Even if you havent touched a piano in years， you suffered through music lessons as a kid and you may have benefited from those lessons in ways you wouldnt expect. When you train on a musical instrument， your brain is stimulated and changes and develops as a result. Because the parts of the brain are interconnected， this stimulation doesnt affect musical ability only.

Psychologists have discovered that the stimulation musical training enacts on the left temporal region of your brain and enhances memory. People with musical training are significantly better at recalling words from a list and learning new words. Whats more， the longer the duration of musical training， the better the memory.

So while children who study music for two years demonstrate better memory than children who have not studied music， children who continue to study music continue to improve their memory.

The good news for those of us who trained on musical instruments but quit at some point is that we dont seem to lose the benefits we gain from this training.

Scientists are particularly interested in what this suggests about the interconnectedness of the brain and thus the predictability of the effects of stimulation to a brain area on cognitive functions located in that area. Further research may lead to developments in cognitive rehabilitation for people with brain injuries. For example， in order to rebuild memory in patients with injury to that part of the brain， doctors may prescribe music lessons.

即使你已經(jīng)很久沒有彈鋼琴，但只要你小時候?qū)W過鋼琴，你就能在各個意想不到的方面受益于這些鋼琴課。當(dāng)你在訓(xùn)練一種樂器時，大腦受到刺激而變化生長。由于大腦的各個部分是相互連接的，這種刺激不會只影響到音樂能力。

心理學(xué)家還發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種音樂刺激訓(xùn)練擔(dān)當(dāng)大腦的左顳區(qū)來提高記憶。接受過音樂訓(xùn)練的人能夠更容易記住單詞，學(xué)習(xí)新的單詞也更容易。更重要的是，音樂訓(xùn)練的時間越久，記憶能力也越強。

因此，學(xué)過兩年音樂的孩子，他們的記憶比沒學(xué)過音樂的孩子要強得多，而繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)音樂孩子的記憶也會隨之提高。

有個好消息就是對于那些學(xué)過樂器后來又放棄的同學(xué)，你們并不會失去受過這種訓(xùn)練的好處。

科學(xué)家們對大腦的這種相互關(guān)聯(lián)性特別感興趣，從而預(yù)測音樂刺激對大腦認知能力的影響就在這個區(qū)域。進一步的研究可能導(dǎo)向?qū)δX損傷病人在認知康復(fù)的發(fā)展。例如，為了重建病人大腦受損的記憶部分，醫(yī)生也許會開設(shè)音樂課。