A novel study has found that learning music instrument in childhood could help preserve and boost your gray matter in old age. The kids who learn to play any musical instrument have sharper minds and better cognitive skills in comparison to those who had no musical training.
Playing an instrument can have a protective effect on the brain as it is a form of mental exercise, which motivates the brain keeping it agile and sharp, hypothesize researchers. In a bit to analyze the impact of musical activity during childhood on age-related brain decline researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center conducted a study.
The researchers’ conscripted seventy healthy adults aged between sixty and eighty-three and split them into groups depending on their musical experience. More than half of the participants played the piano, a quarter had training in woodwind instruments, like the clarinet or saxophone while a small number played percussion, stringed or brass instruments.
The brain functioning of the participants were evaluated through cognitive test that calculated visuospatial memory, naming objects and cognitive flexibility. The study found the musicians did better than those with no musical background in various cognitive tests. They were closely followed by the group who had less training while worst mental skills were displayed by the non-musicians.
It was also found that all of the musicians were amateurs who had started playing an instrument at around the age of ten. According to study author Dr Brenda Hanna-Pladdy musical activity throughout life may act as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accepting the challenges of aging.
Given that learning an instrument needs years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could recompense for cognitive declines as you get older. Based on previous research and results of current study they believe that both the years of musical participation and the age of acquisition are vital.
There are crucial periods in brain plasticity that boost learning, which may make it easier to learn a musical instrument prior to a certain age and thus may have a larger impact on development of the brain , added Dr Hanna-Pladdy. The American Psychological Association journal Neuropsychology reports, skills that likely to worsen speedily in conditions like Alzheimer’s were particularly prone to be preserved.