Playing an instrument can improve listening

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Researchers at Berkeley hospital in Toronto, Canada, found that playing music can change brain waves and improve hearing. The results are published in the Journal of neuroscience.

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The researchers recruited 32 healthy adults with normal hearing and no history of brain dysfunction to listen to the music made by the bowl, and then asked half of the volunteers to play the same sound with the bowl, and the other half to press the keyboard and simulate the similar sound with a computer. At the same time, the researchers monitored their brain wave activity.

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The results showed that when the volunteers played with bowls, there were significant changes in the activities of brain areas related to hearing, which resulted in hearing improvement. No similar effect was observed when the volunteers listened to the music or simulated the sound by computer.

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The researchers said that this study proves that learning to play an instrument requires reproducing music on the instrument, and the brain’s perception of sound is different from that of simply listening to music, which may be because “playing an instrument requires cooperation of multiple brain regions, including listening, movement and perception systems”. “This is the first time we have seen a visual change in the brain after a music lesson, proving that playing musical instruments can cause significant changes in brain activity.”

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The researchers believe that this result shows that the brain has the ability to restore connectivity and repair damage. They plan to further study and compare the effects of music therapy and physical therapy on stroke patients, and assess the impact of music on the elderly and people with brain damage.