中文新聞取自大紀元網站
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/11/4/28/n3241557.htm
研究：兒時學音樂 大腦終身受益
【大紀元2011年04月28日訊】（大紀元記者郭靖康編譯報導）科學家發現，在少兒時堅持每天學鋼琴數小時，未來將在多方面受益。除了掌握樂器演奏技巧，還將在未來幾十年中，對大腦起保護作用，延緩大腦的衰老。
據《神經心理學》（Neuropsychology）刊載的最新研究顯示，即使成年時沒能堅持練習樂器，到老年時對保持大腦思維清晰仍大有好處。
研究人員對退休職工進行智力測驗時發現，在年少時學習過長笛、單簧管或其他樂器者的測試結果，比未學過樂器的人來得好。
本研究的首席研究員、美國堪薩斯大學醫學中心的漢娜‧帕拉蒂博士（Brenda Hanna-Pladdy）表示，長期學習樂器對大腦認知活動具有挑戰性的訓練作用，使人腦更健康、更具有適應性，能緩解老化危機。
由於學習樂器需要經年累月的練習，也許會在大腦中形成一些新的資訊連接方式，來彌補因年齡增大而喪失的一些認知功能。
這項由美國心理學會（American Psychological Association）進行的研究，募集了70個年齡從60歲至83歲的健康老人，並根據其演奏樂器的經歷分成三組：第一組為沒有受過音樂訓練的人，第二組有1到9年的音樂學習經歷，第三組則是至少有10年音樂訓練經歷的人。
參加者都有類似的教育和健康水準，沒有患老年癡呆症的跡象。第二、三組都屬於業餘愛好者水準，大約從10歲開始練習。
其中，超過一半的人彈鋼琴，大約有1/4的人演奏木管樂器如長笛或單簧管，還有少數人玩管弦樂器、擊打樂器或銅管樂器。
結果顯示，學過樂器的人在許多認知測試中，比那些從未學過樂器，或是不會讀樂譜的人結果好。
毋需持續練習到老
而樂器水準高、學習時間越長者，認知測試分數越高。其在視覺空間記憶、物體認知和適應新訊息方面，都較未學過樂器者來得強。樂器學習時間長短與分數呈現相關性。
在第二、三組中，有半數仍然繼續練習樂器，但他們在認知測試中的表現，並未比已停止練習者好。因此，學習時間的長短，比老年時是否持續練習更為重要。
研究結果意味，音樂活動對腦子認知功能的影響是長時效的，一生都將受益。
帕拉蒂表示，之前雖然有很多類似研究，但都集中在學習音樂有益兒童智力開發。這是第一個針對學習音樂的好處是否能持續終身的研究。
帕拉蒂說，開始學習音樂的年齡和學習持續時間是關鍵。大腦有一個最佳的學習可塑性時期，在那時候學樂器就容易得多。
外電新聞取自LiveScience網站：
http://www.livescience.com/13812-childhood-music-lessons-boost-aging-brain.html
Childhood Music Lessons Keep Aging Brain in Tune
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
The Tiger Mothers were right all along: Music lessons as a kid may make you a sharper grown-up.
A new study finds that older adults with musical experience perform better on some cognitive tests than those who had never studied music. With only 70 participants, the study was small, but the results match those from other studies of challenging tasks, including findings that learning a second language protects against dementia.
"Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging," study researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, a neurologist at the Emory University School of Medicine, said in a statement. "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."
The study participants ranged in age from 60 to 83. One group had no musical training, one had one to nine years of musical study, and the third group had 10 or more years. None of the participants had Alzheimer's disease, and all had similar levels of education and fitness.
None of the musicians in the group were professionals. Most had started playing an instrument around age 10, with more than half playing the piano and about a quarter playing woodwind instruments such as the flute. [Read: Music 'Tones the Brain'(音樂增強頭腦)]
The participants each underwent a neuropsychological assessment, including tests of verbal functioning, memory and attention. Those who had studied music the longest performed best, followed by the next group of musicians. The non-musicians scored lowest on all tests.
The score differences between higher- and lower-level musicians weren't statistically significant, but there were significant differences between high-level musicians and non-musicians, the researchers reported online April 4 in the journal Neuropsychology. High-level musicians were better at visuospatial memory, naming objects and adapting to new information.
Whether the participant continued to play music into old age didn't matter, the researchers found. Instead, long-term study in youth seemed to confer benefits far down the road.
"Based on previous research and our study results, we believe that both the years of musical participation and the age of acquisition are crucial," said Hanna-Pladdy, who was a professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center when she conducted the research.
The study was correlational, so further research is required to definitively show whether music learning causes a late-life brain boost. A possible alternative explanation, the researchers wrote, is that more intelligent people tend to study music longer. Future research should track individuals over time, the researchers wrote, and also compare music learning with other brain-stimulating tasks.
美國心理學會新聞稿(American Psychological Association)
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/04/music-lessons.aspx
Childhood Music Lessons May Provide Lifelong Boost in Brain Functioning
Research explores possible link between early musical study and cognitive benefits
WASHINGTON—Those childhood music lessons could pay off decades later - even for those who no longer play an instrument – by keeping the mind sharper as people age, according to a preliminary study published by the American Psychological Association.
The study recruited 70 healthy adults age 60 to 83 who were divided into groups based on their levels of musical experience. The musicians performed better on several cognitive tests than individuals who had never studied an instrument or learned how to read music. The research findings were published online in the APA journal Neuropsychology.
“Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging,” said lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, PhD. “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.”
While much research has been done on the cognitive benefits of musical activity by children, this is the first study to examine whether those benefits can extend across a lifetime, said Hanna-Pladdy, a clinical neuropsychologist who conducted the study with cognitive psychologist Alicia MacKay, PhD, at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The three groups of study participants included individuals with no musical training; with one to nine years of musical study; or with at least 10 years of musical training. All of the participants had similar levels of education and fitness and didn’t show any evidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
All of the musicians were amateurs who began playing an instrument at about 10 years of age. More than half played the piano while approximately a quarter had studied woodwind instruments such as the flute or clarinet. Smaller numbers performed with stringed instruments, percussion or brass instruments.
The high-level musicians who had studied the longest performed the best on the cognitive tests, followed by the low-level musicians and non-musicians, revealing a trend relating to years of musical practice. The high-level musicians had statistically significant higher scores than the non-musicians on cognitive tests relating to visuospatial memory, naming objects and cognitive flexibility, or the brain’s ability to adapt to new information.
The brain functions measured by the tests typically decline as the body ages and more dramatically deteriorate in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. The results “suggest a strong predictive effect of high musical activity throughout the lifespan on preserved cognitive functioning in advanced age,” the study stated.
Half of the high-level musicians still played an instrument at the time of the study, but they didn’t perform better on the cognitive tests than the other advanced musicians who had stopped playing years earlier. This suggests that the duration of musical study was more important than whether musicians continued playing at an advanced age, Hanna-Pladdy says.
“Based on previous research and our study results, we believe that both the years of musical participation and the age of acquisition are critical,” Hanna-Pladdy says. “There are crucial periods in brain plasticity that enhance learning, which may make it easier to learn a musical instrument before a certain age and thus may have a larger impact on brain development.”
The preliminary study was correlational, meaning that the higher cognitive performance of the musicians couldn’t be conclusively linked to their years of musical study. Hanna-Pladdy, who has conducted additional studies on the subject, says more research is needed to explore that possible link.
At the time of the study, Hanna-Pladdy was an assistant professor in psychiatry at the University of Kansas Medical Center and a research faculty member of the Landon Center on Aging. She is now an assistant professor in neurology at Emory University School of Medicine. MacKay, a former research assistant at the University of Kansas Medical Center, is now an assistant professor of psychology at Tulsa Community College.
Article(註：論文下載): “The Relation Between Instrumental Musical Activity and Cognitive Aging,” Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, PhD, and Alicia MacKay, PhD, University of Kansas Medical Center; Neuropsychology, Vol. 25, No. 3
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