Playing a musical instrument maintains brain youthfulness and counters the typical age-related decline in speech perception, according to research published in *PLOS Biology* by the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education (Canada) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Researchers used functional MRI to measure brain activity in 25 older musicians, 25 older non-musicians, and 24 younger non-musicians while they listened to and identified syllables obscured by background noise.
Results revealed that senior musicians struggled less to recognize speech compared to their non-musician peers, whose brains overloaded in an attempt to compensate for age-related cognitive decline. Overall, the brain activity and connectivity in older musicians resembled that of the younger non-musicians.
The findings support the hypothesis that musical practice enhances cognitive reserve, offsetting age-related decline and preserving the integrity and functional architecture of neural networks. “A positive lifestyle helps older adults cope better with cognitive aging, and it’s never too late to start and maintain a rewarding hobby like learning an instrument,” commented Lei Zhang of Baycrest.
“Just as a well-tuned instrument doesn’t need to be played louder to be heard, the brains of older musicians remain perfectly tuned through years of training,” added Yi Du of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Our study shows this musical experience strengthens cognitive reserve, helping the brain avoid the typical age-related overexertion seen when others try to understand speech in noisy settings.”
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