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　Learning to play a musical instrument helps keep people young, according to a new study. Researchers found that musicians aged 45 to 65 excel in memory and hearing speech in noise compared to non-musicians. While a growing body of research finds musical training gives students learning advantages in the classroom, a new study has found musical training can also offset some of the negative effects of growing old.

 
　　 如今培养一个孩子需要花费大量的时间和金钱，在崇尚“十八般武艺”的时代，孩子们会一两样乐器不再是一个稀罕事。我们看过学习乐器可以使得人的智商提高的报道，但是乐器的魅力却不仅限于让你变得更聪明而已。根据一项新的发现，会乐器能使得人变得更年轻，倘若是音乐家的话，那效果更加明显。据悉，科学家针对年龄段从45到65岁的“音乐家”展开调查，发现他们的听力以及记忆力水平在同龄人之上。


　　 Study co-author Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University in the United States, said: “Lifelong musical training appears to confer advantages in at least two important functions known to decline with age - memory and the ability to hear speech in noise. The musicians who began playing an instrument at age nine or earlier and consistently played an instrument throughout their lives bested the non-musician group in all but visual working memory, where both groups showed nearly identical ability. Doctor Kraus said the experience of extracting meaningful sounds from a complex soundscape - and of remembering sound sequences enhances the development of auditory skills. She said: “The neural enhancements we see in musically-trained individuals are not just an amplifying or ‘volume knob’ effect.“Playing music engages their ability to extract relevant patterns, including the sound of their own instrument, harmonies and rhythms.”


　　 来自美国西北大学听觉神经科学实验室的专家Nina Kraus说：“在人生中长期接触乐器可以使得我们变得更年轻，主要有原因有如下两点，第一是增强我们的记忆力，还有一个就是增强我们在嘈杂环境中的听力水平。”据悉，科学家在针对音乐家与非音乐家的实验中发现，从9岁甚至更早开始学习乐器的人（并且将这项技能坚持一生的人）与完全不碰乐器的人相比在“视觉工作记忆力”上的水平相当。视觉工作记忆（visual Working memory）指对非言语视觉信息的短时存储，是视觉信息接受进一步处理前的暂时存储。但是从事音乐的实验者在“听力工作记忆力”却有令人羡慕的水平。


　　 Dr Kraus said music training “fine-tunes” the nervous system. She added: “Sound is the stock in trade of the musician in much the same way that a painter of portraits is keenly attuned to the visual attributes of the paint that will convey his or her subject.“If the materials that you work with are sound, then it is reasonable to suppose that all of your faculties involved with taking it in, holding it in memory and relating physically to it should be sharpened.