Music may make older minds more resilient

Taylor Bredberg is an ardent fan of the indie band Grizzly Bear and the TV series "Lost," an amateur filmmaker and a doodler of figures that bring to mind Tim Burton's kinetic grostesques.

But if those interests make him a pretty normal teenager, Bredberg's eight-year relationship with the piano may have made him a little more unusual: He is a kid with the attention span of an anesthesiologist, the persistence and discipline of an Olympic athlete and the emotional range of an artist....

That is the start of Melissa Healy's recent Los Angeles Times story about the Effect of Music on Cognitive Function

She goes on to explain that researchers who study the link between music-making and cognitive performance want to learn how music can impact academic skills. And that means studying kids from a wider range of family environments and offering music lessons.

Dr. Antonio Damasio, director of USC's Brain and Creativity Institute, told the newspaper that even if music did little more than lift our spirits, it would be a powerful force in maintaining physical and mental health. The pleasure that results from listening to music we love stimulates the release of neural growth factors that promote the vigor, growth and replacement of brain cells--which may help keep older minds healthy, active and resilient against injury and illness.

Watch Damasio's presentation on art and emotions. (56-minute video.)