The study, to be published in the online edition of the journal Brain on Wednesday, showed that after one year of musical training, children performed better in a memory test than those who did not take music classes.

"The research tells us that if you take music lessons your brain is getting wired up differently than if you don't take music lessons," Laurel Trainor, professor of psychology, neuroscience(2) and behavior at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said.

"This is the first study to show that brain responses in young, musically trained and untrained children change differently over the course of a year," said Trainor who led the study.

Over a year they took four measurements in two groups of children aged between four and six -- those taking music lessons and those taking no musical training outside school -- and found developmental changes over periods as short as four months.

The children completed a music test in which they were asked to discriminate(3) between harmonies, rhythms and melodies, and a memory test in which they had to listen to a series of numbers, remember them and repeat them back.

Trainor said while previous studies have shown that older children given music lessons had greater improvements in IQ scores than children given drama lessons, this is the first study to identify these effects in brain-based measurements in young children.

She said it was not that surprising that children studying music improved in musical listening skills more than children not studying music.

"On the other hand, it is very interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over the year on general memory skills that are correlated with nonmusicalabilities such as literacy(4), verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and IQ," she said.

1. peer：同等的人

2. neuroscience：神经系统科学

3. discriminate：辨别

4. literacy：读写能力

花费金钱和时间让孩子们学习音乐的家长们注意了，这里有一条振奋人心的消息：一项新的加拿大研究显示，学习音乐的小孩比不学的拥有更佳的记忆力。

研究显示，在记忆测试中，经过一年音乐培训的孩子比未经培训的孩子表现突出。研究将刊登在周三《动脑》杂志在线版。

安大略省麦马斯达大学心理学、神经系统科学和行为教授劳雷尔·特莱诺尔说：“研究告诉我们，音乐培训能够让你的大脑的生长与众不同。”

主研究员特莱诺尔说：“研究首次证明，经过一年的音乐培训，受训与未受训孩子的大脑反应有所区别。”

一年中，研究人员把一群4到6岁的孩子们分成两组，分别进行四次测试。其中一组接受音乐培训，另一组不接受任何校外音乐培训，结果发现每四个月，孩子们的发育就会产生变化。

在音乐测试中，孩子们必须分辨出不同的和弦、节奏和旋律；在记忆测试中，他们会听到一串数字，然后重复出来。

特莱诺尔说之前曾有研究显示，学习音乐时间越长的孩子比学习戏剧的孩子拥有更高的智商，此次研究首次证实了音乐对小孩脑部的影响。

她说，毫无疑问学习过音乐的孩子在听音乐技巧上比没学过的孩子强。

“有趣的是，另一方面，学过音乐的孩子在其他非音乐方面的进步也更快，例如读写、背诵、视觉处理、数学和智商。”