Have your doctor identify whether this means that musically trained people have a larger cognitive reserve. And can that reserve be used to handle brain insults like stroke and dementia? What age should training start? And for how long? Can you pick this up mid-life?
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0099868
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Jennifer Zuk,
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Christopher Benjamin,
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Arnold Kenyon,
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Nadine Gaab
mail
- Published: June 17, 2014
- DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099868
Abstract
Executive
functions (EF) are cognitive capacities that allow for planned,
controlled behavior and strongly correlate with academic abilities.
Several extracurricular activities have been shown to improve EF,
however, the relationship between musical training and EF remains
unclear due to methodological limitations in previous studies. To
explore this further, two experiments were performed; one with 30 adults
with and without musical training and one with 27 musically trained and
untrained children (matched for general cognitive abilities and
socioeconomic variables) with a standardized EF battery. Furthermore,
the neural correlates of EF skills in musically trained and untrained
children were investigated using fMRI. Adult musicians compared to
non-musicians showed enhanced performance on measures of cognitive
flexibility, working memory, and verbal fluency. Musically trained
children showed enhanced performance on measures of verbal fluency and
processing speed, and significantly greater activation in pre-SMA/SMA
and right VLPFC during rule representation and task-switching compared
to musically untrained children. Overall, musicians show enhanced
performance on several constructs of EF, and musically trained children
further show heightened brain activation in traditional EF regions
during task-switching. These results support the working hypothesis that
musical training may promote the development and maintenance of certain
EF skills, which could mediate the previously reported links between
musical training and enhanced cognitive skills and academic achievement.
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