Studying a musical instrument can help strengthen the brain, new research has revealed.
The report, by scientists in Japan, showed that learning an instrument can help boost brain power, with the biggest benefits seen in those children who start playing at a very young age.
Musicians with formal training before the age of seven are believed to have an enhanced ability to integrate sensory information from hearing, touch and sight.
Gottfried Schlaug, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, said: ‘Playing a musical instrument is a multi-sensory and motor experience that creates emotions and motions - from finger tapping to dancing - and engages pleasure and reward systems in the brain. It has the potential to change brain function and structure when done over a long period of time.’
‘As today’s findings show, intense musical training generates new processes within the brain, at different stages of life, and with a range of impacts on creativity, cognition, and learning.’
The study results were announced at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
Almost 50 men and women participated in the research.
The report, by scientists in Japan, showed that learning an instrument can help boost brain power, with the biggest benefits seen in those children who start playing at a very young age.
Musicians with formal training before the age of seven are believed to have an enhanced ability to integrate sensory information from hearing, touch and sight.
Gottfried Schlaug, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, said: ‘Playing a musical instrument is a multi-sensory and motor experience that creates emotions and motions - from finger tapping to dancing - and engages pleasure and reward systems in the brain. It has the potential to change brain function and structure when done over a long period of time.’
‘As today’s findings show, intense musical training generates new processes within the brain, at different stages of life, and with a range of impacts on creativity, cognition, and learning.’
The study results were announced at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
Almost 50 men and women participated in the research.
