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hiker1
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Joined: 29 Aug 2009
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Location: West Coast |
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hiker1
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 Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:29 pm |
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http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814153
This link does not always work, so I have copied the full text of the summary here:
| Quote: | | Older adults who took music lessons as children but haven't actively played an instrument in decades have a faster brain response to a speech sound than individuals who never played an instrument, new research shows.
The study, published in the November 6 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests early musical training has a lasting, positive effect on how the brain processes sound, the authors note.
Senior author Nina Kraus, PhD, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, commented: "Our findings suggest the importance of music education for children today and for healthy aging decades from now. The fact that musical training in childhood affected the timing of the response to speech in older adults in our study is especially telling, because neural timing is the first to go in the aging adult."
For the study, 44 healthy adults, aged 55 to 76, listened to a synthesized speech syllable ("da") while researchers measured electrical activity in the auditory brainstem. They compared neural responses to speech in 3 groups who reported varying degrees of music training early in life.
Results showed that even though none of the study participants had played an instrument in nearly 40 years, the participants who completed 4 to 14 years of music training early in life had a faster response to the speech sound, on the order of about 1 millisecond.
Commenting on these findings in a press release issued by the Journal of Neuroscience, Michael Kilgard, PhD, who studies how the brain processes sound at the University of Texas at Dallas and was not involved in this study, said, "Being a millisecond faster may not seem like much, but the brain is very sensitive to timing and a millisecond compounded over millions of neurons can make a real difference in the lives of older adults.
"These findings confirm that the investments that we make in our brains early in life continue to pay dividends years later," Dr. Kilgard added.
In the paper, the researchers point out that their findings have important consequences for education and social policy. They note that music education is at high risk for being cut from schools, which prioritize science, math, and reading.
They report that the neural enhancement seen in this study was for encoding consonant-vowel transitions in speech, which are especially vulnerable to the effects of age yet are important for everyday communication.
"These findings support current efforts to reintegrate arts education into schools by suggesting that music training in adolescence and young adulthood may carry meaningful biological benefits into older adulthood," they conclude.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Hugh Knowles Center, and Northwestern University.
J Neurosc i. 2013;33:17667-17674. Abstract |
and this video
http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Health/ID/2428989277/
falling leaves / hide the path / so quietly
~John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com
falling leaves / hide the path / so quietly
~John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com
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treeswarper
Alleged Sockpuppet!
Joined: 25 Dec 2006
Posts: 11277 | TRs | Pics
Location: Don't move here |
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treeswarper
Alleged Sockpuppet!
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Sat Jan 11, 2014 9:57 am |
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Good news at at last!
What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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touron
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Joined: 15 Sep 2003
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Location: Plymouth Rock |
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touron
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Sat Jan 11, 2014 10:56 am |
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I can still clear a room by whistling the Entertainer. 
Touron is a nougat of Arabic origin made with almonds and honey or sugar, without which it would just not be Christmas in Spain.
Touron is a nougat of Arabic origin made with almonds and honey or sugar, without which it would just not be Christmas in Spain.
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Conrad
Meadow bagger
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
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Location: Moscow, ID |
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Conrad
Meadow bagger
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Sat Jan 11, 2014 1:20 pm |
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[Edited after reading more:]
This was not a controlled study, with two matched groups, one group randomly selected to get music lessons, and the other not. Without that, you have no idea whether the lessons caused the improvement. I have no doubt that the kinds of kids that get music lessons do better than the kinds of kids that don't, but that doesn't mean that the music lessons make any difference. BTW, I taught music lessons full-time for half a dozen years.
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cairn builder
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Joined: 19 Aug 2013
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44 people, divided into 3 groups? I think this sounds interesting but a larger study is in order.
I also think children should get music lessons either way.
My piano teacher used to hold sharpened pencils under my wrists so I'd have to hold my hands up properly.
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touron
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touron
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Sat Jan 11, 2014 10:49 pm |
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| cairn builder wrote: | | My piano teacher used to hold sharpened pencils under my wrists so I'd have to hold my hands up properly. |
 What did your cairn building teacher do?
Touron is a nougat of Arabic origin made with almonds and honey or sugar, without which it would just not be Christmas in Spain.
Touron is a nougat of Arabic origin made with almonds and honey or sugar, without which it would just not be Christmas in Spain.
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treeswarper
Alleged Sockpuppet!
Joined: 25 Dec 2006
Posts: 11277 | TRs | Pics
Location: Don't move here |
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treeswarper
Alleged Sockpuppet!
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:56 am |
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I lost my retainer at my flute teacher's house. That angered my orthodontist, who "wired in something you can't lose."
What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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