Children with music training have significantly better verbal memory, according to a study published in the July issue of Neuropsychology.

The authors, psychologists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, propose that music training during childhood is a kind of sensory stimulation that “somehow contributes to … better development of the left temporal lobe in musicians, which in turn facilitates cognitive processing mediated by that specific brain area, that is, verbal memory.”

Knowledge of this mechanism can “stimulate further investigation into ways to enhance human brain functioning and to develop a blueprint for cognitive rehabilitation, such as using music training to enhance verbal memory.”

They contrast their evidence with inconclusive reports that listening to Mozart improves spatiotemporal reasoning, which most researchers have been unable to replicate.

American Psychological Association press release