Music: Another Pillar of Brain Fitness?

Musi­cians’ brains are often used as mod­els of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty. Indeed, numer­ous stud­ies to date have shown that musi­cal train­ing can change the brain. Musi­cians have larg­er brain vol­ume in areas that are impor­tant for play­ing an instru­ment: motor, audi­to­ry and visuo-spa­tial regions.

A recent Nature Review Neu­ro­science arti­cle shows that music train­ing can ben­e­fit the brain beyond music. Specif­i­cal­ly, musi­cians may have an advan­tage for pro­cess­ing speech in chal­leng­ing lis­ten­ing envi­ron­ments com­pared with non-musicians

This effect of music train­ing sug­gests that, akin to phys­i­cal exer­cise and its impact on body fit­ness, music is a resource that tones the brain for audi­to­ry fit­ness. There­fore, the role of music in shap­ing indi­vid­ual devel­op­ment deserves consideration.

To go further:

• Com­pare the effect of musi­cal train­ing to the effect (if any) of lis­ten­ing to music: Our Brain on Music: We need to do more than listen
• Reflect on the role of music at school: Do we need more music education?