of the effect: is it limited to voices, or does it extend to the visual domain (faces)? Is it limited to formally trained individuals,or does it extend to musically sophisticated non-musicians, who developed music skills via informal engagement withmusic? This will clarify previous mixed findings and provide a mechanistic understanding of the effect. A new tool for measuring musical sophistication will be validated and made available to the community. Second, we will combine state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging and electrophysiological techniques to delineate the neural mechanisms of the effect. This includes examining how emotions are represented in the trained brain, modulations in the processing time course, and changes in functional connectivity and brain anatomy. This comprehensive approach will add critical new insights into how music drives plasticity. Third, we will conduct a longitudinal study in children to test the effects of a music training program on socio-emotional processing, including pre- and post- training assessments. This will be implemented in a naturalistic setting in a low income/disadvantaged area, linking laboratory-based research withreal-world impact. Such an approach is critical to assess how music shapes development, and to establish a direct causal link between training and social skills. Altogether, this proposal capitalizes on an innovative multi-method approach, well placed to produce important theoretical advances concerning plasticity, music, and social processing. Crucially, it will offer evidence for teachers, clinicians, engineers, and policymakers interested in enacting programs for social skills. Our team at U Porto and U Lisbon provide complementary expertise to address all the components of the proposal, as indicated by our track record of high impact publications in the field. The project benefits from established internationalcollaborations, and from collaborations with local elementary schools, music schools, orchestras, and neuroimaging institutions.

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With the objective to increase the research activity directed towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the possibility of associating scientific projects with the Sustainable Development Goals is now available in Ciência_Iscte. These are the Sustainable Development Goals identified for this project. For more detailed information on the Sustainable Development Goals, click here.