As we grow old so too does our brain and it slowly exhibits a decline in intellectual sharpness. The ability to understand speech is one cognitive task that starts to weaken because of a decrease in brain functioning associated with hearing. In later years, individuals gradually lose the skills of analyzing, ordering and identifying the features of speech. Of course methods to enhance hearing and speech-listening abilities have been tried, although they have had little success. However, it is recognized that the elderly can diminish the decline of brain functioning by participating in brain stimulating activities such as learning a new language, or receiving achievements whether in school or at work. Concerning young individuals, one activity that greatly increases speech and language tasks is musical training. When young children participate in musical training the brain improvements in speech understanding can remain into adulthood. While it is known that musical training influences the performance of the developing brain in young children, little is known about how long these benefits last, or if they could be present as long as a lifetime.

The study by Bidelman and Alain (2015) examined the improvements musical training has on brain functioning and whether it could offset the decline in speech-listening skills in the elderly. To conduct the experiment they required 20 older adults, 10 being musicians and the other 10 non-musicians. It was necessary that musicians had five years of practice on their instrument and began training before the age of 14. The participants were asked to detect speech sounds while the researchers recorded their brain activity by using an EEG. (Electroencephalography) This is a test that examines electrical activity of the brain. Small electrodes are placed on the head/scalp and brain wave patterns are presented on a computer screen. The EEG readings gave information about how well the participants could classify and identify speech sounds. The results suggested that the musicians were quicker at classifying and identifying speech sounds compared to non-musicians and they also had much faster and stronger neural activity and diversity of speech.

These findings suggest that musical training at an early age increases speech-listening abilities and offsets the decreases in speech understanding that arise, as we grow older. Furthermore, the results convey that improvements in brain functioning are not limited to young individuals with brains still undergoing development, but can occur over the entire lifespan. By engaging in ongoing musical training at a young age it can produce long-lasting enhancements to the brain. Other training programs used to increase brain functioning are unclear concerning their longevity. However, with musical instruction there is a boost in speech comprehension at a young age, and these advantages continue on into adulthood even if it is in adolescence that musical training is stopped; suggesting that musical training is much more engaging than standard programs for increasing cognitive abilities. These finding also emphasize just how important incorporating music in the school curriculum is and how music could also greatly benefit the elderly if it was to be added into rehabilitative plans.

Reference: Bidelman, G., and Alain, C. (2015). Musical Training Orchestrates Coordinated Neuroplasticity in Auditory Brainstem and Cortex to Counteract Age-Related Declines in Categorical Vowel Perception. Journal of Science, 35(3): 1240-1249.