Kids' Music Lessons Have Lasting Brain Benefits

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child playing piano
Learning how to play an instrument as a child can boost cognition later in life, even if you don't continue playing as an adult. (Image credit: © Raywoo | Dreamstime.com)

Even if you stopped going to piano lessons after middle school and no longer remember how to play Für Elise, your brain might be reaping the benefits of that early instruction. New research suggests just a few years of musical training in childhood could improve how the brain processes sound in adulthood, leading to better listening and learning skills.

The Northwestern University study, published today (Aug. 22) in the journal Neuroscience, focused on what happens after a person puts down an instrument following just a few years of training, a common childhood experience. The study was small but builds on previous research that found older adults with musical experience perform better on some cognitive tests than those who had never studied music.

"Based on what we already know about the ways that music helps shape the brain, the study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning," study researcher Nina Kraus, director of Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, said in the statement.

Previous research on musicians showed that enhanced brain responses to sound are associated with sharpened auditory perception and auditory communication skills.

"From this earlier research, we infer that a few years of music lessons also confer advantages in how one perceives and attends to sounds in everyday communication situations, such as noisy restaurants or rides on the 'L,'" Kraus said, referring to Chicago's public transit system.

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Megan Gannon
Megan Gannon
Live Science Contributor
Megan has been writing for Live Science and Space.com since 2012. Her interests range from archaeology to space exploration, and she has a bachelor's degree in English and art history from New York University. Megan spent two years as a reporter on the national desk at NewsCore. She has watched dinosaur auctions, witnessed rocket launches, licked ancient pottery sherds in Cyprus and flown in zero gravity. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.