Even A Few Years of Musical Training Benefits the Brain

In her August 2012 "Science Sushi" blog post, "Even a Few Years of Musical Training Benefits the Brain", author Christie Wilcox provides a helpful summation of several studies examining the effect of music on the brain.  Some of the crucial research findings:

1. Musicians are better able to process foreign languages because of their ability to hear differences in pitch, and have incredible abilities to detect speech in noise. Even those w/ a few years of music training showed more robust neural processing of sounds. Music "tones auditory fitness", critical for perceiving speech and distinguishing, recognizing and processing conversation in noisy environments.

2. Musical training and education may confer linguistic, mathematical, and spatial benefits, and moreover, promote social development/"team player" capacities.