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Older Adults Benefit from Music Training Early in Life: Biological Evidence for Long-Term Training-Driven Plasticity

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  • Older Adults Benefit from Music Training Early in Life: Biological Evidence for Long-Term Training-Driven Plasticity

    http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/45/17667.abstract
    Older Adults Benefit from Music Training Early in Life: Biological Evidence for Long-Term Training-Driven Plasticity The Journal of Neuroscience, 6 November 2013, 33(45):17667-17674;

    Travis White-Schwoch1,2,
    Kali Woodruff Carr1,2,
    Samira Anderson1,2,
    Dana L. Strait1,3, and
    Nina Kraus1,2,3,4,5

    Abstract

    Aging results in pervasive declines in nervous system function. In the auditory system, these declines include neural timing delays in response to fast-changing speech elements; this causes older adults to experience difficulty understanding speech, especially in challenging listening environments. These age-related declines are not inevitable, however: older adults with a lifetime of music training do not exhibit neural timing delays. Yet many people play an instrument for a few years without making a lifelong commitment. Here, we examined neural timing in a group of human older adults who had nominal amounts of music training early in life, but who had not played an instrument for decades. We found that a moderate amount (4?14 years) of music training early in life is associated with faster neural timing in response to speech later in life, long after training stopped (>40 years). We suggest that early music training sets the stage for subsequent interactions with sound. These experiences may interact over time to sustain sharpened neural processing in central auditory nuclei well into older age.

    Received June 17, 2013.
    Revision received August 22, 2013.
    Accepted September 18, 2013.

    Copyright ? 2013 the authors 0270-6474/13/3317667-08
    Read more here:

    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814153
    Medscape Medical News > Neurology
    Childhood Music Lessons Have Neural Benefit Decades Later

    Sue Hughes
    November 11, 2013

    ...
    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...
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