childhood music lessons improves brain function as we age!

this study was sent to me by Claire Westlake, a private piano teacher that is a lets play music connections certified teacher in Mesa.

Study Links Childhood Music Lessons With Better Brain Function in Older Adults

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

April 22, 2011 -- Learning to play a musical instrument as a child may help keep the mind sharp for years after the last note is played.
A new study suggests childhood music lessons may improve brain function and combat the effects of aging on the brain.
Researchers found older adults who took music lessons as a child performed better on memory and brain function tests than those who never learned how to read music or play an instrument.
The benefits of childhood music lessons on brain function were still evident decades later even if they never played music again as adults. But the study suggests the longer the participants played an instrument, the bigger the benefits may be.
"Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging," says researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, PhD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center, in a news release. "Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older."