Aging is often accompanied by a structural decline in the brain and a compensatory increase in neural activity. Older adults frequently recruit more regions than younger peers in order to perform basic cognitive tasks. Neuroscientists have long sought interventions and workarounds that might preserve efficiency and delay cognitive deterioration.
Lifelong Musical Training Preserves Youth-Like Brain Function, and Learning Music at Old Age Preserves Memory and Brain Health
One increasingly supported approach is musical training. Two major scientific studies published in 2025 demonstrate how both lifelong and late-life musical practice can promote healthier brain aging. These studies reveal that playing musical instruments may help maintain youth-like neural efficiency and preserve critical subcortical structures.
Cognitive Effects on Lifelong Musicians
The first study, published in PLOS Biology, compared older musicians, older non-musicians, and young non-musicians. Using functional MRI during a speech-in-noise perception task, the researchers observed striking differences in brain activation patterns, particularly in the auditory dorsal stream, which integrates hearing and motor processing.
Older non-musicians displayed the expected compensatory neural upregulation, with heightened functional connectivity across wide regions. Older musicians had less upregulation, maintaining connectivity patterns more similar to young adults. This suggests that musical training had shielded their brains from inefficient over-recruitment linked with cognitive aging.
The authors proposed the hold back upregulation hypothesis. This argues that cognitive reserve generated by musical training does not merely provide additional capacity for compensation. Instead, it preserves youth like efficiency, reducing the need for overactivation in the first place. Lifelong training essentially prevents accelerated neural aging.
Note that the aforesaid finding challenges earlier theories that framed cognitive reserve solely as a compensatory resource. Instead, musical training seems to maintain original neural circuits in a more youthful state. The implication is profound: music may delay age-related decline by safeguarding efficiency rather than amplifying neural effort.
Benefits of Music Training at Old Age
The second study, published in Imaging Neuroscience, followed healthy older adults over four years. Participants had begun instrument training in their 70s. Some continued the training program, while others stopped and pursued alternative leisure activities. This design provided rare longitudinal evidence of the benefits of late-life musicianship.
After four years, those who continued training demonstrated better preservation of verbal working memory compared with those who stopped. Tests included digit span, verbal fluency, and n-back assessments. Behavioral performance gains were mirrored by structural and functional brain differences, especially in the putamen and cerebellum.
Structural imaging showed an age-related decline in the stop group. The continue group had preserved gray matter volume in the right putamen. Functional analyses showed stronger intra-cerebellar connectivity and reduced cerebellum cortical dependence. This suggests more efficient cerebellar involvement in working memory processing during demanding tasks.
The late-life learners also displayed reduced cerebellum pons connectivity, which correlated with superior working memory performance. Greater activation within the cerebellum was evident during verbal n-back tasks, highlighting that sustained practice encouraged brain regions essential for coordination and memory to remain highly engaged and efficient.
Takeaways and Critical Implications
The two studies present complementary perspectives. Lifelong musicians appear to hold back the typical upregulation seen in aging, while late-life beginners can still preserve cognitive functions and brain structures through sustained practice. Both findings underscore music training as a powerful contributor to cognitive reserve across the lifespan.
Practical significance was identified. Specifically, unlike invasive treatments, music training is an enjoyable, accessible, and low-cost lifestyle activity. Whether cultivated in youth or adopted in retirement, consistent practice engages sensory, motor, and cognitive systems simultaneously, thus promoting brain resilience and healthier trajectories of aging.
For future researchers in related fields, the results highlight the cerebellum, putamen, and auditory dorsal stream as key regions where music influences neural efficiency. For society, they offer a hopeful message. Music can be framed as more than a cultural pursuit. It may represent a scientifically grounded path toward healthier cognitive aging.
FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES
- Zhang, L., Ross, B., Du, Y., and Alain, C. 2025. “Long-term Musical Training Can Protect Against Age-Related Upregulation of Neural Activity in Speech-in-Noise Perception.” PLOS Biology. 23(7): e3003247. DOI: 1371/journal.pbio.3003247
- Wang, X., Yamashita, M., Guo, X., Stiernman, L., Kakihara, M., Abe, N., and Sekiyama, K. 2025. “Never Too Late to Start Musical Instrument Training: Effects on Working Memory and Subcortical Preservation in Healthy Older Adults Across 4 years.” Imaging Neuroscience. 3. DOI: 1162/imag.a.48