 Wysłany: Pią 22:57, 29 Kwi 2011 Temat postu: Childhood music lessons may pro Onitsuka Tiger 201 |
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| Childhood music lessons may provide lifelong boost in brain functioning： study
Those childhood music lessons could pay off decades later -- even for those who no longer play an instrument -- by keeping the mind sharper as people age,asics running shoes,网友微博爱心接力救助患血液病男童 air ken griffey, according to a preliminary study published by the American Psychological Association (APA). The study recruited 70 healthy adults age 60 to 83 who were divided into groups based on their levels of musical experience. The musicians performed better on several cognitive tests than individuals who had never studied an instrument or learned how to read music,asics shoes 2011, according to the research findings published Wednesday online in the APA journal Neuropsychology. "Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise,cheap Mexico 66, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging," said lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy,asics tiger mexico 66, a clinical neuropsychologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center. "Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning,asics shoes, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older." The three groups of study participants included individuals with no musical training; with one to nine years of musical study; or with at least 10 years of musical training. All of the participants had similar levels of education and fitness and didn' t show any evidence of Alzheimer's disease. All of the musicians were amateurs who began playing an instrument at about 10 years of age. More than half played the piano while approximately a quarter had studied woodwind instruments such as the flute or clarinet. Smaller numbers performed with stringed instruments,asics onitsuka tiger, percussion or brass instruments. The high-level musicians who had studied the longest performed the best on the cognitive tests,Asics Ultimate 81, followed by the low-level musicians and non-musicians,Asics Mexico 66 outlet, revealing a trend relating to years of musical practice. The high-level musicians had statistically significant higher scores than the non-musicians on cognitive tests relating to visuospatial memory, naming objects and cognitive flexibility, or the brain's ability to adapt to new information. The brain functions measured by the tests typically decline as the body ages and more dramatically deteriorate in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. The results "suggest a strong predictive effect of high musical activity throughout the lifespan on preserved cognitive functioning in advanced age," the study stated. Half of the high-level musicians still played an instrument at the time of the study, but they didn't perform better on the cognitive tests than the other advanced musicians who had stopped playing years earlier. This suggests that the duration of musical study was more important than whether musicians continued playing at an advanced age,asics mexico 66 baja, Hanna-Pladdy says. "Based on previous research and our study results,Onitsuka Tiger 2011, we believe that both the years of musical participation and the age of acquisition are critical,tiger shoes outlet," Hanna-Pladdy says. "There are crucial periods in brain plasticity that enhance learning, which may make it easier to learn a musical instrument before a certain age and thus may have a larger impact on brain development." The preliminary study was correlational,asics tiger shoes sale, meaning that the higher cognitive performance of the musicians couldn't be conclusively linked to their years of musical study. More research is needed to explore that possible link. |
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