Here’s an activity that hits all of the right notes.
Having hobbies later in life isn’t just a good way to kill time, it can also help you maintain social connections and give your brain a boost.
Now, a new study published in the journal PLOS Biology suggests one groovy activity has especially neuroprotective benefits.
Researchers studied the brains of 25 older adults who had played music their entire life, 25 older people who did not play music and 24 non-musician younger adults.
What they found was that the older, non-musicians had the normal amounts of trouble with hearing speech in a noisy room for their age.
However, the lifelong musicians fared much better, suggesting playing an instrument can actually make your brain younger.
“Deterioration of the brain is a major cause of many kinds of age-related cognitive decline,” study co-author Dr. Lei Zhang, a postdoctoral fellow at Baycrest Hospital’s Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, told StudyFinds.
“Positive lifestyle choices accumulate neural resources that help the brain cope with aging and mitigate declines in related cognitive functions.”
The study aligns with previous research indicating playing a musical instrument is a great way to keep your mind sharp as you age.
Scientists suggest that learning and performing music is a full-brain workout: it fuses sensory perception, motor coordination, memory recall and emotional expression.
Think of it as a gym session for neural circuits, fine-tuning pathways that other activities might not engage as intensely.
The study did not compare differences across a wide variety of instruments, but Zhang noted that his previous work did not indicate there was a significant difference between strumming the guitar, fiddling with the flute and so on.
And if music’s not your thing, not a worry — any activity that stimulates your brain can help stave off the ravages of time.
“We encourage older adults to play an instrument, learn a new language, exercise regularly or pursue other enriching hobbies that can build cognitive reserve and slow age-related decline,” Zhang told the outlet.
