MUMBAI: Learning to play an instrument at a young age helps people response better to complex sounds, making them better equipped to listen, according to researchers in US.
Although previous studies have shown that playing music has a healthy impact on our brain, the new paper is the first to demonstrate that the effects last for many years after people have given up the hobby, media reported.
Researchers used electrodes to measure brain activity in 45 volunteers aged up to 31 as they listened to eight ‘complex’ sounds, each comprising an array of different frequencies and timings to replicate the characteristics of speech or a piece of music.
Related Post
Although they did not directly test participants’ hearing, monitoring the brain signal enabled the scientists to see how effectively the nervous system processed various elements of sound.
Even those who had only played music for one to five years as a child showed a noticeable improvement over those who had never done so, in their brain’s ability to process sounds, the report said.
“All previous studies have been done in people who at the time of testing were still playing an instrument. This is really the first time that it has been demonstrated that in the more typical scenario – where someone has played a musical instrument for a number of years in childhood but then stopped – that prior training has a long-lasting effect on how their nervous system responds to sound,” Northwestern University, Illinois, professor Nina Kraus said.
Adults with one to five years of musical training as children had enhanced brain responses to complex sounds, making them more effective at pulling out the fundamental frequency of the sound signal.
The fundamental frequency, which is the lowest frequency in sound, is crucial for speech and music perception, allowing recognition of sounds in complex and noisy auditory environments, the report said.
The scientists are already carrying out a second study to find out whether learning different instruments shapes the brain in different ways, and are planning a further experiment to see whether the benefits are still present in older adults.
