Lifelong Investment to Protect the Brain from Aging and Hearing Loss
by Nina Kraus & Travis White-Schwoch
“Age-related declines in auditory processing are not inevitable.” Studies of older individuals who have played instruments for their entire lives reveal they have fewer challenges with hearing than non-musicians later in life. “Music training directs special attention to meaningful acoustic features in the environment while engaging motor, cognitive, and emotional circuits…. [which] primes the musician’s brain for effective and efficient auditory processing.”