Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (ICPSR 39141)

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The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study SM is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded leading researchers in the fields of adolescent development and neuroscience to conduct this ambitious project. The ABCD Research Consortium consists of a Coordinating Center, a Data Analysis, Informatics & Resource Center, and 21 research sites across the country, which have invited 11,880 children ages 9-10 to join the study. Researchers will track their biological and behavioral development through adolescence into young adulthood.

Arts measures in ABCD include how can arts experiences be best used to enhance development of each individual? How can arts experience be best used to promote health and address developmental disorders? And also, how can neuroscience research provide a foundation for rational approaches to how we integrate arts into development?

ABCD enables us to track a trajectory of broad measures of cortical area thickness of the brain over time and see whether individuals keep on with the mean, go higher, lower, and so forth. And what factors might affect those trajectories.The data shows the relationship between music engagement and brain and behavioral developmental trajectories in childhood and adolescence, using rich characterization of brain, behavior, demographics, and genetics available in ABCD.

Arts experiences in ABCD are captured largely as part of something called the activities questionnaire, which is a pretty detailed questionnaire given to parents, which includes detailed information about participation in a wide range of activities, which include many different sports, but also performance in the arts, music, dance, drama, visual and crafts. Activities such as active engagement, learning, lessons, playing in bands, creating art (school, outside school, private lessons, and self-study). The data offers insights into effects of arts-related activities on cognitive outcomes like fluid and crystallized intelligence, executive function, working memory-specific measures, risk scores for IQ, and educational attainment.

Watch the recording of NADAC's webinar featuring Dr. Gay Dowling, Director of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Project, and Dr. Iversen, a cognitive neuroscientist. Dr. Dowling provides an overview of the ABCD study, while Dr. Iversen discusses the arts-specific measures within the ABCD data and explains how these measures, combined with comprehensive brain and cognitive assessments, reveal the impact of the arts on brain development.

Additional ABCD resources:

• The Sound Health Network

• The ABSD Data Dictionary

• NIMH Data Archive

• ABCD GitHub

• ABCD Study Infographics

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