“There is plenty of evidence suggesting music lessons benefit the brain. But it remains unclear how much training is necessary to have an impact, and how long the positive effects last,” writes Tom Jacobs in Tuesday’s (11/5) Pacific Standard (Santa Barbara, California). “New research suggests the answers are: Not all that much, and a long time indeed. In a just-published study, senior citizens who took four to 14 years of music training early in life performed better than non-musicians on a specific brain function that is vital for interpersonal communication: recognizing fast-changing sounds.” An experiment led by researcher Nina Kraus “featured 44 people between the age of 55 and 76.… Researchers measured the rate at which their brains responded to a specific speech sound … They found those with ‘moderate’ levels of musical training (four to 14 years) … were able to more efficiently process the transition from the consonant ‘duh’ to the vowel ‘ahh,’ which is an essential part of grasping the meaning of the word…. How could music lessons impact brain sharpness decades later? ‘Music instruction may set the stage for future interactions with sound,’ Kraus and her colleagues speculate.… Their results suggest music training … helps shape the brain in positive and long-lasting ways.”
Posted November 7, 2013
