Grand Rapids Chiropractic weekly health news alert: The article explores the science behind playing a musical instrument and lowered dementia risks as you age.

Researchers had 70 peo­ple ages 60 to 83 per­form a vari­ety of tests to mea­sure visu­ospa­tial mem­ory, abil­ity to name objects, the brain’s abil­ity to adapt to new infor­ma­tion […] those who had engaged in musi­cal activ­ity for 10 years or longer scored sub­stan­tially bet­ter than those with no musi­cal activ­ity in their past. The longer peo­ple play instru­ments, the more ben­e­fits they may derive. All were ama­teurs who had started play­ing when they were 10 years old. The rela­tion­ship between cog­ni­tive skills and years of musi­cal activ­ity held up whether the musi­cians were cur­rently involved in mak­ing music or not.

Based on the article this research reveals a connection between musical instrument playing and cognitive ability, which doesn’t suggest a causation effect. Playing music with instruments is beneficial to the brain, but we are not sure why.  There are parts of the brain of a pro musician that are different than a non-pro.  This evidence suggests neuroplastic changes in the brain, triggered by playing a musical instrument. This alteration appears to be partly responsible  for brain/cognitive function and also be neuroprotective.
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