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Question:
I recently read that music lessons in childhood help boost brain power later in life. Is this true?
Recent research suggests that all those hours of practicing chords and scales may pay off decades later. A recent study published by the American Psychological Association found that older adults who had played an instrument during childhood may be reaping the benefits as they age.
In the study, seniors who had played a musical instrument as a child did better on cognitive tests related to memory and learning. It appears that the benefits are long-term.
We know that there are many benefits for children who study music. I worked on a study which recruited children with no musical background. We gave them a series of cognitive tests, trained half of them musically and then tested the group again. What we found was that those children who had musical training faired better on the tests even after only several weeks of training. In similar research with young adults the results were consistent.
The new research shows that the effects of musical training last over time. The study results also indicate that the longer the musical training they received in childhood, the better the older adults did on the cognition tests. This is important too as it suggests that the longer you practice something using a certain part of the brain, the stronger the connections in that part of the brain become and the longer they last.
Another explanation is the domino effect. Since learning music improves cognition when you are young, it probably improves your intelligence at school, leading to a better job, positively affects your social network and ultimately improves your socio-economic status, which all affects your general health (including brain health) and well-being.
Can older adults benefit from music training?
I believe that older adults can benefit from music training and we are exploring this hypothesis at Baycrest. The causal (domino) effect seen in children could be reproduced in older adults although we are not sure how much or how well. Any time you learn something new, you are reinforcing the connections in the brain.
Something for us to look at in the future is whether musical training can protect against Alzheimer's and other dementias.
Sylvain Moreno is a Baycrest leading scientist at the Center for Brain Fitness, who has done research focusing on music and cognition.
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