Nov 13, 2013
By Michael Kramer
Those childhood music lessons can sometimes leave painful memories but they appear to carry benefits into adulthood.
A study has found that zoomers who took music lessons when they were kids can process the sounds of speech faster -than those who did not.
Doctor Nina Kraus is a neuroscientist at Northwestern University.
She says it does not matter what instrument you played when you were young – it just matters that you played .
44 adults ranging in age from 55 to 76 had their electrical activity measured in a region of the brain that processes sound.
Those with 4 to 14 years of musical training had faster responses to speech sounds than participants without any training – even though no one in the first group had played an instrument for about 40 years.
Doctor Kraus says the study underscores the need for a good musical education to assist healthy aging.
The study is published in “Neuroscience.”
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