VERTIGUY (Richard)

Playing music is a simple way to stop your brain from shrinking. After the age of 40, the human brain typically shrinks about 5% per decade. This gradual change is linked to difficulties with memory, focus, and processing speech in noisy environments. But research published in PLOS Biology shows that older adults with long-term musical training age differently. The study compared three groups: young adults, older adults with no musical background, and older adults who had played instruments for more than 30 years. All participants were placed in an fMRI scanner and asked to identify speech against background noise – a task that usually highlights age-related decline. The results were clear. Older adults without musical training showed heightened activity in certain brain regions, a sign that their brains were working harder to compensate. In contrast, older musicians displayed patterns of brain activity that closely resembled the young adults. Their brains simply processed the task more efficiently, without the strain. Researchers call this effect “neural preservation.” It appears to come not from listening to music, but from playing it. Years of practice – combining rhythm, pitch, memory, and motor skills – seem to strengthen neural circuits in ways that protect against decline. [“Long-term musical training can protect against age-related upregulation of neural activity in speech-in-noise perception.” PLOS Biology, 2025]