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Music lessons in early childhood lead to changes in the brain that could improve its performance far into adulthood, researchers say. Brain scans of young adults revealed that those who had formal musical training before the age of seven had thicker brain regions that deal with hearing and self-awareness. The findings highlight how brain development can be influenced by the age that children start to learn a musical instrument, and how those changes can persist into later life. "Early musical training does more good for kids than just making it easier for them to enjoy music. It changes the brain and these brain changes could lead to cognitive advances as well," said Yunxin Wang of Beijing Normal University. "Our results suggest it might be better to start musical training before age seven, which is consistent with what most piano teachers recommend," she added. Wang devised the study to investigate whether musical training early on in life had any lasting effect on the structure of the brain. She hoped the results might help parents decide when was best for their children to learn an instrument. The brain's cortex plays a leading role in scores of crucial abilities, from thought and language to memory and attention. The region matures rapidly in the early years of life, and its development could be affected more if a person started musical training before it fully matured. | 
