Musicians who started training at an early age have ‘high-connected’ brains compared to those who don’t play instruments, a study has found
- Researchers studied the brain patterns of 153 musicians and non-musicians
- Includes 52 with full pitch, 51 incomplete pitch and 50 non-musicians
- They found a strong difference in the brain structure of musicians who start young
People who start learning an instrument at an early age have ‘high-affinity’ brains compared to non-musicians, according to a new study.
Experts from Stanford University School of Medicine compared the brains of 153 volunteers – including professional musicians, non-musicians and those with a real pitch – the ability to recognize tone without mention.
They found that those who started training at a younger age – such as Mozart – have stronger brain connections than those who picked up their instrument later in life.
The finding, published in the journal JNeurosci, shows just one of the ways human experiences can shape the brain, the team explained.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s first ever writing – Minuet and Trio in G major – was created when he was just five years old. Those who started training at a younger age – such as Mozart – have stronger brain connections than those who picked up their instrument later in life.
Whether it’s the piano, clarinet or trumpet, researchers have found that musicians have stronger structural and functional connections compared to non-musicians, according to the team that behind the scenes – and time makes them stronger.
This is true regardless of whether musicians have a real pitch – that is, the ability to identify tone without reference – or not, according to the researchers.
Study author Simon Leipold said years of music training shape the brain in amazing ways – the longer people train, the greater the impact on the mind.
‘Musicians who started their training at a younger age had stronger structural links than musicians with a later start,’ he said.
‘These results show how knowledge shapes the brain, especially early in life, and how developed musical skills are represented in our brain.’
In the largest sample to date, Dr. Leipold and his colleagues looked at the brains of musicians with perfect pitch and compared it to musicians who did not.
Dr Leipold said: ‘To the team’ s surprise, there were no strong differences between musicians’ brains with and without full pitch ability.
‘Instead, a whole pitch may shape the brain in more subtle ways.’
Compared to non-musicians, the two types of musicians had a stronger functional connection – synchronous activity of brain segments.
In the largest sample to date, Dr. Leipold and his colleagues looked at the brains of well-pitched musicians and compared it to musicians who did not have it.
Whether it’s the piano, clarinet or trumpet, researchers have found that musicians have stronger structural and functional connections compared to non-musicians, according to the team that behind the scenes – and time makes them stronger.
This refers to the study regions of the two brain hemispheres.
Musicians also had stronger connections between study departments and lobes involved in different types of high-level processing.
‘Our results suggest that long-term music training is associated with strong changes in brain networks on a large scale,’ the team wrote in their paper.
‘The impact of a real park on cloud networks may be small, so very large samples or functional tests need to be found.’
The findings were published in the journal JNeurosci.