Overview

• A PLOS Biology fMRI study found that older musicians maintain youth-like functional connectivity in the auditory dorsal stream during speech-in-noise tasks, mirroring patterns seen in young non-musicians.
• A Kyoto University follow-up using four-year MRI scans revealed that older adults who began and continued instrument practice avoided putamen shrinkage and memory decline unlike those who stopped playing.
• Researchers say these results support the Hold-Back Upregulation hypothesis, which holds that cognitive reserve from musical experience sustains youthful neural activation instead of triggering compensatory overexertion.
• Despite converging evidence on structural and functional brain protection, limitations in study design prevent definitive causal conclusions and have prompted calls for randomized and longitudinal trials.
• The research places musical engagement alongside education and bilingualism as a modifiable lifestyle factor with potential to bolster cognitive reserve and delay age-related decline.