Learning to play a musical instrument can delay memory decline and new research has shown you are never too old to start.
Scientists in Japan have found that practicing an instrument for a few months improved memory performance for the elderly, with the effects lasting when a person continued playing.
Study author Kaoru Sekiyama, from Kyoto University, said various forms of exercise and activities that flexed the brain were thought to help maintain memory function in old age.
Dr Sekiyama said the putamen and cerebellum were two areas of the brain prone to atrophy and reduced activity due to normal aging and recent neuroscience research had shown that these were the brain regions most likely affected by practicing a musical instrument.
“Yet most studies in this area have focused on young participants or people who have been playing an instrument since childhood,” he said.
Dr Sekiyama said their initial research suggested that practicing an instrument for the first time for four months improved memory performance and the function of the putamen for the elderly, prompting the team to shift their focus to the long-term effects.
He said their current study involved the same participants who practiced a new instrument for four months during the earlier 2020 project, in which the participants’ average age was 73 years.
“This time, half of the participants continued practicing their musical instrument for more than three years while the other half stopped and switched to other hobbies.”
Dr Sekiyama said after four years MRI scans were conducted, focusing on the putamen and the cerebellum, while participants performed cognitive function tests.
“In the group that stopped practicing music, verbal working memory performance declined and the gray matter volume of the right putamen decreased, but the group who continued playing their instruments did not experience such decline in performance or putamen atrophy.
“We were surprised to find that the effects on the brains of elderly people who start and continue practicing an instrument were also concentrated in these two areas of the brain, and that this was an effective way to prevent age-related decline.”
Read the full study: Never too late to start musical instrument training: Effects on working memory and subcortical preservation in healthy older adults across 4 years.
