Nov 18, 2014 05:54 PM EST By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

New research suggests that learning music may benefit long-term memory.

Researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington (UT Arlington) found that there may be a link between music expertise and advantages in long-term memory.

"Musically trained people are known to process linguistic materials a split second faster than those without training, and previous research also has shown musicians have advantages in working memory," researcher Heekyeong Park said in a statement. "What we wanted to know is whether there are differences between pictorial and verbal tasks and whether any advantages extend to long-term memory. If proven, those advantages could represent an intervention option to explore for people with cognitive challenges."

For the study, researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) technology to measure electrical activity of neurons in the brains of 14 musicians and 15 non-musicians and noted processing differences in the frontal and parietal lobe responses.

To test working memory, the study participants were asked to select pictorial or verbal items that they'd just been given among similar lures. For long-term memory, participants judged whether each test item was studied or new after the entire study session was complete.

The musicians, all of whom had been playing classical music for more than 15 years, outperformed non-musicians in EEG-measured neural responses on the working memory tasks. But, when long-term memory was tested, the enhanced sensitivity was only found in memory for pictures.

The study has not explored why the advantages might develop. Park said it is possible professional musicians become more adept at taking in and processing a host of pictorial cues as they navigate musical scores.

The findings were presented Tuesday at Neuroscience 2014, the international meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in Washington, D.C. 

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