Learning how to play an instrument prior to age 14 and sticking with it for at least 10 years could preserve cognitive skills such as speech listening in old age, according to a new Canadian study from the Rotman Research Institute (RRI).
Seniors who fit this description of musical experience were 20 percent faster when identifying speech sounds than their non-musical counterparts, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
"Musical activities are an engaging form of cognitive brain training and we are now seeing robust evidence of brain plasticity from musical training not just in younger brains, but in older brains too," says lead author Gavin Bidelman, at the time a post-doctoral fellow at the RRI and who is now an assistant professor at the University of Memphis.
Dr. Bidelman and his team used electroencephalography (EEG) imaging to assess how well their participants -- a group of 20 healthy adults between the ages of 55 and 75 -- could classify or identify speech.
Among the participants, half qualified as being musicians according to the study's standards and the other half did not.
In a controlled laboratory setting, they put on headphones and were asked to listen to and identify random speech sounds that ranged from simple, single vowel sounds of "ooo" and "ahhh" to ambiguous, mixed sounds that were more difficult to recognize.
Because EEG technology offers ultra-precise measurements of the timing of the brain's electrical activity in response to external stimuli, the researchers say they have strong evidence of the cognitive preservation musical training affords.
The study is the most recent of many that make the case for the brain benefits of musical training, particularly if it starts during youth.
While cognitive advantages are most frequently cited, researchers in Vermont recently published a study suggesting that musical training could be more effective than medication for children with psychological disorders.
