Music making may help keep mind in tune in old age

Long time play ing of a mu si cal in stru ment may help keep your mind sharp as old age sets in, a study has found.

Re search ers Bren da Hanna-Pladdy and Ali cia Mac Kay at the Un ivers ity of Kan sas Med i­cal Cen ter sur veyed 70 healthy peo ple aged 60 to 83, giv ing them a series of neu ropsy­cho logical tests.

Those with at least 10 years of mu si cal ex pe ri ence had “bet ter per for mance in non ver­bal mem o ry… and ex ec u tive pro cess es” com pared to non-mu si cians, the in ves ti ga tors wrote. Their find ings, which they de scribe as pre lim i nary, are pub lished in the April 4 ad vance on line is sue of the re search jour nal Neu ro psy chol ogy.

The re sults, they added, “sug gest a strong pre dic tive ef fect of high mu si cal ac ti vity through out the life span on pre served cog ni tive func tion ing in ad vanced age.”

If the find ings are con firmed, music-making may join phys ical fitness, strong edu cation and pro fes sional car eers as fac tors found to con tri bute to high er ment al test scores in old age.

It has al ready been known that “in ten sive re pet i tive mu si cal prac tice can lead to bi lat­er al cor ti cal re or gan iz a tion,” or wide spread changes in brain wir ing, Hanna-Pladdy and Mac Kay wrote. But it has been un clear, they added, wheth er mu si cal abil i ties “trans fer to nonmu si cal cog ni tive abil i ties” through out life.

The peo ple in the sur vey group were matched on age, educa t ion, his to ry of phys i cal ex er cise; mu si cians were matched on age of in stru mental ac qui si tion and years of for­mal mu si cal train ing, the sci en tists not ed.