Adolescence as a sensitive period for music acquisition

The term sensitive period refers to a limited time window during development when heightened neuroplasticity facilitates the acquisition of new knowledge or skills within a particular domain. Different domains of knowledge have unique trajectories of acquisition, possibly due to the differing rates of development for various parts of the brain. Adolescence is a period when music plays an important role in both social and emotional development. The co-occurrence of musical importance and the development of affective (emotional) and executive (cognitive) neural functions lays the foundation for a possible sensitive period for the acquisition of musical knowledge. Yet, few studies in the field of music psychology have focused on the developmental period of adolescence. The present study aims to help fill that gap by administering a variety of online musical tests to adolescents aged 13 to 19 years. The tests include an assessment of learnability of popular music and the AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills. Techniques of analysis include analysis of variance of recognition scores and acoustical measurements. Superior performance at a particular age would define a specific adolescent sensitive period for musical knowledge acquisition and would also enhance understanding of the development of the human brain.