Scientists from Hannover and Geneva intend to demonstrate that intensive music classes can be useful for the nervous system and in old age. This is reported by Deutsche Welle.

"We expect a positive impact on physical mobility and mental performance, as well as on the overall mood," said the study's director, neurologist and musicologist from Hanover, Eckart Altenmuller.

About a hundred participants in the study at the age of 64 to 76 years will, within a year, starting in the summer of 2018, take piano lessons or study music theory.

To take part in the scientific experiment, anyone who wanted to take an appropriate age could take music lessons that lasted no more than 6 months, physically healthy and ready for various laboratory studies, including magnetic resonance imaging.

Participants in the study will be divided into two groups: one will be taught to play the musical instrument, the other will be the basics of the musical theory.

According to Altenmuller, it stimulates brain neuroplasticity, that is, its ability to create new connections as a response to external influences. After all, playing any musical instrument is a very difficult activity.

"The specificity of the research is that we strive to understand how the brain works at later stages of life and how the music affects its structure and functionality. We conducted a study involving students between the ages of 20 to 30 and found that even one piano lesson leads to the creation of new connections between the auditory center and the motor. These connections in the brain persist even a few weeks after the lesson. Now we want to know if such changes, which are called neuroplastic adaptation, occur in the brain of older people, "he said..

He added that active music making has a much more pronounced formative effect. It promotes the emergence of new connections in the brain.

"In the part of the limbic brain system called the hippocampus, which is responsible for memory and emotions, new cells can appear in old age. I am sure that we will find this confirmation with the help of an MRI, "said the head of the study.