THIS really will be music to parents’ ears – those expensive piano lessons really do boost children’s brainpower.
They may be the bane of many a youngster’s life but learning an instrument when they could be playing with friends increases mental ability.
Compared to peers who do not know their A major from C minor, adults with between one and five years of musical training as children had sharper responses to complex sounds.
This made them better at picking up the lowest soundwaves, according to the findings published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
This helped make them better listeners and communicators.
The signal, known as the “fundamental frequency”, is vital for speech and music perception, allowing recognition of sounds in complex auditory environments.
Professor Nina Kraus, of Northwestern University, Illinois, said: “Thus, musical training as children makes better listeners later in life.
“Based on what we already know about the ways that music helps shape the brain, the study suggests short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning.”
An earlier study on highly-trained musicians and young bilinguals revealed enhanced brainstem responses to sound are associated with heightened perception, executive function and auditory skills.