Endless hours of piano practice can be the bane of a child's life - but there might be an added benefit of sticking with it. A study has found that learning a musical instrument as a child could keep you sharp into old age. Pensioners who had piano, flute, clarinet or other lessons as a youngster, did better on intelligence tests than others. And the longer they had played the instrument for, the better they did。
  如今的社会，掌握一门乐器再也不是一个稀罕事，小孩子在课业复杂的情况下掌握这样或者那样的乐器也成为了成长中的“必修课”，然而，小时候学习乐器上长达数小时可能会让孩子痛苦，比如弹钢琴等等有可能会孩子造成一定程度的童年阴影，但是科学家分析，长时间学习乐器可以有助于孩子成年后的性格塑造，使孩子性格变刚毅，更坚强。据悉，在幼年的时候学习乐器：比如钢琴、长笛、单簧管等等，在智商上都比同龄的孩子要高很多。此外，学习乐器的时间越长，对于性格以及智力更有益处，对孩子的身心有着良好的发展。

  University of Kansas researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy said: ‘Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of ageing. ‘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 into how children benefit music lessons, this is the first study to examine whether those effects can extend across a lifetime. A total of 70 healthy adults between 60 and 83 years old were split up into groups depending on their musical experience.The musicians did better than those with no musical background in various cognitive tests。

  来自Kansas大学的研究员Brenda Hanna-Pladdy 说：“音乐的具有非同寻常的魔力，人的一生中学习和使用乐器、与音乐拉近距离可以锻炼自己的脑部更能适应于外界的变化。长时间的学习乐器，学习的时间可达数年者，在脑部中就是自然生成一种适应外界变化的独特的交流模式。随着年龄的变化，越来越老，音乐可以减轻人们在生理上、心理上随着外界变化而被迫改变的痛苦。”此外，研究员还说：“我们的研究着力于探讨孩子们在学习音乐课程后对自身发育的影响，学习音乐是否能对他们的一生产生不可磨灭的影响。”