Musical training improves brain development in children.

摘要

In children aged 4-6 years, 1 year of musical training affects development of auditory evoked magnetic fields (AEFs), according to a group of Canadian researchers. These changes, measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG), coincided with improvements in working memory capacity. "These results provide evidence for training-induced plastic change in the brain at this age, which can be applied to intervention programmes for children with attention-related disorders and communication difficulties", explained corresponding author Takako Fujioka (Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada).Enhanced responses evoked by musical sounds have been found in adult musicians, and the enhancement was shown to correlate with the age at which they commenced musical practice. "We were - interested in examining which part of cortical responses changed over the first year of musical training at an early age", Fujioka told The Lancet Neurology.