Playing an instrument keeps the brain young

Playing a musical instrument keeps the brain young and slows the decline in speech perception that typically occurs with age. This is demonstrated by a study published in the journal PLOS Biology by the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education (Canada) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the brain activity of 25 elderly musicians, 25 elderly people who did not play an instrument, and 24 young non-musicians, who were asked to listen to and identify syllables masked by noisy sounds. The results show that the elderly musicians struggle less with speech recognition than their non-musician peers , whose brains are overloaded to compensate for age-related cognitive decline. Overall, the elderly musicians showed activity and connectivity in brain areas similar to that of the young non-musicians. Overall, the findings support the hypothesis that musical practice enhances cognitive reserve , offsetting age-related decline and maintaining the integrity and functional architecture of neural networks . "A positive lifestyle helps older adults better cope with cognitive aging, and it's never too late to take up and maintain a rewarding hobby like learning to play an instrument," comments Lei Zhang of Baycrest Academy for Research and Education. "Just as a well-tuned instrument doesn't need to be played louder to be heard, the brains of older musicians remain perfectly tuned thanks to years of training ," adds Yi Du of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Our study shows that this musical experience strengthens cognitive reserve , helping the brain avoid the usual age-related fatigue typical of trying to understand speech in noisy places."