Study shows that learning music at a young age helps brain development in children.
If you started piano lessons in grade one, or played the recorder in kindergarten, thank your parents and teachers, as researchers have claimed that music lessons before age seven has a significant effect on the development of the brain.
They said that the younger you started music lessons, the stronger the connections in your brain.
A study suggests that those who began early had stronger connections between motor regions – the parts of the brain that help you plan and carry out movements.
This research was carried out by students in the laboratory of Concordia University psychology professor Virginia Penhune, and in collaboration with Robert J. Zatorre, a researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University.
The study provides strong evidence that the years between ages six and eight are a “sensitive period” when musical training interacts with normal brain development to produce long-lasting changes in motor abilities and brain structure.
“Learning to play an instrument requires coordination between hands and with visual or auditory stimuli,” Penhune said.
“Practicing an instrument before age seven likely boosts the normal maturation of connections between motor and sensory regions of the brain, creating a framework upon which ongoing training can build,” she added.
With the help of study co-authors, PhD candidates Christopher J. Steele and Jennifer A. Bailey, Penhune and Zatorre tested 36 adult musicians on a movement task, and scanned their brains. Half of these musicians began musical training before age seven, while the other half began at a later age, but the two groups had the same number of years of musical training and experience.
These two groups were also compared with individuals who had received little or no formal musical training
When comparing a motor skill between the two groups, musicians who began before age seven showed more accurate timing, even after two days of practice.
When comparing brain structure, musicians who started early showed enhanced white matter in the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerve fibres that connects the left and right motor regions of the brain.
Importantly, the researchers found that the younger a musician started, the greater the connectivity.
The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
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