Music training enhances memory and attention in children
A new study shows that musical training in children improves memory, as students studying music under the Suzuki method over the course of a year scored better on a memory test correlated with general intelligence skills like literacy, math, verbal memory, IQ and visiospatial processing. According to the author of the study, Dr Laurel Trainor, Profesor of Psychology and Director of the McMaster (great name!) Institute for Music and the Mind at McMaster University: "The finding of very rapid maturation of the N250m component to violin sounds in children taking music lessons fits with their large improvement on the memory test. It suggests that musical training is having an effect on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention."
First evidence that musical training affects brain development in young children, ScienceDaily.com