Study: Childhood music lessons benefit adulthood cognition

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Music relaxes the body, uplifts the spirit, and motivates the inner will.

It should not be surprising to know that music provides these significant benefits. But, more than the ability to soothe, uplift, and motivate, music may actually boost the brain. And when children take up music lessons early on, it may boost brain response well into adult life, reveals a study in the Journal of Neuroscience.

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The scientists evaluated 45 healthy adults with ages ranging from 18 to 31. The results suggest that those who received formal music training as children have stronger brainstem responses to sound than those who never experienced music instruction. There is also an effect on how early musical training stopped. All in all, the results imply that cognitive developments boosted by musical training in childhood are significantly preserved through adulthood.

Furthermore, a short period of music lessons in childhood, say at the age of three years, alters the nervous system that persists in adulthood even after training. However, regular and continuous lessons early in life correlate to a better cognitive function in adulthood.

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Parents have to realize that beyond the ability to emotionally console or make children happy, playing musical instruments nourishes the mind. Injecting music into children’s lives can go a long way. As the great philosopher Plato put it: “I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.”

Mark Begelman and Markee Music open their doors to children to bring music into their lives. Know more of the studio’s facilities and services by visiting this Facebook page.