17/01/2026
Research has shown that learning to play a musical instrument produces measurable changes in brain structure and connectivity.
A well-known longitudinal study by Hyde et al. (2009), published in The Journal of Neuroscience, followed children over 15 months and found that those who received instrumental music training showed increased gray matter volume in motor, auditory, and visuospatial brain regions compared to control groups.
These structural brain changes were directly correlated with improvements in musical performance, demonstrating experience-dependent neuroplasticity rather than pre-existing differences.
Additional evidence comes from neuroimaging studies of adult musicians. Schlaug et al. (2015), writing in Frontiers in Psychology, reported that long-term musical training is associated with enhanced white-matter connectivity, particularly in the corpus callosum, which links the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
Diffusion tensor imaging studies (e.g., Steele et al., 2013, Journal of Neuroscience) further show that musicians—especially those who began training early—have stronger interhemispheric neural pathways.
Together, these studies support the conclusion that playing a musical instrument is among the most powerful drivers of whole-brain neural connectivity documented in neuroscience, even if it cannot be ranked as the single most effective activity overall.
